Well! I have been writing about Dirty Tops for over a year now and today it appears that they may be trying to pull their act together after all!

Taken over by new ownership about two years ago, progress at our location has been slow, invisible or perhaps in reverse. This week, though, what appeared to be a big repaving job took place in the whole gigantic parking lot- which even serves as a connecting street between Portage Rd and Main St.

One of the reasons for repavement has been discovered! A brand new electronic shopping cart system! This is just what we NEEDED here.

I’ve been commenting about the errant shopping carts in this area for six years. At one point, I tried to get the Niagara Arts & Cultural Center to sponsor a Shopping Cart Derby- but I think they thought it may be in poor taste. I have seen shopping carts moving furniture, laying sideways in a snow bank, hit by cars, being used as basketball hoops, barbecues in a cart, you name it! It is not unordinary to see a house with 4 or 5 shopping carts parked at it.

I’ve woken up to find one in front of my building! I’ve shoved them out into the street in anger, and politely parked them on the corner for the shopping cart whisperer to come by and corral. (I wonder if he is out of a job now?)

Okay, I won’t hold the suspense any longer, dear readers: Dirty Tops has installed an electronic device under their parking lot that causes the front wheels of the cart to stop moving if the cart is taken past yellow lines at the edge of the lot! WHAM!


That’s right! I walked in there today and carts were lined up all in a ROW. They were NEW. They had CUPHOLDERS. Just like the real Tops stores! I felt like a REAL PERSON! No more snow plow banged, rusted up, burned up, dented up carts.

Of course, this means I will lose government funding for my shopping cart Tag and Release program… but I am OKAY with that. After all, the safest and healthiest place for these carts is at Tops!

The Tops company did itself a big favor. Shopping carts are costly and drive down profits. They probably drive up grocery prices! No more paying the Shopping Cart Wrangler. He’d drive down the street slowly, quietly, in his 70’s vintage pick up truck… arm folded on the driver’s window sill, he’d spot an errant cart from houses away… swoop up on it, grab it and take it back the store. All the other captured carts lined up in shame in the back of his truck.

And don’t give me any CRAP about people who can’t afford a car or some other such bullshit nonsense! Listen to me… because you are poor does not give you reason to be a thief or a slob. Do you realize people much POORER than me take the damn taxi to the grocery store? (A luxury I could not afford). And I’d like to point out that the foldable shopping carts are available for PURCHASE for like $20. Maybe they can buy it with their cash portion of the food stamp benefit program.

Either way, thank you Tops. It’s lookin’ up!

Let’s take first things first. The Niagara Gazette has recently reported that ten teachers have been given their notice of termination from the Board of Education for failing to comply with the residency requirement. Now the teachers are angry and threatening action against the city. Someone claimed the residency requirements violate their civil rights!

OH BROTHER! These are our children’s role models? They lied to their employers and now they feel wronged.

This reminds me of the guy that gets a job knowing that there is a drug test- and then gets pissed off when he fails the drug test and is terminated. His defense is that marijuana should be legal. His defense is that it’s on his own time. But those aren’t valid defenses because he knew the company’s requirement and agreed to it when he was hired.

And sure enough, you betcha our teachers in the City of Niagara Falls knew that they were required to live in the city. They signed an agreement stating as such upon their employment!!! And, WKBW of Buffalo recently reported that the NFCSD Human Resources Office said that many of the terminated teachers have had this residency issue come up in the past- so they shouldn’t be surprised.

Is the residency requirement unconstitutional? (I don’t know but I doubt it). Is the residency requirement good or bad for us? (I’m not sure but I tend to believe it’s good for the city).

HOWEVER; teachers, those points are mute because YOU AGREED TO IT!

You know what’s really outrageous? I own an apartment building and when I have an apartment for rent in the paper, I usually get a call from someone wondering if they can “rent” the address only to fulfill a residency requirement in the city. One was so bold to give me her name and number and tell me she was a teacher in the NFCSD.

