OPEN LETTER TO THE CITY OF BUFFALO

Those of us who have been paying attention have known for a long time that you've engaged in a full-out assault designed to capture and control the name and image of our world-famous waterfalls. You have undertaken this nefarious plan because your research has shown you that the overwhelming number of visitors who come within a hundred miles of your city borders do so for one reason -- to visit our waterfalls. I use the word "our" carefully and deliberately. I mean it in the proprietary sense, as in belonging to the denizens of Niagara Falls, located in Niagara County.

You might say I use it as calculatingly, as you have in infecting us with the fictional phrase "Buffalo Niagara." It is as concocted as the city of Metropolis, and it doesn't take a Superman with X-ray vision to see why it was created.

It was born into this universe because study after study showed that tourists arriving here -- some 12 million to 15 million annually -- came to see Niagara Falls, period. A few have an idea that Buffalo is somewhere nearby and, frankly, they don't give a damn.

Don't get me wrong -- I love Buffalo. I'm a Bills and Sabres fan in good times and in bad. I love the Albright-Knox and the history and science museums. I visit the Buffalo Zoo two or three times a year and I think that the Irish Times is a hidden gem of downtown eateries. I've never had a better steak than the ones served up at Buffalo Chop House and I think the drive through Millionaire's Row is one of the most beautiful one take on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

I feel that way, but tourists don't. In my nearly 20 years working in tourism here, I have engaged hundreds of thousands of visitors in the art of conversation. Guess how many times one has asked me about Frank Lloyd Wright or Frederick Law Olmsted? Or how many times they have wanted directions to the art museum, or, save when the Bodies exhibit was ongoing, to the science center?

Zero, nada, zip, zilch ... never!

In fact, and this is going to hurt your pride, when I am in Niagara Falls, Ont., and a tourist asks me for directions to Buffalo, where do you think they're trying to get to? Almost always it is the Fashion Outlet Mall on Military Road. When I explain to them that the mall is actually in Niagara Falls, N.Y., they are surprised.

My follow-up question is: Will you be going on to Buffalo after the mall? Put a Dr.

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Frommer's Niagara Region

Frommer's Niagara Region

Directory of shopping centers in the United States

Woodall's Campground Directory 1991, North American Edition

Niagara & Southwestern Ontario, A Colourguide