Some people just aren’t happy unless they're complaining

Personally, I rooted for Nik Wallenda on his high wire over Niagara Falls Friday night. I wanted to see him perform well. I wanted the world to be mystified by the feat. And I wanted Western New York to rally around his accomplishment.

I got most of what I wanted.

Yes, there were things about the historic wire walk that didn’t go as people would have liked. There were aspects which disappointed me. I would have liked to have seen him do it without the safety harness, but I didn’t make an issue of it because I knew he would have liked to have done it without the safety harness. In fact, he said he felt like a “jackass” for wearing it. But given he didn’t “use” it, it was sort of a moot point. He proved he could have done it without it.

I thought his pandering for extra donations sullied the event somewhat. But I understand that things end up costing more money than you had planned sometimes and just because it was his dream, I didn’t think he should have to go poor to accomplish it. Besides, it’s not like he held anyone for ransom and said he wouldn't perform without those donations. So I didn’t let it bother me too much.

Aside from those two minor disappointments, I was thoroughly impressed with Wallenda himself. He held himself to a very high standard and proved that with perseverance and faith, we can accomplish our dreams.

Some people thought his open faith while on the wire was a bit over the top. I thought it was awesome to see someone profess their love of God on national television. It seemed like that faith helped keep him on the straight and narrow while crossing the wire.

The one thing that truly bothered me about the Wallenda event, though, had nothing to do with Wallenda himself. Not directly, at least. The thing that bothered me the most was the number of people who took a negative tone about the occasion.

Even before Nik stepped onto that wire to traverse over the falls and slowly make his way into Canada, I was astonished by the amount of people who seemed angry at him. For what, I don’t know, but they wanted him to fail miserably. Some even proclaimed that they wanted him to fall into the abyss.

I lost track of the number of people on Facebook and Twitter who said after the event that they “could have done it,” too. Suddenly everyone was a high wire artist. In earnest, I don’t think those people truly believed they could have done it. They just wanted to let the world know that they didn’t think it was that big of a deal.

There were a lot of people that didn’t think it was that big of a deal. People said it would be a blip and it wouldn’t matter in the long run. The numbers seem to disagree.

Final numbers aren’t out yet, but ABC won that time slot for the first time in six years, I read over the weekend. There were 120,000 people watching live on location, according to estimates. There were said to be hundreds of vendors — on the American side of the falls. Something that hasn’t happened in decades.

I believe that there will be a generation of people who come to Niagara Falls because of what they saw on TV Friday night. And while they’re in Niagara Falls, they’ll venture out into the rest of Western New York and eat dinner, stay at hotels, buy trinkets, etc. The economic influx granted to us by Nik Wallenda will be immeasurable.

I can’t prove that, but I believe it. I have faith, if you will. Just like Nik Wallenda has faith. And with faith, we can accomplish a lot.

Home is family

I met a guy from Pittsburgh on a train a couple weeks ago.

We were both headed to Buffalo's inner harbor on the mostly-useless Metro Rail to see a concert.

I'm not even sure how the fact that he was from Pittsburgh came up, but it did. He had just moved from Pennsylvania to Buffalo a couple weeks prior. And he had already decided he hated it.

I have to assume he moved here for a job. Or a girl. Really that's the only two reasons to move from one area to another – money or love. And I really hoped it was for a girl since the jobs here are scarce enough as they are without people from Pittsburgh moving here to take them.

I was really irritated, though, that someone could move into our fair city and talk trash about it. We Western New Yorkers are aware of our shortcomings. We don't need someone from Pennsylvania pointing them out to us.

Being a Western New Yorker comes with it certain privileges, like the ability to complain about it. And, of course, we do plenty of it.

We spend a large portion of the year complaining about the weather and the snow, but when anyone outside of Buffalo mentions how much snow we get, they become public enemy number one.

Is this disingenuous of us? Or is it just the way things work?

I visited Pittsburgh a few years ago. I was mostly unimpressed. Pittsburgh is Buffalo. It's also Cleveland. It's any struggling northern town, really. Pittsburgh just wants to make it through to the end of the day so it can start over tomorrow in hopes of getting it right.

Really, that's how I view Western New York. We're a collection of people with certain commonalities … including the need to wear mittens four months out of the year … and the desire to just get through the day.

I had considered that maybe because of the similarities between Pittsburgh and Buffalo it's okay that the guy on the train complained. Then I dismissed that thought.

See, it's a family thing. Just as we are allowed to gripe about our own families, but would defend them vigorously to anyone not part of that family … I feel the same about Buffalo. If the guy on the train wanted to complain about his family, so be it, but he was trashing mine.

Maybe it would have irritated me less had he had less valid points. The truth hurts, though.

I've never lived in the City of Buffalo. But that's where I tell people from out of town I'm from. I used to say Niagara Falls, but my world view has grown, apparently. Of course, to anyone from Niagara County, I tell them I'm not from Niagara Falls. I'm from the Town of Niagara. And now I make it a point to tell people I live in the City of Tonawanda. Not N.T. And not the town.

Sure the City of Tonawanda has some flaws. But I'd never let someone from Amherst tell me what they are.

And I'd certainly never let someone from Pennsylvania tell me what Amherst's flaws are. Them's fightin' words.

Watered down advice to officials

Our taxes are high. Too high. We've had the distinction a couple times now of having the highest property taxes in the country based on a percentage of our homes' values.

Add to that the fact that we have a boatload of special districts and usage fees and it's amazing we can find two nickles to rub together when we need to.
So any effort by local government to save us money should be looked upon kindly.

