By Mathew Andreini

Since the first European settlers encountered Niagara Falls its unparalleled display of power has represented humanity’s constant struggle with nature. It is here at Niagara where the sublime grabs hold of the imagination and pulls it over the brink into the mist below.  When standing alongside the rushing water it is easy to get lost in thought. If you’ve spent enough time within the city itself however, this stream of consciousness usually focuses on the dilapidated state of the surrounding area.  Visitors arrive in Niagara Falls expecting to experience a natural spectacle but are confronted with the realities of an industrial city in decline. How can a city with such natural beauty be reduced to a state of such disrepair as Niagara Falls?

    It can be said that Daniel Joncairs began Niagara Falls’ long history of industrial looting. In 1759 he dug a small canal that channeled water from the Niagara River. The canal contained a small waterwheel that powered an equally small sawmill, and this minor manipulation of the Niagara began to attract the attention of the newly industrialized world. Cultural geographer Patrick McGreevy describes the industrial age as a time where people became absorbed with material progress and expected a “complete rapture from the past”. His essay, Imagining the Future at Niagara Falls (Boston University), analyzes early perceptions of the falls expressed by poets, novelists, inventors, engineers, and entrepreneurs, also assessing their relation to the actual development of Niagara Falls. McGreevy states, “The hydroelectric development of Niagara Falls in the 1890s seemed to many as a sort of capstone on humanity’s victory over nature. The process that had been increasing human control over nature throughout the century was finally being turned on this last stronghold of natural power. The development of Niagara came to represent, for some observers, the ushering in of a new, totally human order.”
The founders of the city of Niagara Falls believed in this new industrial complex so much that they named their new village after the greatest industrial center at the time, Manchester, England. By the end of the 19th Century, with the development of the alternating current system created by Nikola Tesla, the dream of tapping into Niagara’s infinite power was achieved. Power generated at Niagara Falls could be harnessed and transmitted twenty miles away to Buffalo, which was one of the reasons Buffalo was able to host the 1901 Pan American Exposition.

    In little more than half a century numerous power plants came and went in the Niagara Gorge.  The most modern of these, the Robert Moses Niagara Power Plant, was built in order to replace the Schoellkopf Power Station that collapsed in 1956. This modern site was named after urban planner Robert Moses, a man whose career is characterized through his own words, “cities are for traffic”. The effects of Robert Moses’ car-centric ideology can be felt from Niagara Falls to the Bronx where his Cross-Bronx Expressway not only displaced thousands of minorities but was also designed specifically to exclude public transit.

     Western New York has also experienced Moses’ urban development in Niagara Falls with the Robert Moses State Parkway. This disjointed parkway lines the Niagara River from the north Grand Island Bridge to downtown Niagara Falls where traffic is dumped onto John B. Daly Boulevard. It then resumes at an intersection with Main Street traveling alongside the Niagara Gorge until it reaches Four Mile Creek State Park, 18 miles from its start.  This state owned parkway travels through the New York State Park’s Niagara Reservation which has been set aside as a natural reserve by New York Governor Grover Cleveland in 1833 in response to Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux’s philosophy regarding the preservation of Niagara in a natural state. Frederick Law Olmsted, designer of the Buffalo park system, New York City’s Central Park and San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, believed that parks were the perfect answer to the stress of urban life and that they should be available to all people. If Olmsted could see the Robert Moses State Parkway and the condition of the Niagara Falls Reservation it is safe to say he would turn over in his grave.

    The environmental concerns regarding the Robert Moses State Parkway in relation to the Niagara Reservation area are very straightforward. Runoff, including salt and various oils which alter plant and wildlife populations drain into the lower Niagara River via the Niagara Gorge along the entirety of the parkway. According to the New York State Parks Biodiversity Inventory, the gorge at Niagara “supports 13 rare plant populations representing eight different species. Three of these plants are listed as state endangered and are found nowhere else in the state”. A resolution signed by the Main Street Business and Professional Association supporting the removal of the Robert Moses Parkway says, “the New York Natural Heritage Program concludes the Niagara Gorge calcareous cliff community harboring some of the oldest trees (500-1,000 years old) in the state are threatened by adjacent upslope development”.

     In a similar resolution signed by the Niagara Heritage Partnership in May of 2000 states, “the Niagara River and its shores have been designated a Globally Significant Important Bird Area vital to migrating birds by the Buffalo Audubon Society and a host of other organizations international in breadth” and that “restoring natural landscapes there and on the mowed medians and roadsides would add approximately 300 acres to this Important Bird Area”. T.A. Switalaski’s study, Benefits and Impacts of Road Removal, show how roads influence wildlife: “altered movement patters, negative interactions with humans facilitated by easier access, including direct mortality from car collisions,” to name a few. Although no formal studies have been conducted one can infer road removal will reduce, if not negate these effects preserving Niagara’s unique ecosystem.

