Hey flock: long time no see!

I’ve been on a bit (two month) blogging hiatus, as summer is insanely busy in the Niagara Falls tourism industry. Luckily, we’re gotten past Labor Day, and entered convention season!

With it being an election year, and there being a three-way race for mayor this time around, there’s been a lot of…strategic messaging.

I was particularly taken by an opinion piece in the Niagara Falls Reporter. While I’m not going to link to the piece in question, I will state in general that it followed the same structure as most opinion pieces in the last several decades: Niagara Falls is dead, but *insert hero here* can save us.

The problem with this sort of thinking is that is so grossly generalizes government, economics, business, and life in general that it actually becomes dangerous.

Remember how we put all of our faith in a single savior of Niagara in the 1960s? Riding on a white horse? Spread plague and famine through the land as he bamboozled us?

Or how about the 1980s? A couple of brothers coming along with an idea for a shopping mall to save Niagara?

The 1990s? Buying all of the properties, single-handedly going to revitalize downtown?

The new millennium? We dynamited a hole in the ground to put fish in?

2002-2003? The magical casino we waited 40 years for?

We need to stop this rhetoric. We need to stop thinking that a single individual, entity or project is going to “save” Niagara Falls.

In fact, there is only one correct answer for “the one person who can save Niagara Falls.”

YOU.

You, the lovely reader of this blog post. The person that cares about Niagara Falls. You can save Niagara. Your battle cry is already written on the dollar bill in your pocket.

E Pluribus Unum: Out of many, one.

Many people working on many projects, unified under the one goal of making Niagara Falls a better place to live.

That dollar bill serves another purpose: support. It’s not enough to cheer for new businesses and projects. You need to support them. It’s the entire reason Pints for Progress exists. It’s also important to support events by going to them. Jingle Falls continues to grow because of strong community involvement, and it’s looking to be even better this year.

So as we approach the home stretch of this year’s election cycle, please remember how important you are to this city, and how much support any city needs to flourish. After all, it’s not like there’s one person who can single-handedly save the city.

-Sheepie ❤