Niagara Falls, NY: Designed To Fail

The city of Niagara Falls, NY is approaching financial catastrophe and people are pointing fingers.

Niagara Falls Mayor Paul Dyster is blaming the Senecas.

New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo is blaming the Senecas.

The Senecas aren’t blaming anybody.

The people are fed up with Mayor Paul Dyster.

You see, Dyster used much of the $125 million from funds delivered to the city by the Seneca Niagara Casino, to balance the city’s budget. Payments from the casino have stopped and the city is now screwed. This money was intended for development and the creation of jobs with livable wages. Only a handful of residents claim that the “city is on an upswing!” and “there are jobs here!”, but those residents always have ties back to Dyster. It’s not even something that you have to look into – most of them were hired by the mayor, and many of them were given huge raises by the mayor. Just recently, the city council voted to cut the mayor’s special assistant, to save money in the budget… an act which the mayor vetoed. Look, for those of you reading this who aren’t from Niagara Falls: Our mayor doesn’t need a special assistant. He is absent, he is sluggish, he only appears at meetings where he is absolutely required to show up, and he only shows up to public events when it makes him look good. His involvement with our community is a facade; he doesn’t even stay for city council meetings to hear residents speak about their concerns. Simply put, Mayor Paul Dyster does not speak on behalf of the people of Niagara Falls, NY. He speaks on behalf of the state.

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Worse yet, he squandered $125 million and set the stage for financial collapse. Did I mention he had a statue commissioned for $620,000? That’s an expensive piece of public art. $50,000 came from USA Niagara, $85,000 came from casino funds (directly from the city), and an additional $485,000 came from Niagara Greenway; part of the payment being necessary to reinforce water pipes since the statue was just far too heavy. Here I’d like to point out that, also recently, residents on 72nd street went without water for over a year. Mayor Dyster made a major snafu when, to save money, he authorized piping that wasn’t buried deep enough and led to freezing and eventually bursting. He then turned a blind eye to the issue and put it on the back burner, much to the dismay of residents living on 72nd street. Reinforcing water pipes to support the weight of an overpriced statue was more of a priority to the mayor than residents having running water. Let that sink in.

So how is it that Niagara Falls was designed to fail? Well, let me give you a brief history lesson so that we can all understand how it is we’ve arrived in this situation. It all started in 1883, with the Niagara Reservation Act. The Niagara Falls State Park as it stands today sits atop what is called the “Niagara Reservation.” The reservation is a nature preserve, if you can believe that. In 1883, New York State passed an act creating the boundaries for the reservation and in 1885 the state claimed the lands via eminent domain and paid the previous owners, the Porter family, for the land. The whole argument was based on turning the area surrounding the upper rapids into a nature preserve so that it could be enjoyed by everyone for all time.

Prior to 1885, the Porter family had a paper mill and some industry set up on Goat Island. Locals and visitors alike would have to pay a toll if they wished to see the falls. It’s a whole ugly, greedy setup and it hasn’t changed much except now it’s a big lie and it’s perpetuated by the state and their constituents. New York State Assemblyman Thomas V. Welch led a group known as “Free Niagara” to have the state seize the property from the Porter family, under the guise that everyone would now be able to enjoy the view of the falls for free. Free Niagara promised to remove industry from Goat Island and create a nature preserve. To drive the campaign home, they recruited Frederick Law Olmsted, the famous naturalist architect who was responsible for creating Yosemite National Park and Central Park in New York City. The con was set in place, and Olmsted was not made aware of his exploitation until after he’d already created the reservation. The village of Manchester (now known as the city of Niagara Falls) was littered with propaganda and news stories about the saviors of the world treasure; the movement which was going to preserve God’s creation and drive out the wicked industrialists. This was all a big ploy to create a state owned monopoly and it all had to do with power… literally!

Thomas V. Welch and his constituents saw an opportunity to utilize the flow of the falls and turn it into a power generator. Once the state paid the bill in 1885, Welch and company immediately bought major stock in the Niagara Power Company and began looking for a blueprint to solidify their plan. This led to Nikola Tesla and his patents for alternating current, and the rest is history. Corporations were coaxed into building along the upper river (just outside the set boundaries for the Niagara Reservation) and what was once Free Niagara was now supplying power to ten times the industry that Porter had set up. These factories were producing hazardous waste which they were allowed to dump right in the river…. a problem which seems to be plaguing us to this day. As for the Niagara Reservation, New York State to this day claims to be upholding Olmsted’s vision and abiding by the original regulations. According to Olmsted’s rules, only two buildings were allowed to be constructed on Goat Island, and both were to be shelters so that visitors could be kept out of the rain.

So then why is this relevant? First of all, Thomas V. Welch was highly influential in incorporating the city of Niagara Falls, NY in 1892. He was with Governor Roswell P. Flower when he signed the first city charter, and Welch even supplied the pen! The creation of the Niagara Reservation helped Welch’s political career and boosted his bank account in ways that most people would fail to understand.

The Niagara Reservation was created in 1883 with the Niagara Reservation Act, yet the state claims it was created in 1885 with the Niagara Appropriations Bill. Undoubtedly, they reason that the reservation wasn’t real until the bill was paid. They flaunt it as the “oldest state park”, yet Thomas V. Welch is quoted in a public speech to state assembly as saying it will not be a state park! Nothing like a park will be built! Here, read this excerpt from his speech, which is accredited with inspiring the creation of the Niagara Reservation:

So if Free Niagara wasn’t planning on making the Niagara Reservation a state park, then what happened? Well, to put it bluntly, Welch was lying. He was telling people what they wanted to hear. Locals were fed up with the Porter family and their greed, and Welch saw this as an opportunity to get rich and create a monopoly for the state. Sometimes truth is way more remarkable than fiction. The fact that the city of Niagara Falls incorporated just seven years after the Niagara Reservation (state park) was created, and that the same group of lawmakers were responsible for both entities, shows that Niagara Falls, NY was designed to support the state park.

The city is just one big front for the park. Don’t believe me? Look across at Niagara Falls, Ontario. The city is flourishing. The funds from their park go right back into their city. Where do the funds from Niagara Falls, NY go? Not into the city. They go to Albany, they go to New York City, and they go right into the pockets of some very greedy politicians and businessmen. That’s how it was designed and that’s how it is still being done today.

Let us first look at the indisputable fact that Frederick Law Olmsted’s rules and regulations for the Niagara Reservation are not being upheld. Why is Olmsted’s involvement in this such a big deal? Simple. The ONLY REASON that the Niagara Falls State Park is on the national historic registry is because it is designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. In 1990, William Bolger, the regional landmarks coordinator for the parks services at the time, attempted to get Olmsted’s name removed from the Niagara Falls State Park. His reasoning was simple: Nothing was left that was recognizable of Olmsted’s design. Trees had been removed to open a view for the Delaware North owned Top of the Falls Restaurant, and concessions were set up with blatant disregard to Olmsted’s plans. Had Bolger succeeded, the state park would have lost it’s historic status and likely would have become a national park, fulfilling the wishes of President Theodore Roosevelt who gave a speech around the turn of the century demanding that, should New York State abuse the power of the Niagara Reservation, they must turn it over to the federal government. Instead, Bolger’s petitioning silently died off, which is typical when billionaires and their friends in government are involved.

So if the state park was no longer recognizable as being an Olmsted design in 1990, surely today it is far, far worse. For locals, it’s like the state is trying to turn it into Disney Land. It has been commercialized to a point where many locals will not visit for fear of heartbreak. Thousands have given up on what was once their proudest asset. Many families who have lived here for generations once spoke highly of being from Niagara Falls. As children, my brothers and I would go down to the falls at night to catch fireflies. The fireflies are gone. The magic is dead. What is left is an over-commercialized profit center bordering a dead city. A city that has the highest crime rate per capita in New York State and a heroin epidemic to boot. Yet the state claims that the park pulls in 9 million visitors annually. The state gives us enough financial assistance that we don’t completely die. They give us just enough medicine to keep us alive but they will never give us the cure, which is a fair share of the profits from the state park. Consider this: If the city of Niagara Falls, NY was receiving a fair cut of the profits from the Niagara Falls State Park, the city would never be lacking finances.

