One of the BRO responders felt our Peace Bridge series a bit slanted and suggested others readers go visit www.politicsNY.net for the real side of the story. The point is, as a moderator with fierce opinions himself, my aim is to go to any length to get out the entire story—even if it means bringing the devil himself to the podium.
So when I visited the suggested site, it was my friend Judy Einach’s story the reader was referring to. I called Judy and congratulated her on her new good fortunes at that web entity, and asked if we could reprint the piece. She said she would ask the site owner, and subsequently his response was “let there be an open internet—sure.” Sincere thanks for sharing.
Judy ran for mayor, as many of you know. She’s a delightfully informed and justifiably opinionated person—and we both laughed about how we could be neighbors and friends and yet adversaries on issues like this one. Herewith, her articulate report, and her right to her views (right or wrong—You decide):
The Public Bridge Authority
By Judy Einach
Part 1: Agent of Positive Change?
I spent three hours this week with Ron Rienas, General Manager of the Buffalo & Fort Erie Public Bridge Authority. We talked the entire time. Part of that time he took me on a tour of the bridge facilities, both in the US and in Canada, and on a tour of the neighborhood surrounding the Canadian plaza. I hadn’t been to Canada over the Peace Bridge in well over a year, maybe longer. Things have changed.
I like to enter the conversations I record for this site with an open mind. But I’ve heard an earful from the community about “The Bridge” so I wasn’t without questions. And what’s worse is that I sadly admit I share a jaded view that government entities cannot do much of anything worthwhile anymore.
The Public Bridge Authority (PBA) has been accused of operating outside of government, perceiving itself as not accountable to any government. Given how we’re represented by government, maybe that’s good. From what I heard, the General Manager of the PBA takes the Peace in Peace Bridge seriously. I do not have the sense that Ron Rienas interacts with the community in a predatory manner but rather in a protective manner. He takes his responsibility to serve the public seriously. He wants the PBA to be seen as a good neighbor. He admits that the authority did not always act that way.
Rienas has been General Manager since 2000. Before that, for 12 years he was Director of Planning for the Town of Fort Erie. He’s Canadian. He has Canadian values. He believes we should take care of each other, help each other have better lives. As Michael Moore put it in Sicko, Rienas has a very clear understanding of “us”. He’s civilized. He’s educated. He’s familiar with the world. He doesn’t understand anymore than I do why the US, with all our assets, has the shortest life expectancy and highest infant mortality rates among the G8 countries. I’ll say it again. He’s Canadian.
Change is virtually never without discomfort. Why shouldn’t we be fearful and mistrust that the PBA will actually improve Buffalo’s West Side near the bridge? People will be displaced. Houses will be gone. Won’t property values near the bridge continue to decline? What about the health of people? The West Side has the highest rates of asthma. Rightly or wrongly given all the factors that trigger asthma attacks, we blame the bridge. Just like the old toll booth on the I-190 that caused diesel trucks to slow, backed up bridge traffic contributes to air pollution.
Rienas gets it. “You don’t,” he says, “build a neighborhood by destroying it.”
If what I saw happening in the neighborhood beside the Canadian plaza happens on the US side than change will be good. Fearful that property values would fall, Canadian homeowners had a contract with the PBA in which the PBA agreed to pay the difference if home prices fell. But with all the investment the PBA has made in infrastructure enhancements in the neighborhood, home prices rose and people chose to build new homes in the neighborhood near the bridge.
Resident concerns were addressed in project implementation before work was done on nearby plaza infrastructure. The people came first for a change. Yes, the project was going to occur, but given that, impact on the neighborhood was not something that was easily dismissed. Just the opposite. The fact that the project does impact the neighborhood meant that neighborhood concerns were of the highest priority. The expense for neighborhood improvements didn’t fall on local government. The PBA paid for everything. And when the PBA invested in public space, parkland for example, they not only enhanced the look of the space, they maintain it. They want to do the same on this side of the border.
Anyone who’s taken the drive along the Niagara River on the Canadian side knows how beautifully the area is landscaped. The PBA wants to bring those same landscaping techniques to the US side of the PBA property and extend that landscaping into the surrounding neighborhood. New buildings on the US plaza will be LEAD certified and may even incorporate green roofs, or rooftop gardens that work to clean the air and cut energy costs. Every tree, every blade of grass helps. Green design, wherever implemented, sets a new standard to which other projects elsewhere will have to aspire.
While no design is in place yet, Rienas would like the US entry be as much of a statement as the Canadian entry is. Canada chose a theme honoring Native American heritage. Their construction won a design award for outstanding use of wood. The design of our entry could be anything we like, honoring any tradition we choose. The administration building on the Canadian plaza also embraces a Native American theme featuring art and artifacts and includes an extensive display depicting the history of the Peace Bridge. Busloads of Canadian students visit the permanent exhibit as do adult visitors. We could have a comparable asset on our side.
We always complain that just across the river there’s an economic boom while we languish. Maybe, if we allowed some Canadian influence, in this case on the redesign of the US plaza, on neighborhood enhancements, and on a public authority’s relationship with the community, maybe we’d see a bit of that boom on our side of the river.
The PBA isn’t making all the decisions about how the border crossing will work. The PBA has done all the work to date based on a shared border management plan. Rienas calls the shift away from shared border management “a disappointment.” The PBA built the Canadian plaza with that plan in mind. If it weren’t committed to that plan the customs and toll booths would have built to line up with the bridge instead of where they are now. That would have made design sense. Instead, they’re where they are and a large concrete pad defines the area where the US facilities would have been if Homeland Security hadn’t nixed shared border management.
Today the pad serves as a staging area for trucks to regulate traffic, to keep it moving on the US side. Plans are still up in the air about what to do with this space once the redesign of the PBA property is complete. Some of the concrete pad may return to parkland.
Realistically, does anyone really believe a new president is going to reinstitute shared border management? From my point of view that makes no sense. Shared border management at the Peace Bridge is totally inconsistent with how every other US-Canada border crossing is managed. According to Rienas shared border management makes sense from an environmental, economic, and traffic or operational perspective.
But from a customs perspective it doesn’t. From a customs perspective US and Canadian fingerprinting, search and seizure, and arrest authority are different. Secretary Chertoff’s decision in April is what forced a plaza on the US side. If we have a need to blame someone or something, we need to look to our own federal government and not dump our anger and fear on the PBA. The PBA must do what our federal government tells it to do.
Ron Rienas is a firm believer that the PBA can and will do a great job of developing a plaza on the US side. He knows it won’t be painless but in the end he believes we’ll discover the PBA will be an agent of positive change. In fact, Ron Rienas says, “I guarantee it.” If my eyes don’t deceive me, from what I see happening in Canada, especially in and for the people neighboring the Canadian plaza, residents near the US plaza should be as vocal as they can be to establish just what it is they would like to see the PBA do to enhance the West Side near the plaza. The PBA will listen and residents will be surprised to discover just how far the PBA will go to meet or exceed expectations.
Oh, one more thing. As I listened to Ron Rienas it became clear to me that the Peace Bridge plaza on the US side will be built, a second bridge will be built, and these things will happen regardless of who becomes County Executive or even if no one is County Executive. The PBA is happy when local elected officials offer support but the PBA can and will move ahead on its own.
Tomorrow Part 2: Answering Specific Criticisms
—Stay tuned to BRO—
Support for Buffalo Rising comes from:
Support for Buffalo Rising comes from: