From the Niagara Falls Review:
A casino will attract crime. It will promote the moral decay of a community desperate for jobs. It will turn casual players into addicts. A dozen years ago, Judith Mac-Carthy was certain all those things would happen if the province granted the city the right to open a glitzy new gaming centre in the heart of the tourist district. A decade after Casino Niagara opened its doors, MacCarthy says things might not be as bad as they seemed. “On the positive side, I know it has provided employment,” said MacCarthy, once the spokeswoman for the anti-casino group Try Another Way.
From the Niagara Falls Review:
The U.S. ambassador to Canada says the tourism industry won’t suffer under a new American law requiring travellers to show passports before entering the U.S.
Tourism officials here, though, beg to differ.
The way Arlene White sees it, the more stringent border-identification policy - the first phase is set to take effect early next year - is already taking a toll on border-town economies. “This issue has already had a drastic effect on cross-border tourism. Many Canadian and American travellers already think they need a passport to cross the border, which is not true,” said the executive director of the Binational Tourism Alliance.
From the Niagara Falls Review:
Craig Martel could have taken his years of gaming floor experience to the Niagara Fallsview Casino Resort when it opened in June 2004.
However, he chose to keep his expertise at Casino Niagara.
“I guess at the end of the day this is home to me. That was why I stayed,” said Martel, who joined Casino Niagara as a slot floor supervisor on Oct. 7, 1995 and remains there as a slot shift manager today.
He’s one of about 1,800 employees at the two Niagara Falls gaming properties who will mark their 10th anniversaries with the company this year and one of a handful who decided not to leave the comfort of the city’s original casino in favour of her more glamourous younger sister.
“Being part of things from Day 1 … you grow up with the staff, you hit important life milestones together. That was another reason why I wanted to stay.”
As mentioned previously, the Fun House on Clifton Hill is undergoing a face lift. I’m sure it will look much more attractive. I haven’t heard if they are doing anything on the inside.
From the Niagara Falls Review:
Two Superman movies - 25 years apart - are good reminders of how much Casino Niagara has transformed Niagara Falls, casino spokesman Greg Medulun says.
“The Superman II movie was filmed here in the early ’80s. The movie showed a pink bearskin rug in a honeymoon suite. That was the image of the Falls.
“This year, Fallsview hosted the Canadian premiere of Superman Returns in a billion-dollar casino resort, surrounded by new hotel developments,” said Medulun, corporate communications manager for Niagara’s casinos, in an interview looking back at the casino’s first 10 years.
That cheesy ’80s image changed in no small part due to the arrival of casino gambling and the kickstart it gave the economy.
As Casino Niagara prepares to mark its 10th anniversary this weekend, this is a time to take stock of what it has meant to Niagara Falls.
From the Niagara Falls Review:
Saturday’s 10th anniversary party for Casino Niagara will be a much more low-key affair than the one held on opening day. On Dec. 9, 1996, 30,000 people passed through the doors - after standing in lines in the cold - to get a glimpse of what was billed as a bit of Las Vegas in southern Ontario.
This Saturday, Casino Niagara spokesman Greg Medulun said he expects more than 10,000 players will come out to mark the occasion.
“We’ll have a 10-theme day, so from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. our customers will be entered into a draw for 10,000 Players Access Card points,” he said. “We’ll have the draw at 10 p.m. Our 10,000th visitor of the day will also get 10,000 PAC points.”
Those points equate to $1,000 in cash to use at the casino on everything from food to merchandise.
As FALLSVIEW posted about in the forum, the Circus World store on Victoria Avenue near the top of Clifton Hill is closed. They didn’t just close up and leave over night. They had a sign on their window for the last month or more where it said they were closing and everything must go. Then once it closed, it was still days, if not longer, before they were out. FALLSVIEW had taken a picture when it was totally empty. I took this picture well over a week ago and just didn’t get around to posting it. They were still in the process of emptying the store.
Circus World at one point had 2 locations… this one and the one on Clifton Hill where Movieland now is. When the lease ended for the Clifton Hill location, Circus World was left with this one only. I don’t know if they will be relocating. There were no signs on the window indicating this. My impression was that they were closing for good.
News10 out of Syracuse, NY has a small blurb on their web site about the Fallsview Indoor Water Park. There is also an accompanying video of the water park (this must have been something they featured on a broadcast). This is the first I’ve seen inside the park, and it looks nice. The video is a little over 2 minutes long.
You won’t have to fly all the way to Florida to find summertime fun this winter. Once you cross the Rainbow Bridge into Niagara Falls, Canada, you’ll notice that the skyline has changed. Sitting high atop the public parking garage behind the Brock Plaza Hotel is the new 8-story high Fallsview Indoor Water Park!
From the Niagara Falls Review:
Among the front page news stories in The Review Aug. 2, 1922, was one that reported the loss of a great creative genius. Headlined: “Inventor Of The Telephone Passes On,” the story announced the death of Dr. Alexander Graham Bell at his summer home near Baddeck, N.S. He was 75. Details about his life and career followed, along with the fact he would be buried “on top of Beinn Bhreagh Mountain at Baddeck in a spot chosen by himself.”
Beinn Bhreagh, Gaelic for “beautiful mountain,” was the name of Bell’s large Cape Breton estate.
A fact The Review did not mention, however, was that this famous man had spent one of the most significant periods of his life - his honeymoon - in Niagara Falls.
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