Dear editor:

New politicians always make promises that voters want to hear. That’s how they get elected, by running down the incumbents.

The problem is they don’t understand all the challenges until they get into the job where they run into the same roadblocks as the last guys. Here in Niagara-on-the-Lake people were out to get the incumbent mayor (whose husband was gravely ill during the last election and so wasn’t as available to fight back).

The new group were also able to split the vote by encouraging a late entry into the race. The new group was going to improve everything over what was done before, or so they said.

So, what happened to all those promises? As usual, the new mayor ran into all the same challenges as the last one and now everyone is up in arms because he didn’t deliver on what he said. It’s all so predictable.

NOTL activists have been fighting development and trying to preserve the town’s history at least since the Shaw Festival began. By the mid 1970s, it was already referred to as “Niagara on the Take” or “Niagara on the Fake.”

There has been endless discussion about preservation over the years but not much has been designated by the town. The main strip has slowly transformed itself into a tourist draw for “cone-lickers.”

Most tourists rave about how beautiful and well-preserved the town is but most visitors come from typical suburban situations so the word “preserved” is open to interpretation. Without a steady stream of activists, NOTL would have gone the way of most small Ontario towns and become ugly and ripped apart by developers and regional traffic solutions.

The major tourist draw is the fact that this town has been “preserved” for so long. It’s different from all the other Ontario small towns that have been partially wrecked by development.

It hasn’t, however, managed to avoid amalgamation, brought in by the Conservative government of Mike Harris.

So what was the real NOTL is now referred to as Old Town and is governed by a council elected by the whole town, which includes a lot of people who think quite differently than Old Town residents.

The Old Town has always been way more expensive than the rest of the area because it has always attracted people who care about history and aesthetics.

It’s the Old Town and the well-groomed Niagara Parks bicycle paths and picnic areas that draw the tourists and this is why the sidewalks and bicycle paths are groaning with them all summer.

Meanwhile the residents who have been overlooked by all the small businesses that have sprung up to service the “cone-lickers” are more and more besieged by the tourist crowd, and more and more taken for granted.

The residents of the original NOTL invest substantial amounts in their properties, which is why the properties are more expensive.

They get labelled as NIMBYs by some short-sighted people. They often have to drive outside their community to shop because the main street is focused on tourists. There is no local main street for residents.

Many NOTL residents would gladly pay higher taxes to avoid rampant development but amalgamation changed all that. The result is the gradual degradation of the “golden tourist egg.”

And please don’t use the argument that people protested other developments that they now gladly accept. That’s ridiculous. They are different people.

New people who accept what is already here — because it’s here when they arrive. Most of the past protesters are dead now and they were not at all happy that they lost. It’s a constant battle.

The solution is to spread the inevitable development and new attractions, if you must have them, out into other areas of the amalgamated NOTL.

Don’t be a NIMBY if you live in another area. Help out. It’s easy for people to blame NIMBYism on Old Town residents.

Do your part if you don’t like it. Draw tourism to other areas, like Virgil and the wineries. Allow the wineries to have hotels. Spread out the tourists, because the Old Town is swamped, maxed out and fed up.

Jackie Bonic
NOTL