I had to be honest and tell her that I didn’t want to be involved in any fraud and that quite honestly, I like the idea of teachers living in the city because I think it would create a sense of ownership and increase the tax rolls, improve property values, etc. She said, “oh.”- and hung up on me.

Role Models.

Anyway… all of that being said… if people did not agree with the residency requirement, they should not have agreed to it and allowed that coveted full time teaching position go to another candidate who would have lived in the city.

The real issue isn’t the requirement, it’s the dishonesty of the employee- and that should definitely be our focus.

We can speak separately about whether or not the requirement is good at another time. But in this context, it is not pertinent.

Perhaps these teachers need a few lessons in ethics.

What a GREAT DAY on Whirlpool Street in Niagara Falls on Wednesday, August 19th! Approximately two dozen people came out in the heat to scrape, brush, scrub and paint the guard rail on Whirlpool Street, from about Ashland to Willow Avenues.

I was on my way in the morning, when I spotted all of these great folks cleaning and painting the much-neglected guard rail! It’s been slowly being cleaned and painted by the diligent work of Niagara Beautification and Habitat for Humanity for several weeks this summer, but it’s a HUGE job- and it got a tremendous boost yesterday!

I absolutely LOVE my downtown Niagara Falls neighborhood- and I’ve been so proud with all of the progress being made in the area between Main and Whirlpool. It’s energizing and it gives us all hope for the future of our community.

I stopped and spoke with Marge Gilles, (Niagara Beautification), to find out how we wound up so lucky. She explained that all of those kind folks were employees of OxyChem and St. Gobain Ceramics who were volunteering for United Way’s Day of Caring.

About ten employees from each company were really using their elbow grease to improve a beautiful area of the city for a lot of people. Those of us who live here now have a much nicer view from our porches, and while walking and riding our bikes along the gorge. In addition, thousands of folks travel Whirlpool Street. Just think of the great impression made on visitors to the city- and the pride of city residents!

We really can’t THANK YOU ENOUGH for coming! This means YOU, all of you OxyChem and St. Gobain employees- and your companies who probably made a donation to the effort by keeping you on the time clock while you were here- and especially thank you to the UNITED WAY for their never ending work in our city.

The United Way of Niagara is one of eight hundred autonomous United Way organizations. Their mission is officially “to create the organized capacity for people to care for each other”. Don’t you think they were successful yesterday? People cared about us- which made us care about them- and made us all care about where we live and work and raise families.

With every step- another step is encouraged. We look over and see clean, freshly painted fences and we paint our own fence- or pull some weeds, or plant some flowers. This what urban living is all about. We are a great and grateful group here in Niagara Falls! And we are getting prettier every day, aren’t we?

To find out how you can join the United Way in their mission, please visit www.unitedwayniag.org and check out the volunteer and donation opportunities!

UPDATE: FOLKS, IT’S DEC 5th, and I am still seeing signs up that says the park is open at least 3 or 4 days per week. You might want to check out their website for complete info.



That’s really what Niagara Falls residents are asking. Is Snow Park Niagara a permanent attraction? We are not unjustified in thinking about it.

Smokin’ Joe Anderson has developed a reputation in Niagara Falls. His “Smokin Joe Family Fun Center” defaced the Wintergarden and took away any historic value rendering historic designation impossible, thus leading to it’s total demolition. The Fun Center later failed. Not many people wanted to pay money to take children to a place with smoking in the title, (a reference to his cheap cigarette empire), just to climb in a glorified hamster tunnel. He changed the Wintergarden into a half-assed flea market of cheap goods, just like his store on the Tuscarora Reservation. He boasted it would have boxing matches. Hahahahahah. Sounded like a real stable business plan, right? Just sort of sell whatever shit he could for as long as he could, eventually selling the property back to the government so they could tear it down and put up a street. Kid’s play center, boxing ring, cheap trinket shop… whoops nothing.. sold to the government. via eminent domain.

Which really leads to the whole question of why he has opened up a winter park in the same vicinity.