Niagara County's three cities are looking at possibly doing just that for it's residents.

Lockport, North Tonawanda and Niagara Falls each have their own water system and their own wastewater treatment plants. And they're looking at possibly sharing services and reducing costs.


Between the three of them, annual costs for their water and wastewater endeavors total $30 million.

Apparently a plan called the Tri-City Regional Water and Wastewater Optimization and Consolidation project came out of a three year old study that could create a blueprint to save you some cash.

If that $30 million annual price tag for operations is reduced to $29.9 million, that would be a good thing. And it would be even better if it were less than that.

The mayors of the three city's all say they are cautiously optimistic that saving will occur.

Niagara Falls Mayor Paul Dyster says the project may not result in a “silver bullet,” but that it looks positive.

I would hope that our elected officials would understand that anything is better than nothing and reject the notion that there is any silver bullet out there.

Oftentimes is seems to me like our elected officials – and even we – seem to only want to find one solution to all our problems and in doing so, we look over several other smaller solutions. This is true in government as well as the private sector.

I can't tell you how many people I hear scoff about a new business opening up. “What? It's going to create 10 jobs,” they'll say, not seeming to recognize that those 10 jobs are 10 we didn't have before.

We need to stop searching for a panacea and just stop the bleeding. And once the bleeding has stopped maybe we'll get better.
I know many of you think I'm just a pessimist who only finds reasons to complain about everything and everyone. Sometimes that's true. But when I hear of something good, I like to promote it.
Saving money is good. Let's do that. And let's appreciate it when it happens.

I'm pretty jazzed about the upcoming concert series. The last two have been brilliant in my opinion and this years' lineup looks great.

That said, what's with the banners downtown with the concert series sponsors names on them?

I hear we lost last years' banners that said “Historic Lockport” and replaced them with these.

In a city that has a fit over signs, it's kind of amazing that our city fathers would be willing to cheapen the look of our downtown like that.

Dear Mayor Tucker: Find the old banners. Put them up. These ones are tacky.

I have to give a quick special note of thanks to the Tonawanda Fire Department for their speedy arrival at my home on Sunday.

What started out to be fried eggs turned into “stove flambe.” And I'm told it was a very short while before it turned into “kitchen flambe” followed shorty by “Homeless Leffler surprise.”

I didn't actually time them on how long between when I called and when they arrived, but it seemed like seconds. Once on scene, they quickly assessed the situation and put out the fire.

As a result, I only had to get a new stove on Monday. Not an whole new home.
Firefighters: Whatever your salary is, you're worth it.

Scott Leffler, xenophobe

Every so often, I have an “aha” moment. Just such a moment occurred this past weekend when I realized that I am, indeed, part of the problem.

My friends at WNYMedia.net recently had a NCAA-style bracket tournament to determine who is most responsible for the regional failure in Western New York. And the answer was us. That's right. Us.

When the results came out, I said to myself, “Yeah, 'us' collectively, but I'm not to blame.”

But my “aha” moment told me I was wrong. I hate being wrong. And even more so, I hate being part of the problem. So I'm going to work to fix it.

I've always said one of our biggest problems in Western New York is the provincialism displayed by our elected leaders. They all have their fiefdoms and they refuse to work with other communities for the betterment of the entire region.

I've even called out non-politician friends for showing the same type of provincialism.

For example, I've complained to friends from Lockport dozens of times about what seems to be a common interest in the city: Never leaving Lockport.

“The world does not end at the county line,” I've said repeatedly over the last decade.

I enjoy a particular watering hole in West Seneca. I don't go there as often as I used to, but when I did, I would have people ask my why I go “all the way to West Seneca for a beer.”

When I lived in Ohio, I traveled 54 miles one way to work. An hour there. An hour back. Every day. Five days a week. So a half an hour drive to go to “my bar” doesn't seem like a big deal to me.

This past weekend, I took the kids to the “Buffalo Pizza Fest” in the Marriott on the Millersport Highway. It happens to be Amherst right there. Based on the reactions on a local website, people were offended that the “Buffalo Pizza Fest” was held in Amherst - outside of Buffalo.

I thought this reaction was silly. I mean, it's all Buffalo, isn't it?

And that's when I had my “aha” moment. I've been guilty of the same thing.

You see, I grew up in the Town of Niagara. When I would tell people this, they would say, “Oh. Niagara Falls.” I have always been quick to correct them. The Town of Niagara is most certainly not Niagara Falls, I would explain.

Oddly enough, when I was in Ohio, I would tell people I was from Niagara Falls. Those who were familiar with a map would say, “Oh, I didn't know you were from Buffalo.” And I would correct them as well. Niagara Falls is not Buffalo.

Why didn't I want people thinking I was from Niagara Falls? Is the Town of Niagara somehow better than the City of Niagara Falls? Is the City of Niagara Falls somehow better than the City of Buffalo?

The clearcut and obvious answer to both questions is, “no.”
We're all in the same boat together. Niagara Falls and Lockport. Buffalo and West Seneca. Tonawanda and North Tonawanda. And yet we act like the border to each and every single community in Western New York is the Mason-Dixon line.

There's nothing wrong with civic pride. But the xenophobia reflected in this region is the wrong kind of pride. Until our civic pride overlaps our community borders, we're all part of the problem.

And I'm not going to do it anymore.

From now on, I'll be from Niagara Falls – even though I grew up in the Town of Niagara. I'll be from Buffalo – even though I live in Tonawanda. And I'll do my best to remember that we're all collectively from Western New York.