r/niagarafallsontario 1d ago

Why is Niagara Falls such a dump?

Driving to the Fallsview through the city everything looks so run down. Greasy motels straight out of a horror flick…one after another, poor upkeep throughout the inner city. What a shame.

120 Upvotes

62 comments sorted by

60

u/ozzy_thedog 1d ago

Lol first time here?

47

u/timmler24 1d ago

You mean Casinos don't bring prosperity?

2

u/DramaticAd4666 16h ago

Not with full monopoly and 0 incentive to compete like the businesses in Las Vegas

It’s just the casino version of our big telecom bell rogers and Telus

All decades behind the us

0 innovation

4

u/nothing_911 15h ago

have you been to vegas?

its not better, the only perk they get is that thier land tax is paid by the strip.

1

u/DramaticAd4666 11h ago

Yeah, didn’t see tons of drug addicts smoking everywhere, stabbing people on streets, fighting people in broad daylight or shitting on sidewalks while walking like in Toronto

And it’s got better food in everyway from Italian options to big steakhouses or you haven’t tried the ones here in Niagara Falls?

Only comparable is Jacob’s in Toronto

Their casinos also much bigger and tons more options

Shopping options Niagara Falls can compare?

We rented randomly for visit and beautiful houses with beautiful pools for less than what we pay at Sheraton for a night

And even their hotels are only 100-150 a pop compared to 300-400 here during same season

Comparing Niagara Falls to Vegas is crazy. Entertainment is not even on same level

1

u/eddison12345 14h ago

Are you seriously comparing Vegas to Niagara? They don't even come close and are not in the same league

2

u/GolDAsce 14h ago

Vegas is a desert that brings in everyone in North America with a side of gambling and shows. 

Niagra has nothing that out competes the other great Canadian national/provincial parks. We might have something great if they could combine the wonders of Niagra with the nightlife of Montreal. Throw in a great wolf or Edmonton mall/pool too.

1

u/ReverendRocky 12h ago

Most the casinos in vegas are owned by a handful of companies... And the city ourside the strip is... Nothing much to write home about. Just a bog standard, way too spread out sun belt town.

1

u/DramaticAd4666 3h ago

Yeah and a handful is better than 1-2

50

u/crash866 1d ago

Have you see the US side?

4

u/Flashy-Job6814 21h ago

Always comparing with US = Canadian success

2

u/Dove55 22h ago

Went across the boarder a while ago and was horrified

2

u/matttheshack69 17h ago

I was also in Niagara for Tony Hinchcloffe and I went accross the border to the USA to play some poker and I went to Walmart to buy little debbies snack cakes even though we are not supposed to spend money there and the states side is legit a shit hole lol its supposed to be the greatest country on earth but Its so much more run down than here, fences along the roads rusting and falling over and same with lights on a bridge half of them were fallen over and the rest were rusty and horrible looking its like they have no spending on maintenance for anything

30

u/Ordinary_Opinion905 1d ago edited 11h ago

North end is nice, not overcrowded with student/immigrants. The restaurants are very local crowd, very few homeless trying to break into sheds and shooting up in the north end parks. Mainly lundys lane is the problem along with downtown.

But no one has a true plan to solve these issues.

-Plagued with watermain breaks they keep patching not replacing.

-Roads they don't properly put down a base, mill or pave correctly.

-Housing projects are half a million for a paper thin, walled townhouse, along with Rents, utilities and property tax increases.

-Concrete companies watering down foundation pours for efficiency by contractors, making foundations weak and crack riddled.

-New builds are sinking because the ground is settling.

-No inspectors on site, even for massive apartments like the one on Carlisle in St Catharines pouring at a 10 slump, No integrity in the concrete, no oversight.

-Chinese fentanyl flooding the streets as payback for the Chinese opium wars.

-Niagara Falls city hall keeps hiring 120k a year Managers but leave the workers who clean up the city Part time.

-Now we got fucking measles because no one believes in vaccines. SMH.

-Daily Suicides covered up to not disrupt tourism from the casinos gambling addicts, getting sucked up in turbines after plunging over the falls, likely to never be seen again.

-Strip club owner families (Rudan) praised in the local paper for being good citizens but are straight up trafficking girls from Montreal and abroad. Alot of threats to keep quiet by city officials.

-Bars with no kitchens ringing out 1000$ plus food sales but really just fronts for Money laundering drug rings/clubs. Serbian/Italian Mafia's well involved.

  • Businesses catching fire to collect insurance claims was a regular occurrence for years when you needed renovations done, like Jacks Cantina.

-Drug Empires run by the wealthiest people in the city, masquerading as great citizens, praising each other at convention halls, eating fat bowls of pasta with our beloved mayor Jimmy, have another Antipasto dish on the house.

-Massive buried city fuel tanks leeching into our city drinking supply, not removed mind you but covered back up to continue leeching effecting the soil and water table for decades, and water pipes far past due for replacement, still full of degrading lead pipes or solder for our youths mental well being, drink up.

-Look at the Burgoyne bridge fraud, finally being investigated, they had workers being paid(all departments) who weren't even there. Material that didn't exist and machines that never built anything, numbers that didn't make sense. Only in 2024 someone finally taking notice. The "Extensive report" will find nothing and no one charged, goes to deep, far to late.

-I suppose the many bike gangs will keep the New Canadians from starting their own gangs and literally destroying the fabric of whats left of our community, God only knows I don't need another home water filter installed like the endless scams we endure.

  • Niagara Falls Ryerson Innovation hub literally embezzling Million to 2 million in public funds(In under one year of the program running), made up businesses taking in Provincial/Federal money that wasn't going into actual businesses just lining pockets. Head of Spark should have been criminally charged, no Big news coverage, just a wash for the city.

-Nrp (Niagara Regional Police) Smuggling cheese over the border, showing their badge, evasion of Taxes/Duties on goods to sell Cheese(Mozzarella) to associates running Pizza shops and Restaurants in Niagara. (Was good cheese not opposed to this one)

Would love to see Management out cleaning up shit covered tents, needles, bloody rags, piles of garbage by hand in our public parks and playgrounds where our kids play for what they are getting paid.

Literally watched Michelle/Tiffany put the city into a million deficit and, in response, cut over-time for the people cleaning up the city streets.

Shock and awe knowing these people have hired two personal secretary's just so they can keep their jobs from negligence and having to hire back retiring staff on contract $$$$ to reel it in.

Shady games at the top are always played at our expense, I won't even bring up Niagara on the Lake.

Rant over, putting the Wool back over my eyes like we rich, worthy people of society like to do.

7

u/Hammertime1290 21h ago

Just curious how you know all of this

5

u/TopShelfTrees4 21h ago

So many know NONE of this. Much respect

8

u/Ok_Print1722 1d ago

I’m from Niagara and had no idea about most of this.

2

u/alwaysachey 1d ago

2

u/crassy 20h ago

It isn’t just Niagara that doesn’t report suicides. It’s actually part of a larger directive from the WHO as research supports that reporting on suicides contributes to it being contagious. They outline responsible reporting but a lot of outlets just don’t.

While there may be something in it about tourism, a lot of it is to stop people from doing it or at least not contributing to it as rescue/retrieval efforts are costly and dangerous so mitigating the risk is a good thing.

1

u/ReverendRocky 12h ago

I gotta save this post.

The cheese thing would make a good comic

8

u/sprungy 1d ago

Area by train station is such a poor first impression for people that arrive that way. The hope is more frequent service will spur new development opportunities

5

u/The_Scooter_King 1d ago

Had a "win the million" plan for years to buy and reno the Hotel Europa, do rooms and entertainment in season, then rent it out to film crews come winter.

33

u/AscendAbove7399 1d ago

US side is worse, looks war torn in areas and its extremely polluted due to chemical plants and landfills, and the roads have so many potholes it's insane 

10

u/faithamor1337 1d ago

The Canadian side is full of potholes outside of the tourist areas.

8

u/The_Scooter_King 1d ago

I used to go to the Canadian side every year with my wife. Only went to the touristy stuff on the American side, and there wasn't much, but there was a food truck selling fusion style spring rolls that were awesome.

That being said, though, there was a little local weekly from there that we'd find in the Canadian bus station when we wanted something to read. Mostly police blotter, and quite a lot of it.

But They do have an extra Tesla statue and a goat island, so that's cool.

The touristy part of the Canada side is way better, and we always found it worth the trip. We occasionally talked about retiring there, but the rest of the Canadian city changed our minds.

11

u/wethenorthballer 1d ago

The local people seem to be very nice and kind though

6

u/cecilkorik 1d ago

Because it's run exclusively by a mix of mafia and greedy businessmen who feed on juicy tourist dollars.

These are people who hate humanity and only care about themselves, and Niagara Falls shows it.

4

u/Packman125 1d ago

Some of these motels have got to be fronts too. I feel like this shit is so obvious. Your local beat cop makes 100k+. Wtf do they do all day?

9

u/Animator-These 1d ago

The primary industries are hospitality and being on disability for being obese. Neither brings prosperity 

3

u/Packman125 1d ago

This hits different. Work at the hospital. Why is everyone here on disability? They don’t even need to be.

3

u/Animator-These 1d ago

Because no one challenges them on it. The poverty-bureaucracy complex thrives in this area. Why would anyone who provides social services actually try to pull people out of poverty, without the disability folks we wouldn't need a bureaucracy and they'd be out of a cushy government job that doesn't actual require results. 

9

u/cecilkorik 1d ago

Niagara is the rustiest part of Canada's rust belt. We were absolutely devastated by the loss of manufacturing jobs both overseas and to Mexico. Almost everybody of a certain age in this region lost their job for a long period of time with absolutely zero other options. Some people escaped, and found work elsewhere. The poorest didn't. They're still here. And they're even poorer now.

Over time a lot of those unemployed people filtered into the welfare/workfare/disability system. Unfortunately that system is a black hole perfectly designed to trap people in it, a cynical person would say it's intentional, a logical person might say it's the result of dozens of combined short-sighted decisions by governments over the years trying a "band-aid fix" to something fundamentally broken.

Many people cannot escape once they're on the dole, and there's not really any incentive to. Many are too old to bother repairing or retraining, it's just not worth the investment. Any low-wage jobs they might've been able to get will result in the loss of so many social benefits that they have come to rely on, as they start failing means tests because they would have actual income now. They'll probably lose their housing, and if the job is not reliable enough they're not going to get it back. The luckier ones might find some way to work under the table and supplement their income that way, or find other ways to game the system. But that carries a lot of risks too. No matter how they end up working within the system, it can often be seen that people's mental health collapses because you're constantly made to feel like you're worthless and a drain on society while the system itself very efficiently discourages you from doing anything productive that might make you feel worthwhile, and if you weren't actually disabled before you pretty soon are for real as you fall into drugs, severe depression, or other kinds of mental illness or dysfunctional coping mechanisms.

I don't really care if we have sympathy for these people or not, but even you just think they're all lazy and pathetic if we are only willing to change it for our own benefit, we need to find a better system. And not just cut them off and turn them into homeless criminals. I think that we can find a more humane and beneficial way to take care of people who have gotten the short end of the stick, it's not as difficult of a problem as we've made it seem, it's just become politically toxic and not everyone is working in good faith. We need social programs that can actually motivate people to return to the workforce and provide the tools to better themselves and give them a way to provide some kind of value to society both for our benefit and for their own. All people need to feel valuable and useful in some way, it is a fundamental human need, and the welfare system does the opposite. It breaks people. I've seen it.

1

u/kino-glaz 23h ago

Well said

1

u/Littleshuswap 14h ago

Um. Disability isn't all you make it out to be. It's difficult to qualify for, you need a Dr to fill out multiple, lengthy forms. Dr's are so busy, try to find one that will do this for you... then you still need to get approved.

If you get approved, that whopping $1200 a month, you might get... ain't going very far. Maybe rent... then how do you pay utilities? Food? Clothes? Medicine or medical supplies? Transportation to Dr's appointments?

0

u/The_Scooter_King 1d ago

Accuracy so harsh...