You see, not so long ago, Niagara Falls Redevelopment opened a water park downtown. It was rumored they only did it so that they could increase the value of the land for sale to the Seneca Nation (via eminent domain). Sure enough, at the end of the summer, the park closed permanently. Niagara Falls Redevelopment made a tidy profit for one season’s worth of work.

So, we are all wondering if maybe Smokin Joe doesn’t have some sort of insider information that somebody will want to buy that land from him.. and it’s value as a winterpark instead of a vacant corner was worth the trouble.

We’ll have to wait and see. That’s part of the cynicism that pervades Niagara Falls. We’ve seen so many stunts, tricks and shady deals.. we just sort of wait for the next one.

Smokin Joe plead guilty in November 2008 to making payments to then mayor Vince Anello, for favoritism as a downtown developer.

According to local lore, this newest great idea of a snow park belongs to Smokin Joe’s son. I wonder if he’s called “Smoking Junior” or maybe, “Smoking Filtered”.

Deja Vu! The newest endeavor of this bumbling fool again displays poor planning and lack of real understanding of marketing. The prices for entrance have changed quite rapidly. The sledding hill is really a jumbo slide, and only has snow on a few lanes. Some of the lanes seem to have disappeared since it was erected. It was also pointed out to me that the frame of the hill seems to be rusty metal. One must wonder if it is new metal? How can it be rusted already?

The sledding hill is reputed to not have snow on it most of the time. The skating rink is a plastic surface, and not really ice. The small corner of snow playing has an ugly plastic tube throwing snow. It looks sort of temporary.

But what adds to the temporary nature is the water source.

I drove by the magnificent snow park the other day and noticed a hose hooked up to the fire hydrant out front and running into the park. Of course I stopped and snapped the above photo.

I pulled into the parking lot and asked a management team about it. He said that they do pay for that water, and you can see there is a meter attached. I guess that’s what I get for jumping to conclusions. I had worried they weren’t paying for their water, but according to them, they are.

But that left me wondering: Just how seriously was this park planned if they didn’t even install the necessary plumbing to run the place? Why is this allowed? If there were a fire in the vicinity would the water pressure be affected? (I hope not!)

The shame is that I would think that if you actually had an education in business- or at least a natural ability for business- this could be a successful attraction. Many of our visitors are from Asia and parts of the world that have no snow. With *some* professional ability, this could have been a good thing.

But as it stands- it’s sort of half-assed looking. Just like the other places under the same ownership.

I’m going to use my psychic powers to predict it will close with the falling leaves. Permanently. Spirit Guides are even telling me that one day, Smokin Joe will sell that land to either the city or state.

No, I am not shitting you. What is this, FUCKING Arizona?

Today reached a HIGH TEMPERATURE of 86 degrees. Go ahead, I’ll wait while you laugh.

This notice was found by ME after pulling into the library at 4:30, a half an hour before their already sad closing time of 5pm on Fridays. Yah, they are also closed Saturdays and Sundays. The public library. The main public library. The only public library in the city that is not the tiny little branch in LaSalle.

This meant I could not return my bazillion books, my late fees go up and I have nothing to read for the weekend. Or maybe longer. It is predicted to be 87 on Monday.

Why the library would close for an 86 degree afternoon in the Summer is unknown. Granted, the library has no air conditioning. However, people have survived 86 without air conditioning for a very long time. In fact, many people worked all day in the 86 degree weather without air conditioning. I can think of a LOT of people who did that today.

I think the air conditioning is the key here. They have had notes taped to their windows since early July, “Warning! This building is not air conditioned.” To me, that always sounded like a resentment. You see, the City and the Library are probably fighting about this. For some reason the library cannot afford the air conditioning and so they had a passive agressive fit and put up the notices. Then they closed down because it got over 80 degrees.

That’s the way many things work around here. I’ll admit- the library has been shafted many times by the City of Niagara Falls. I think it’s because it is a library, therefore inherently nerdy, and nobody Italian and/or related to the government makes any money there. I mean, it’s kind of hard to launder money or get kickbacks at a fricken library, you know? It’s low on the city’s priority list.

This has caused the library officials to walk around with a lot of chips on their shoulders.

Closing today was just ridiculous. Perhaps it is their passive-aggressive way of getting their air conditioning fixed or installed or in the budget, I don’t know. It’s not going to work. It’s only denying the privileges of the library to inner city kids on summer vacation, and people who do not have the internet at home, and your good old bookworms like me.

Found this cute cottage in Niagara Falls this past weekend while “yard sale-ing”. I snapped it’s picture but failed to get it’s address to pass it along. Anyway, they are doing a great job making their home look beautiful in the city. I’m pretty sure this was somewhere in the numbered streets of LaSalle. Probably in the 60’s or 70’s.

I love the vinca vines flowing out of the second story flower boxes. These 1920’s & 30’s cottages are so charming when loved. Summer in Western New York is wonderful!

Hey you guys- on my way to Tim Horton’s, I drove past the old Media Play location to see what was up. It has been in the process of being renovated for a few weeks. (Corner of Military Rd & Niagara Falls Blvd).

I was happily surprised to see what was moving in! An Ollie’s Bargain Outlet. I only know about this place because I stumbled into one in Cheektowaga this past summer. I quickly brought Iris back there with me to see the unbelievably good prices on things we wanted for our home. (Carpet, linoleum, housewares.).

We not only bought stuff for the apartment building but we bought housewares for us! I found a beautiful 450 thread count Egyptian Cotton sheet set, in gorgeous blue, in King Size for $32! Yah! I brought it home and sure enough, it is fine quality!

Anyway, NO, I haven’t been paid to say this. But I am happy they are opening up in Niagara Falls. This will probably bring, what, 35-40 more jobs? Not to mention all that yummy sales tax from Canadian wallets.

If you haven’t shopped at one yet, you’ll be pleasantly happy when you get there. It opens September 2nd. (Info from unknown man on cell phone working with contractor in parking lot).

BAH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH

Number One: Jenna Jamieson is the proclaimed “Queen of Porn” and of Italian descent.
Number Two: A Beehive Hairdo? Really? No- really?

This CRACKS me up. I love Niagara Falls. Even our home invasions are fun & different.

I want to find the BEEHIVE BURGLAR.

Did she look like this?

Merriam-Webster online described “effectlively” with the synonymous phrase, “dealt with the problem”- and that is exactly what the ZOOM team is doing!

Zone Outreach Objective Mission (ZOOM), is new to Niagara Falls and another characteristic of the new and improved attitude pervading our city: ACTION. Proudly, city departments have decided to use their positions to effect a difference in Niagara Falls. And it shows.

It showed this week, on my street. The “Zoom Team” accomplished exactly what it set out to do. We residents are bubbling over with joy. The spirit is infectious- and I’ll tell you how it happened.

I live on a street of working class people. I’m going to guess the majority of us are “working poor”. We love our neighborhood though. Whether we own or rent, we stay a long time, we take care of what we can and we appreciate our corner of the city. Conveniently located near all services, we are also steps away from the gorge and it’s beauty. We can either walk a few houses to the main library- or walk a few houses to a natural wonder and watch the bald eagle.

Our coveted spot, though, has made us a target for real estate speculators, especially as Main Street blooms and blossoms into a bustling place and a lucrative business investment. A handful of people have bought up available properties on our street only to let them sit empty. They don’t understand that to make a neighborhood desirable, you have to keep the properties in good condition. They just think that magically they will be worth a lot of money someday.

This summer saw our first boarded up house. Nice people lived in the stately brick. Unfortunately, a plumbing problem was diagnosed that would require thousands of dollars to repair. So the absentee landlord from DixieLand decided to kick out the tenants, (after three weeks of no water), and then hire a construction firm to board up all the beautiful leaded glass windows and walk away. The lawn grew and grew. Previously I have mowed the lawns of empty homes on my street. But I am done being taken advantage of by these speculators. So the lawn grew and grew. The same thing happened at a few properties on the block.



