October 14, 2009
I still have a hard time believing that I live in Niagara Falls. This is a place that was never even on my radar screen before. If I thought about Niagara Falls at all, it was in some Hollywood movie kind of way, I guess or because I'd heard a story about someone heading over the Falls in a barrel or something. But it never occurred to me that there was an actual town attached to the Falls. At least until we realized that Burlington was not a good place to stop and stay a while and Bill said, “What about Buffalo?” Never gave much thought to Buffalo, either, to be honest. But here I am. As usual, when people ask how I ended up here, I will have a weird story to tell them. “Well, we were wrapping up a trip across the northern United States to observe the ways in which communities of faith were responding to the economic situation. We planned to stop and live for a while in Burlington, Vermont, but it turned out to be too expensive and homogeneous for our taste. We could not find an apartment and after 3 weeks, decided to move on. Bill suggested we check out Buffalo. We looked online and it seemed like an interesting place, so I began looking for a place to stay until we could find an apartment. Turned out there were more options in Niagara Falls, so we ended up at a Travelodge there. And the first night we were there, Bill looked on Craigslist and found a possibility.
He contacted the guy; we came to look at the apartment the next day; and we all agreed that we would rent it. So I'm in Niagara Falls.” Haven't seen Buffalo yet.
So, Niagara Falls. Even when I learned that it existed, I was unable to form a picture in my mind. I guess I thought it would be a touristy kind of area. That since there was a city/town (there is local disagreement about which it is), it must be full of suburban landscapes, manicured lawns, and spindly little trees. Good thing I didn't bother going very far along that road. It is nothing like I could have imagined a tourist area to be. This is clearly an area with problems. The results of a study were made public the first week we were here—Buffalo is the third poorest city in the country. Up here 12 miles or so north of Buffalo, you can tell. The whole town seems rather shabby. Some places seem worse than that.
We took a walk to the Falls themselves as a part of a church meeting and we walked by boarded up buildings and a dying city (or perhaps town). Even the motels that are within walking distance to Niagara Falls seemed kind of drab. Maybe it was because we are past tourist season. Maybe it was because it was a grey and blustery day and it seemed like it could pour on us at any minute. But I was continually struck by the drabness. I kept wondering what people think when they get here. This is supposed to be a honeymoon destination—at one time at least, the biggest destination in the country, I've heard. What on earth do people think when they get here? When we were at the motel, it was located on a strip with motels, restaurants, stores, etc. Many of these places advertised the fact that they had jacuzzis. Some of them had hearts beside the word. Whether that means it was a heart-shaped jacuzzi, I do not know. But I do know this: a heart-shaped jacuzzi would have done absolutely nothing to make me one iota happier about ending up in such a place for my honeymoon or even overnight. Some of these places looked pretty alarming. “Ok,” I thought to myself, “these are the low-rent motels farther away from the Falls themselves. The ones closer are probably much nicer.” Not so. They were better, I guess, at least from the outside.
But there seems to be an abundance of concrete block buildings that is highly unattractive and dull. It reminds me of the little bit of Medford, Oregon I've seen. Not at all pleasant to look at. Again, I thought about what I would expect in a place like this and it includes landscaping of some kind, some color from flowers—it's not winter yet—and some kind of interesting details. Something beyond blocky concrete buildings. Now, I try to remember that I have seen only a very small area and perhaps there is more elsewhere. I do not know. Surely there must be.
There was an ice park. That was strange. There it sits in one of the tourist parts of the city. It's just there—a big slope of ice with lanes for snowboarders. There is an ice rink and supposedly a place where people can make snow angels. That consisted of a pile of dirty, slushy snow such as you would see on the side of the road in February. And where did the water come from to make all of this ice? There was a big hose connected to the fire hydrant running under the chain-link fence. I have been told that the Canadian side is nicer. Apparently, they keep all the money that is generated at their park in the park. Here the money that comes from the state park goes to Albany to be spread around the state. As for the Falls themselves, I only got to see them for a few minutes from one particular vantage point, so I can't say much about that. I look forward to spending some more time there.
Having said all of that, once you move about a mile or so away from the Falls (we live about 1 ½ miles away), things are far more interesting. This is definitely a working class town. I have not seen anything resembling suburbia or manicured lawns. And I do not necessarily find this to be a bad thing—I should be clear about that. I am no fan of suburbia. Most of the houses in the neighborhood where we live and beyond are not showplaces, but are reasonably well-kept. Some have Buffalo Bills lawn decorations (alas, they are doomed to disappointment this year as the Bills are stinking up the league—a big topic in the media is whether the coach should get fired). Halloween and autumn decorations are in front of several houses that we regularly pass by on our way to someplace else. Some are quite elaborate. Many are made of brick, including the one we live in. Many have peeling paint on the porch columns, but are neat and tidy and may or may not have bushes, shrubs, and flowers outside. The sidewalks are a different matter—I always was careful of the ice in Klamath Falls that built up because people wouldn't shovel their few feet of sidewalk. Here the danger is cracked cement, dips and holes in the sidewalks, and pieces sticking up and ready to trip you. So walking requires a good bit of attention!
Little Italy is a few blocks away and that seems like a main drag in a working class town, which is exactly what it is. We were told that those who deal with tourism issues see that as a separate tourist destination. I am not sure I think that is viable. But it is a good neighborhood destination, I think. Again, though, these are all first impressions based on only what I can see as I move through my life here. So who knows.
It's a strange thing. There are blocks of houses in town that are all abandoned, with boarded and broken windows. Then you turn the corner and you are on a block with rows of well-maintained homes. To be sure, there are places I probably would not want to walk around in whether it was daylight or dark. At one time, coming out of my childhood suburban world, I would have been exceedingly stressed about even being near such a place as this, never mind living here. But I find myself liking it here. I don't get it. I like it much better than Burlington, which I loved when I got there but increasingly disliked as we stayed. It began to seem like a Stepford town. We were right to leave there. As I said, I didn't have a clue what to expect when I rode into town. It never would have been this. But I find myself fascinated by what is going on here. I feel that I am where I need to be for right now. I like it. Go figure.
It probably helps that I like this apartment. And I can sit outside on the porch or inside on my couch and watch my tree turn yellow. It's a good view, since we're at leaf-level up here. The squirrels sometimes pop up on the porch railing to say hi and the birds like to show up and see what's going on.
And we've already met some wonderful people. There's a Unitarian Universalist church that is a ½ hour walk from our apartment. The people are great and it's a good fit for me because they are inclusive and honor many religious/spiritual paths. There are banners on the wall with symbols from most of the major world religions, including the easterm ones. Too often people talk about world religions and they mean the 3 monotheistic ones. But there's more to world religions than Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. So those each have a banner, as do Hinduism, Confucianism, Buddhism, and there is one symbol that I am not familiar with, but I made a guess that it could be Sikh, since there is a Sikh temple in Little Italy. Anyway, they make no bones about being a liberal church and I like that, too. We went to a cluster meeting last week, a book discussion last night, and are going to another gathering in a couple of days. The people themselves have been very friendly and welcoming. I like them, too.
So there you have it. I find myself incredibly interested to see how it is all going to unfold. I can't even imagine it. But it is good to wake up each day and feel a sense of curiosity about what is going on and to be able to walk through my days with a sense of fascination about all the things I see around me. I feel alive. I feel interested. I feel at peace.