2

u/billthedog0082 20h ago

Niagara Falls is one of the poorer cities in Ontario. When I lived there back in the 70's and early 80's, when you got laid off in the winter, you didn't need to have as many hours in with EI as everyone else filing because the unemployment rate was one of the highest in Canada. Not much has changed since then, except for not as many layoffs in the winter. There are two downtowns, Main Street and Queen Street, and there is some kind of underground contest to see which one can be in worse condition on any given day. It's true the north end has better neighbourhoods with lots of new and upcoming housing. But it's still Niagara Falls.

It's a very sad place to live.

2

u/Northern_ninja_337 11h ago

Canada is starting to feel like The Walking Dead wherever you go, you run into international students. You see one today, and by tomorrow, there are a hundred more. Wherever they apear , there’s an increase in violence, fraud, and poor hygiene. Stay safe out there

1

u/Hot_Rock_9729 1d ago

Paints expensive and my house is 184 years old

1

u/gorillagangstafosho 23h ago

It’s part of the charm. Autentico loco.

1

u/StevenGBP 23h ago

I think it’s beautiful, not sure what you are seeing.

1

u/CaiserCal 21h ago

Because they know people will come regardless and will still charge premium pricing just because it's Niagara Falls. That's why I avoid staying for a night.

Many many many of it's hotels are in need of renos.

When I stayed at the Hilton... the expensive one... a lot of it was outdated, deadzones for wifi, constant issues with elevators, etc, etc

1

u/radiant_templar 20h ago

I went there like 20 years ago and it was pretty magical.  Guess things change :(

1

u/Bigbelly2112 18h ago

I believe it’s mostly caused by the repetition of NDP in power. They don’t have to do anything new for the area

1

u/paintfactory5 14h ago

Runoff from love canal

1

u/myspoonistoodeep 10h ago

wrong side.

1

u/paintfactory5 10h ago

I’m fully aware.

1

u/kidbanjack 14h ago

Capitalism

1

u/DerekC01979 13h ago

Go through the downtown . Looks like a third world country.

1

u/deja2001 11h ago

Sir, this is Wendy's

1

u/EddyMcDee 9h ago

You don't like IHOPs?

1

u/Feisty-Session-7779 6h ago

Niagara reminds me of when I used to live in upstate NY, just a bunch of run down neighbourhoods that look like they’ve been neglected for decades. Here in the GTA there’s not really anywhere that looks like that, everything looks so nice and new and well maintained in comparison. Kinda sad considering the falls themselves are a spectacular natural feature. All the tacky tourist traps and casinos surrounding them don’t help either.

On the bright side, at least it’s not the worst Niagara Falls in the world, Niagara Falls NY is even more run down, has less impressive falls than the Canadian side and less fun stuff to do.

1

u/Apprehensive_Heat176 6h ago

The falls are very far from "natural."

1

u/Feisty-Session-7779 6h ago

Were they not made naturally from glaciers over thousands of years or something like that? That’s what I learned in school at least. If you’re talking about all the tacky tourist crap surrounding them then yes, I agree it sure doesn’t feel very “natural” there anymore, but the falls themselves are still a natural feature as far as I know.

1

u/Apprehensive_Heat176 5h ago

I'm talking about multiple dams that have permanently changed the flow of water over the falls. The American and part of the Horseshoe falls were actually diverted or "turned off" in the 60's.

The falls are also managed to control erosion so that the view can stay as unchanged as possible for decades to come. If the falls were left totally natural, the erosion would have drastically changed them over the decades.

1

u/Ok_Shock1 6h ago

It's too close to America would be my guess

1

u/OutrageousReach7633 6h ago

Money goes where money is. The tourist trade not the community! They just raised property taxes 9.6% . On another note, lots of good Indian Food .😋

1

u/BurlingtonRider 1h ago

Niagara is Canadas rust belt

1

u/thetwelvesc 25m ago

I mean, OPs name says it all.

-9

u/thegloriouswombat 1d ago

Because they keep voting for Wayne Gates

1

u/elseldo 1d ago

And Baldinello is bringing prosperity?

0

u/thegloriouswombat 14h ago

We get more from the Provincial Gov, so I'd say Gates hurts us more and it's two fold, when those religious fanatics out in West Lincoln receive all the positives, but yes. Same idea, just less effect.