Published: June 12, 2008 02:04 pm            

CHRISTY: In the blink of an eye

Life comes at you fast — so says the television commercial for a product I can’t even remember — and you’d better be prepared.

Not many people were aware we were in such grave danger on the morning of September 11, 2001. Maybe nobody was, although you have to imagine the people that sit in bunkers listening to foreign chatter must have had some sense that the world was becoming increasingly hostile and dangerous, and that anything was possible.

As history unfolds over time we will continually learn more about that day and the days before and after. But one thing that surely depresses me lately is that the US was so very close to creating a seemless border situation with Canada. The agreement would have virtually wiped out any border crossing issue by essentially making the two countries one — the US dollar would have been the common currency, our military would defend their country, and the bubble we live in now would have simply expanded up towards Alaska and the Northwest Territories. Border delays would never have become a threat, much less a reality.

And this would have all accrued as a benefit of the Bush administration! Can you imagine that. An administration that is going to go down in history and maybe even surpass the Hoover administration as one of the worst ever could have — but for one event — been recognized in a wholly different light.

Why care? Because for better or worse, WNY has become the last ring suburb of Toronto. Planners who care about such things have realized it, and the distance between Niagara Falls Ontario and Toronto has shrunk to a commute. With Niagara County literally a mile further, can you imagine the possibilities?

Canadian’s view the world differently from American’s in this regard. They are far less militant towards the border issue then we are. So, in essence, we could change our attitudes and be in control of this situation, but that’s not likely. Once we decide on something it’s awfully hard to realize an error and change. Pride is an awful thing.

What are the possibilities we can change and grab a share of the growth that Niagara Falls Ontario is experiencing, with 20 million visitors each year? Niagara County is set to spend another million dollars (nearly any salary easily adds up to a million dollars over the course of a career these days) on a homeland security czar. Another layer of expense, bureaucracy and, based on our track record, patronage, from the local governmental braintrust.

How much is the government — at all levels — spending on people-mover systems which would realistically allow a reduction of personal auto use? I can’t imagine it’s much more then zero. Even factoring in the increadibly inadequate airport terminal now being touted as progress, we are focused on moving people far away from here instead of around here on a daily basis.

Check this out. There is a shortage of construction workers in Ontario. That means, because of human decisions made by elected officials, New Yorkers cannot be employed in good paying construction work because we’ve erected complex and hostile border crossing rules. And all we’ll hear for the next four months of this current campaign season is that elected officials have created thousands of jobs locally and property taxes, high utility rates and deadly pollution in our soil are not an issue.

Look, it took the Majority Leader of the County Legislature twelve months to admit that yes, we probably did deserve an “F” grade in economic development. If it takes that long to read a report card it is going to be impossible to get anyone in authority to imagine that investing in infrastructure makes any sense whatsoever. Infrastructure can’t circulate petitions. Infrastructure can’t donate to political campaigns.

I don’t use the word “depressed,” as I did earlier in this article, lightly. To know that solutions to our appalachin-like economy are right in front of us — that we can actually make a difference if we just changed our vision of things, absolutely infuriates me. It’s not about money; it’s not about snow; it’s not about poor attitudes and talking good about ourselves. Our ability to completely transform our economy is right in front of us and that we might not be focused on the problem is a sin.

It will be easier to build the physical Peace Bridge to Canada then it ever will be to build the mental bridge, and yet the mental bridge is free whereas the physical bridge will cost tens of millions of dollars. What a truly odd world we make for ourselves.

Tom Christy is the founder of FAIR Government, a non-political and non-editorial educational foundation dealing with local government issues. www.fair-government.org. He encourages communication and can be reach via e-mail at aim1986@mac.com.

        

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