Here’s where the big con comes in, and if you’re from Niagara Falls, NY, I think you’re going to love it! First off, Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Buffalo Billions scheme is reportedly meant for economic development. As the con goes, he was able to allocate billions of taxpayer dollars (a sum of which is uncertain) in order to revitalize impoverished cities in New York State. Cuomo has given millions of dollars to Buffalo, Batavia, and North Tonawanda. When he was asked by WGRZ reporter Dave McKinley if he planned on helping out the city of Niagara Falls financially with the Buffalo Billions, he laughed and said maybe we should pay him back. See the interview for yourself, and I especially love the part where his PR aide panics and rushes him out of the building. Cuomo spoke off the cuff, he spoke honestly, and he showed that this is all one big con. He laughed at the thousands of people in Niagara Falls who struggle to survive. He laughed at the drug problem, at the overdoses, at the single parents, at the small business owners, and at the violence. He laughed at our “misfortune”, because he knows it’s not a misfortune at all.

You see, a misfortune would imply that we have had a run of bad luck. This is just not the case. The city does not have a “money problem”, because money is an inanimate object. The city has a “people problem.” Ergo: Mayor Dyster used a whopping $125 million from casino funds to balance the city’s budget, create overpaid jobs for his friends and family, build a crappy statue at three times the artist’s premium (and then request an additional $150,000 from Niagara Greenway to reinforce the water pipes), and he built a $43 million train station that is used on average by 2 people per day. So you see, as our mayor went haywire acting like Richard Pryor in “Brewster’s Millions”, it’s actually kind of the same set up as the plot to the classic Pryor comedy. He consciously spent this money.

Dyster did not “mismanage” the funds, and he didn’t spend radically “by accident.” Any honest person who lives here knows that Mayor Dyster won’t spend a cent without getting permission from his puppet master, Governor Andrew Cuomo. So why would Cuomo give Dyster the green light over the years to squander away millions? Why is “Dyster’s Millions” such a strange and curious chapter in the history of the city of Niagara Falls? Two words: Money laundering.

Here’s the equation: The city receives $125 million from the Seneca Niagara Casino. Everyone rejoices. Dyster then splashes the pot all over the damn place and drives the city into the ground. Dyster then says “whoopsie!” and the people hate him. In this equation, Mayor Paul Dyster is the classic “fall guy.” Very common in schemes organized by the mafia. Whether or not Dyster knew he was being set up doesn’t matter at this point because the damage is done. The only way that it would ever matter is if he’d get up the courage to testify in court against Governor Andrew Cuomo, but I just don’t see it happening. Dyster’s backbone is made out of strawberry jelly. Perhaps the RICO act will play a role, but we just have to wait and see.

So after Dyster ruined the city financially and pretended it was a big accident, news came out that he knew the city was going to collapse financially. He knew this as far back as 2015 when he was re-elected for a third term. This is a fact, since his opponent in the election, candidate John Accardo, was open and vocal about the pending financial doom. Still, the mayor insisted that things were looking up. By the way, the aforementioned news came in a report from the state comptroller. Here is the excerpt:

The mayor dodged the city comptroller and provided an outdated financial plan. So was there no financial plan set in place for our current situation? It appears not. The one that is available to the public on the city’s website is apparently a fake to keep us in the dark about what is really going on. Otherwise, why wouldn’t the mayor or his administration refer the state comptroller to the city’s website and financial plan? Ah, must be nice to have some friends higher up. The mayor clearly believes he is safeguarded by his relationship with the governor. Many people have said of the mayor “Governor Cuomo laughed right at you on the news, how could you think he’s your friend?!” Dyster is a fall guy, that’s how. He’s meant to lose, just like the city. Maybe he will catch a “big upswing” at the end of his current term, just as the city “resurges” and Dyster passes the torch to someone even more diabolical.

