From the Niagara Falls Review:
If you’re checking out the new Rink at the Brink this weekend, you’ll have no trouble finding it. The Niagara Parks Commission’s new fence running the length of its Table Rock parking lot makes it impossible to miss it.
It turns visitors to the falls into cattle, herding them from the parking lot right into the gift shop of the new Niagara’s Fury attraction -and now, to the temporary rink area.
For locals who don’t regularly go into Queen Victoria Park, a visit to the new Winter Festival of Lights skating rink will be their introduction to the parks commission’s black, iron monster.
The new fence runs along the west side of the Niagara Parkway, from the Canadian Niagara Power building north to the new clock tower and walkway addition to the Table Rock building.
You don’t need an MBA in marketing to see what’s going on here. The parks commission appears to be funnelling everybody who parks in its lot right into its own ticket sales counter, gift shop and restaurants.
This makes it kind of tough on seniors with limited walking mobility. The original entrance to the Table Rock House was just perfect………..
This fence turned the Olympic Flame celebration into a nightmare. The stage and all the exibits were inside the fence, with only one 8ft wide walkway for the thousands of people coming and going, and everybody had to go through Table Rock. And many, many people lining the road in front of Table Rock were out of luck when the torch went on the Falls side of TR and then cut across through a temporary opening in the ‘fence’, that was quickly closed so no one else could get in or out. The entertainment, exibits and freebies were great, but the decision to have this large event at a location with only one way in and out was a terrible mistake. I can now sympathise with the tourists parking in that lot and realizing that they are trapped!