Then we had the delightful mixture of one landlord renting to anyone with the initial money down, (no references or background check), and another landlord taking advantage of long term tenants he figured wouldn’t move no matter how badly he let the property slip because the tenants were committed to the neighborhood. Promises of painting or siding came and went. A tree poked a hole in the roof. Ironically, that landlord owns a construction company.

This summer, our street started to look like SHIT. Maybe I contributed to it. I fertilized and mulched. Planted annuals and tended my perennials. Mowed and swept and decorated. But I didn’t step foot on another’s property with my mower or weedwacker. I’d been bit in the ass too much. After years of tending a property, I’d have the absentee owner’s “get rich quick” management company threaten me with trespass. Or I’d have a problem they refused to help me with. I quickly became sick of trying to keep up their property to make mine look better. So I stopped. I drove by the four foot weed lawns and shook my head in disgust. I bought porch shades so I didn’t have to look at them. I buried my head in the sand, at last.

And then a miracle happened. When I least expected it. This week, the ZOOM team descended on my street. And they are NOT playing around. It started last week. To my glee, orange stickers showed up on the front doors of all the neglected property. Those orange stickers signify to city dwellers here that a property has been found in violation of city ordinances to keep the house and grounds maintained in a clean and safe manner. They used to sit on a property and fade away.

No longer.

This year, the ZOOM team has been assembled and they are getting results. I woke up to the sound of supersized weedwackers at 8:30 am. I looked out my bedroom window and the slumlord’s yard next door had been invaded by an army of people in yellow vests with power tools! They were cutting, trimming, cleaning! They were NOT messing around.

John Calabro, (city of Niagara Falls), led his team to rid every bit of neglect and eyesore from my entire block! They threw away junk that had accumulated for months or years on people’s porches, in their backyards, lining the weed filled driveways. I was so happy! I threw on some work clothes and headed out the front door. Parked up and down the block were city work vehicles. A flatbed truck held a line of mowers. A dump truck was collecting trash and tree branches. Officials walked the street armed with clipboards, paperwork, and digital cameras.

Clearly, the City reached it’s cracking point like me and had enough. Only in my moment of surrender, they stepped up with exertion. I walked right down the middle of the street to meet them and shake their hands. John Caso, Director of the Department of Public Works introduced himself to me along with a Niagara Falls Fire Inspector in dress uniform. I thanked them and let them know how much all of us on the street appreciated this. They mean business! Extremely friendly yet determined professionals, the job was getting done.

As they appeared, bad tenants and landlords fled. Problem properties with cars parked in the driveway were suddenly not answering their doors. All the loudmouths who scream and swear at their kids in the middle of the street silently coward in their filthy homes. Proud residents came out in enjoyment.

The next day, they were done and we lived on a new street. You could hear the exclamation of neighbors, “Wow! Look at this place! It looks so clean! Look at our neighborhood!”

Absentee landlords have surfaced at the end of this week. Knowing they are now facing fines, court dates, and further actions has been enough motive for them to do work on their cash cow properties.
This landlord owns a construction company and dozens of houses but I haven’t seen him spend any quality length of time on our street for year. Suddenly, he’s painting this house as his tenants look on and help scrape off old paint. They are ecstatic. They were promised this job five years ago. Maybe it’s a coincidence- but the City took a few digital pictures of his properties. Maybe he has to look good for court in a few weeks. It sure is a pleasing sight to see him on top of that ladder working.



And so goes the rest of the neighborhood. People have been cleaning their porches, fixing their lawn decorations, sweeping sidewalks all week. The change is palpable. What was despair a week ago is now hope.

Thank you, Niagara Falls ZOOM TEAM. Thank you to whomever made the team possible. This is the true nature of changing lives.

From July 10, 1909 Niagara Gazette Newspaper:





Can you all read it? If not- I’ll transcribe! But this is my favorite part:
“As she is at times slightly demented, people who have charge of her now may someday be sorry.”