So then, why would Dyster participate in squandering such a large amount of money publicly? The explanation is pretty simple. Governor Andrew Cuomo is doing his best to get the taxpayer dollars from the Buffalo Billions into his own pocket. He has to do this through deals and campaign contributions… he can’t just take the money. There have to be receipts and it has to look well intended. The number one way to launder money is through construction, which includes surveys and consultation fees. Two individuals who are undoubtedly benefitting from the Buffalo Billions: Owner of Delaware North Corporation, billionaire Jeremy Jacobs, and owner of the Maid of the Mist, millionaire James Glynn. Both who are friends of Cuomo’s. Due to the Olmsted name and design, the Niagara Reservation allows the state and their business partners (Jacobs and Glynn) to prosper from the influx of millions of taxpayers dollars.

Here is a link to the Buffalo Billions Strategic Plan for Prosperity, Phase II.

Page 109 has an anomaly. It says “Completion of the $35M improvement to create winter storage and maintenance facilities for the Maid of the Mist, which created new summer public elevator access to the base of the Niagara Gorge.” So did the Maid of the Mist receive $35 million from the Buffalo Billions scheme? Reportedly, that money was done with “private funding”, but then why include it in the official report for the Buffalo Billions? Right above this, the report says “Completion of $75M in State Park improvements that will facilitate outdoor activities.”

The plan was never to spend any of the money from the Buffalo Billions in the city of Niagara Falls, NY. The plan was ALWAYS to spend that money in the state park. This allows for the money to be laundered and returned to Governor Andrew Cuomo and his buddies. From my educated opinion, what I see is this: Mayor Dyster ran the city into the ground, financially. This way when it came time for the city to receive it’s fair portion of the Buffalo Billions, Cuomo could laugh and say “why would I ever guarantee their loss?” Which he did, and in doing so he successfully convinced some people that the city of Niagara Falls can’t be trusted with handling money from the Buffalo Billions. It would be downright irresponsible for Cuomo to give the city millions of dollars after how Dyster handled the casino money! Basically, New York State can’t dig us out of the financial rut, because our mayor spent $125 million on nothing, so how could Dyster be trusted with money from the Buffalo Billions? Instead, the governor will be happy to spend tens of millions of dollars in the state park, which he claims will create a world class tourist destination, bring in millions more visitors, and revitalize the city of Niagara Falls. The reason that we know this won’t work:

This excerpt was taken from the Buffalo Billions Strategic Plan for Prosperity, Phase II. Empire State Development claims that 9.2 million people visit the state park on an annual basis. Well, every Niagarian knows that this is a lie. Let’s say each of these visitors spent $10 in our city. That’s $92 million, yearly. So is the state telling us that, by improving the park with the Buffalo Billions, we will bring in more visitors which will then start magically spending money in the city? It’s a lie and they are hoping the locals are stupid enough to believe it. We don’t see 9.2 million visitors annually in the city, and neither does the state park. Increasing this number won’t save the city. The money from the Buffalo Billions should be spent in the city of Niagara Falls, not at the state park, given that it’s purpose is REVITALIZING IMPOVERISHED CITIES. They are laundering it, and they’re not doing a very good job of hiding their tracks.

Governor Andrew Cuomo’s top ten aides have been indicted for their involvement in this scheme. His right hand man, Joe Percoco, has MILLIONS of pages of evidence weighing against him in regards to bid-rigging and bribery in relation to the Buffalo Billions. Right now as you read this, the FBI is compiling as much evidence against the governor as they can get, to try and make charges stick. Likely, he will get away with it by using his connections and their influence, but what is happening here in Niagara Falls, NY will never be forgotten. The governor instructed the mayor to spend until his heart bleeds, with plans of blaming the city’s financial collapse on the Senecas. Here’s a fun exercise: Go to Google and type in “Buffalo Billions”, and look at the suggested searches:

It seems the whole world is watching and soon they will know that it happened here, in the city of Niagara Falls, NY.

