Yesterday I took a day trip to Niagara Falls, one of the benefits of living close to the Canadian border. For those of you who don’t get the chance to jaunt over and see one of the great sights of the world on a regular basis, I wanted to highlight something that you may not be aware of.

There are two sides to the falls, an American side and a Canadian side, both of which have wonderful views of natures beauty but both of which have distinctly different views of man’s nature. The American side is a desolate, rotting and poor oasis of the worst aspects of our country. The streets are falling apart, the neighborhoods are best described as slums and aside from a few hundred feet of development which includes a beautiful new casino, a Hard Rock theme restaurant and some attractions, the place is littered with slum bars, low-rent strip clubs and people that, being non-politically correct here, are scary. VERY scary.

If you drive down the Niagara Falls section of route 104 at one in the morning you will seriously pray for your life for five minutes.

There is of course the other side, the Canadian side.

While standing on the American side of the Falls you look out at another oasis built up by our good neighbor to the north. It is a flurry of new construction where luxury hotels are being amassed to take advantage of the view, where colored lights fill the skyline at night and where people amass from all over the world to spend their hard earned money and boost the local economy.

This is a vision of a budding Canadian Las Vegas where an enormous new casino/shopping center/theater/all-around-wonderful-place, sit at the heart of a vibrant little city.

Go slightly west and yes you will find a seedy section of town devoted to strip clubs, liquor stores and everything you would ever need for more legal “adult” entertainment but travel East and you drive along a beautiful view that takes you through wine vineyards, mansions, attractions such as a Butterfly Conservatory, Old Fort George and then a town known as Niagara on the Lake that is a gateway both to an older North American colonial time with an old European vibe.

Life wasn’t always like this near the falls. There was a time when the Canadian side was little more than wax museums, restaurants and a few cheap motels offering up “jacuzzi suites with heart shaped hot tubs.” Those motels are still there, so are the wax museums, but they have moved from hokey to Hollywood, as tourists view them as delightful little gitchy hotspots that make the entire experience something unique and memorable.

The Canadian side grew up. There was a time when Canadians used to “shuffle off” to Buffalo on a regular basis looking to bask in the glow of the once wealthy city. Since the loss of the steel industry and many years of corruption and horrible leadership by elected officials (see where I am going with this and why its important to vote?) Buffalo as a whole is a declining wasteland with the American side of Niagara as a northernly wasteland extension.

Niagara is a great representation of the decline of much of America. You are starting to hear the presidential candidates use these little examples in their speeches. Will it lead to anything, I am not sure, but it needs to. We are one of the wealthiest nations on the planet and yet our infrastructure is crumbling. Our bridges and roads are being torn apart, our once immaculate and beautiful cities have been left to perish, our energy infrastructure now almost archaic is soon to collapse.

Niagara falls is a perfect representation of all our woes. The massive distribution lines run electricity from the hydroelectric plants out of the city into Buffalo and out across the East coast. As you drive through the Interstate into Buffalo you see endless fields of power-lines feeding our nation and you also see decay, rusted rail cars, falling bridges, immense poverty, you see how fragile and close to death our energy system is.

Much of Upstate, NY is like this. I was born in Buffalo and now live in Rochester a city once known as being wealthy but all too reliant on Kodak & Xerox both of whom are rushing out of our towns as fast as the water falls in Niagara. To the West Syracuse is facing similar decline as are smaller places like Rome & Batavia, NY. A professor I had made a wonderful documentary July 64. In it are images of a nicer time in our cities history, one torn asunder with race riots and eventually poverty.

It is an embarrassment to our nation that the first thing world visitors see as they come to America via the falls is squaller. Just a few weeks ago I had to tell a visiting professor from China what he would see when going to the falls. He did not entirely believe me until he went, came back and ruminated over what a sad sight it was.

The area and much of our modern problems are a testament to mismanagement, corruption, urban sprawl, the mis-education and the apathy of our people. It is a shame to see our cities, our bridges, our nation crumbling. At the start of this country it took a great debate before our nation began making national improvements. It is a pox on our nation that such a beautiful national resource site has been so poorly managed and uncapitalized.

I hope we can take a page from the Canadians and use that prime real estate for the betterment of all of Niagara, for NY State and the Nation as a whole. It really is an embarrassment as is.