From the Niagara Falls Reporter:
Another long Fourth of July weekend has come and gone, and many in the tourism industry here are left feeling that the sun-drenched holiday missed yet another opportunity to capitalize on as many as 100,000 who passed through town, for the most part briefly, on their way to the state park, the casino or Canada.
At the Niagara Tourism and Convention Corp. facility in the former Artisan’s Alley at the corner of Rainbow Boulevard and First Street, sales of sightseeing tours were halted by the city after it was discovered that none of the salespeople had the required licenses.
On Main Street between Chilton and Cedar, the “Positively Main Street Art/Music/Food Festival” drew a smattering of curiosity-seekers, mostly from the surrounding neighborhood. The wide thoroughfare seemed ill-suited for a street fair, there was little respite from the blazing sun, and more than a few hungry attendees searched in vain around dinnertime for a sausage-and-peppers sandwich, long a mainstay of the Niagara Falls street-fair scene.
At the same time, a throng of confused tourists could be found on the city’s East Mall attempting to gain entrance to the closed Smokin’ Joe’s Family Fun Center in the former Wintergarden, the shuttered and unfortunately named Conference Center Niagara Falls, or anywhere else they might be able to get out of the sun for a moment and have a cold glass of lemonade.
“What the state is doing in downtown Niagara Falls is an utter disgrace,” state Sen. George Maziarz said. “They get a million dollars a year out of the city’s casino revenue, and on the biggest weekend of the tourist season there is absolutely nothing for tourists to do downtown.”