    In today’s climate it should be understood that the urban parkways built during the post-World War II era were misguided. Property values plummet, pollution increases, vandalism and crime multiply, and traffic congestion grows. Many cities across the world acknowledge these pitfalls and have torn down major highway systems from South Korea to France, Canada, and even the United States. T.A. Switalski’s study on Urban Road Removal shows the benefits of road deconstruction across the nation. Property values increased sometimes threefold while crime was reduced. Portland, OR saw a 65% reduction in crime along their revitalized waterfront and a 16% decrease across the entire city. Property value near Boston, MA new greenway increased 79% while San Francisco was able to add new tourist attractions without hindering existing facilities resulting in $7.6 billion dollars being spent by tourists – the highest in the city’s history.

    “We are the perfect city to be doing this sort of road removal”, says Lisa Vitello, the Eco-tourism Chair of the Niagara Tourism Advisory Board. Her goal is to find ways to promote ecotourism, an industry worth an estimated 77 billion dollars by the Travel Industry Association of America, The Office of Travel and Tourism Industry, and Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability. Efforts are being made to promote Niagara Falls as an ecotourism location but Vitello admits it is difficult and points out that “Our best ecotourism asset is taken up by a four lane highway ”. In 2001 New York State restricted traffic on the Robert Moses to two lanes, opening up the other two for pedestrians and bicyclists. Unfortunately the pedestrian road is dilapidated and in need of the sort of attention its vehicular brother is receiving. Although you may find only a handful of people on this pedestrian section at any one time it is also true that those hoping for a sublime experience in Niagara are shocked to find themselves walking along an abandoned parkway adjacent to one still in use.

    Just two years after the Robert Moses State Parkway was restricted to two lanes in order for pedestrian use the State Parks released a study of the program that shows a 16% drop in vehicle emissions and a 50% reduction of traffic accidents. New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation Commissioner Bernadette Castro states, "Converting the parkway into a multi-use roadway was a cornerstone of the plan to adapt existing assets found here in the city and our parklands to open up access to the gorge, and an important part of the multi-million dollar improvements that were undertaken at Niagara Falls State Park. These upgrades reflected the unprecedented investment by Governor Pataki to help revitalize the downtown, reconnect the park with local neighborhoods and businesses, and encourage longer stays in the region." It works. Regrettably we all know what happened to Governor Pataki and his predecessor seems to spend his time and our money elsewhere.

Unfortunately there are a few who wish to preserve the Robert Moses State Parkway regardless of the success of road removal across the world and the New York State Parks study. Local officials in the towns of Lewiston, Porter and Youngstown along with private investors have created a website dubbed www. parkwaypreservation.com, an oxymoron to anyone educated in urban planning and environmental sciences. According to this website “thousands of area residents depend on the Parkway as a vital transportation route”. While it is true the Robert Moses is a transportation route for thousands of area residents, the argument over its vitality is questionable. Four alternate north-south routes exist from Niagara Falls to its northern neighbors, Main Street—Lewiston Road, Hyde Park Boulevard, Military Road and the I-90. Unlike its opposition, the Niagara Heritage Partnership lists up to 79 national and local groups in support of Parkway removal; www. parkwaypreservation.com’s section of supporters is vacant. Yes, the Robert Moses State Parkway provides a link to Youngstown, Fort Niagara State Park, and Four Mile Creek State Park but this is not the stretch of the Parkway in question and should remain accessible for local residents and tourists.

    Just as heavy industry has come and gone in Niagara Falls, the epoch of the automobile will soon fade into history. The ideologies of men such as Robert Moses have reached their limits and it is time to abandon the status quo. The removal of the Robert Moses State Parkway is a break with the past that can only benefit a fading city like Niagara Falls. Local people will no longer be segregated from their natural surroundings and will be able to embrace their local heritage. The revitalization of Main Street will be felt as both locals and tourists will no longer be able to bypass, and perpetuate, the plight of this area.

    Niagara University’s ReNU program is already addressing the problems found along Main Street but their website contains a list of barriers such as “persistent underutilization of community assets and resources along with budget cuts, a shrinking tax base, contaminated land, political instability” and a slew of other problems that slow progress.  A new Niagara Falls Municipal Complex which hosts municipal courts and police headquarters has been built in the heart of Main Street, a symbol of confidence and investment by local officials that will hopefully spread to a larger pool of investors. With all these measures in place it appears that the removal of the Robert Moses State Parkway is the next logical step. The Niagara Gorge is an organic extension of Niagara Falls and the surrounding communities deserve more than a four-lane parkway serving as barrier between their park, their people, and economic prosperity.