Re-Printed in the Hamilton Spectator
Raising the Falls
Manhattan lawyer has daring revival plan
By David Segal
The Washington Post
NIAGARA FALLS (Nov 28, 2006)
Walk 20 minutes due north of the wax museums and honeymoon motels at the tacky core of this perennial tourist stop and you will find the eight-block stretch that locals call downtown. It looks like any other main street in a death spiral: empty storefronts, cheap rental apartments and a few holdout businesses limping from month to month.
But these blocks will soon be the scene of a nervy experiment in urban revival. The plan is to close most of the downtown, throw a tarp over the buildings and spend more than $200 million on renovations.
A year or so later, the place would reopen, hopefully with marquee retailers and spiffy residences in a setting that might look like a live Norman Rockwell painting.
Click here to continue reading.