Governor Andrew Cuomo attempted to utilize institutionalized racism to win the heart of the public: By turning them against the Senecas, he would become the hero. Keep in mind that Cuomo wants to run for President of the United States in 2020. The Senecas had nothing to do with Dyster’s spending, but Cuomo had everything to do with it. The Senecas have shown interest in working with our city, but at last week’s Christmas tree lighting, Dyster was quoted as saying: “I want to make it very clear to our friends at New York State that were lighting a Christmas tree in conjunction with the Seneca Nation of Indians and our other partners downtown is not an attempt on our party to start a back-channel negotiation.” Why would the mayor fear that the governor would view an event as simple as a Christmas tree lighting as an attempt to open negotiations between the city and the Seneca Nation of Indians (SNI)? Why can’t the city of Niagara Falls, NY work with both New York State and our hosts, the Senecas? Why is it that the state will not allow the city to have a working relationship with SNI? What are they afraid of? Cuomo and Dyster are hoping that the pressure put on the local emergency services, who are on the chopping block for budget cuts, will lead to a public outcry against the Senecas. What is not mentioned is that SNI has shown interest in paying the city for emergency services for the Seneca Niagara Casino. Dyster won’t allow it; if he did, then the people would no longer be held hostage by the state, and the whole dastardly plan would dissolve.

There is a storm looming on the horizon. To read more about the Olmsted Conspiracy, the tie-in with Delaware North and the way it’s all set up, download this educational material that I put together: Niagara Report V.2

EPILOGUE

We are seeing behind a curtain that we weren’t even supposed to know exists. January 21st, I openly opposed a request for proposal (RFP) for a “lodge” that the state wanted to build on Goat Island. More and more, it’s starting to look like this “lodge” was going to have a casino in it, and the contract would without a doubt fall within Delaware North’s domain as they hold the concessions contract for the Niagara Falls State Park. Keep in mind that Delaware North also teamed up with New York State for three state owned racetrack casinos which violated the Seneca exclusivity compact in the first place. If the Goat Island “lodge” was really going to be a casino, it means that the state was trying to get ahead of the Senecas in anticipation of the stoppage of casino funds. A casino on Goat Island would undoubtedly be a bigger draw than the Seneca Niagara casino, and even though it violates Olmsted’s vision, the Buffalo Olmsted Conservancy made no point to stand against the RFP. Probably because Kevin Kelly, the President of Travel for Delaware North, is also an Executive Board Member for the Buffalo Olmsted Conservancy (even though this is a clear conflict of interest). What should also be taken into consideration is that Delaware North gifted the Buffalo Olmsted Conservancy $300,000 less than a week after they were publicly reported by Spectrum News to weigh in on the “lodge” RFP. It doesn’t take a seasoned investigator to put that much together…

Everything that I am reporting to you is researchable. There are news articles and dates and it’s all on the record. That which has been included of my opinion is based on my personal findings as a lifelong resident of the city of Niagara Falls, NY and as an investigative journalist for The Hype Magazine. The Niagara Reservation was created to make a select few individuals within the state very wealthy, and in doing so the state benefitted greatly. The Niagara Reservation is a money making machine and of course Governor Andrew Cuomo knows this; since he is a shrewd gangster, he cranked the machine all the way up and the city went broke as a result. The city of Niagara Falls, NY was created as a front for this operation. The city of Niagara Falls, NY is like the Washington Generals, the team that plays the Harlem Globetrotters: We are destined to lose.

That is why Niagara Falls, NY is designed to fail.

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Tags: Andrew Cuomo, buffalo billions, buffalo billions indictments, buffalo billions scandal, buffalo billions scheme, Corrupt Politics, Corruption, criminal, criminal investigation, empire state development, Governor Andrew Cuomo, Governor Cuomo, Ken Cosentino, mafia, mayor dyster, mayor paul dyster, niagara falls, niagara falls state park, NY, paul dyster, Sam Hoyt, Seneca, seneca niagara casino

About the Author

Ken Cosentino Ken Cosentino is an artist from Niagara Falls, NY. He is an award winning filmmaker, CEO of White Lion Studios, LLC and a published author.