Daily Archive for February 29th, 2008

More on the “Niagara This Week” article

Published
by
Graham
on February 29, 2008
in Niagara Falls Blog News
. 6 Comments

Niagara This Week is a local, free newspaper that started up a few years ago. Editions in other cities have been printed for years, and it was nice to have a free alternative to the local, pay newspaper. They publish on Wednesday and Friday. I don’t know anything about the demographics of their readers, but their reach is substantial. A good portion of the residents of Niagara Falls, Thorold, and St. Catharines get the newspaper.

Remember when one of the reporters used some content from the blog but didn’t attribute where it came from? Well, at that time I emailed a gently worded complaint to the reporter and the editor saying that I hoped it was just an oversight. I got a reply back from the editor right away saying that they should do a story on me. Robert Lapensee got in touch with me, and then a couple of weeks ago he came over to my house to interview me. He was there for about an hour and we talked about all sorts of things… where I go for my walk, how I get my information, Google Alerts, how much money I make, why I do it, etc. Robert was very nice, and it certainly was a pleasure talking with him.

Robert said that the topic was “timeless” (it wasn’t date or time sensitive), so if something more pressing came up, they would push my article back. It wasn’t in the first week, but was in this past Wednesday.

I was quite pleased with the article. He focused on the things I figured were important. My family said the pictures were good, but I didn’t like my double-chin (the camera adds 10 pounds remember!!). Probably the coolest part was being on the front page. Since those of you not in the region wouldn’t have seen it, here is the top of the newspaper:

20080227_niagara_this_week_cover.jpg

I had sent my family the link earlier in the day, and then was over at my parents house in the evening. As I was there, my Dad went out to get the paper, and when he came in he said I was on the cover. I assumed he was joking, but there I was :-)

You can certainly read the text online, but here is how the article looked in the newspaper:

20080227_niagara_this_week_article.jpg

Lots of people I know have seen the article. The response has been great. However, at work, hardly anyone has mentioned it me.

There hasn’t really been an increase in traffic, but that’s ok. Any publicity is good publicity, right?! Now I have something to reference as I contact various establishments asking for information, passes, etc. It’ll only keep growing from here.

March Break at the Americana Resort

Published
by
Graham
on February 29, 2008
in Niagara Falls Hotels
. 0 Comments

Yesterday I received the latest newsletter from the Americana Conference Resort & Spa. They are promoting packages for the March Break.

20080228_americana_newsletter.jpg

To subscribe to the newsletter, click on the “Stay Informed with the Americana Newsletter” link on the left of the every page of the Americana Conference Resort & Spa web site.

A contest the falls cannot lose

Published
by
Graham
on February 29, 2008
in Niagara Falls News
. 0 Comments

From the Niagara Falls Review:

April will mark 18 years since I moved to Niagara Falls, and while we haven’t always seen eye to eye I’ve never loved the actual falls more.

I’m convinced everyone who moves here has a relationship with our namesake in three stages.

First is infatuation: You can’t believe you can see the falls whenever you want. Your parents had to drive hundreds of kilometres to bring you here as a kid, now it’s practically in your backyard! Like newlyweds, you can’t get enough of each other.

Then comes resentment: You start hating tourist season. You can’t get any ‘alone’ time with your waterfalls any more. You avoid the whole tacky, tawdry scene. You even gripe about turning your wipers on while driving through the mist. The thrill is gone, baby.

Then comes acceptance: You look past the casinos, museums and attractions and come to appreciate the falls for what they are - one of the most beautiful things nature ever produced. You feel protective of them. They’ve become a part of your life, and that connection can’t be described in a cheesy tourist pamphlet. Now you understand why people have written books about them.

“We shouldn’t tolerate the Canadian idle”

Published
by
Graham
on February 29, 2008
in Niagara Falls News
. 0 Comments

The St. Catharines Standard has an editorial about car idling and its environmental impact. It also mentions Niagara Falls. I’m sure this is a common problem in essentially all tourist areas:

I spent two summers working in the Clifton Hill tourist area of Niagara Falls, and the number of people I witnessed idling their vehicles daily was enough to make me sick - figuratively and literally.

These weren’t just tourists. There were more than enough obnoxious visiting families that sat in their running vans while the kids went through the attraction at which I manned the booth, but by far the biggest offenders I saw were local residents.

Because the attraction I worked at was situated on a side street close to Casino Niagara, relatives of casino employees figured out that they wouldn’t have to pay for parking if they just pulled to the end of the street and sat in their running cars until the person they were waiting for was finished work.

They’d sit there for 15 or 20 minutes, but it was not at all uncommon to see them sitting there for an hour or more, engines running. It enraged me to see the amount of emissions going into the air, and I always wished there was something I could do about it beyond shooting the offenders evil looks. (This, I’ll admit, did work . . . once in a while.)