Talk:Niagara Falls, Ontario

Economy

While it is true that tourism has always had an impact on the economy of Niagara Falls, I think the article misrepresents this -- it is in fact only recently (last 10-20 years) that tourism has become the primary driver of the economy.

Prior to this, Niagara Falls was home to a number of large industries, going back to the early 20th century. The generating stations built there were among the first to bring electricity to Ontario. Chemical manufacturing and electrochemical processes (e.g. electroplating) were some of the first large scale industries that took advantage of this electricty. Companies like Oneida (cutlery), American Cyanamid, Norton Advanced Ceramics, Ford Glass works, Ohio Brass, Sailt Steel, and many others located there for obvious reasons.

These industries were the main drivers of the local economy until the late 1980s, early 1990s when they began closing down and moving elsewhere. This is what drove the shift in focus to tourism and hospitality.

In fact, the Wikipedia article on Niagara Falls, that is, the waterfalls themselves, has a much more accurate and informative section about the local economy.

The remark about the lower income level in Niagara Falls needs a source. Unlike many other articles about cities, I don't see the census data under the demographics section to support this statement.

I didn't want to just change this as I've never contributed before and I'm sure it would be reverted as POV. --65.92.95.197 22:33, 10 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Made some little changes to reflect this

Please discuss changes before defacing.

It would be nice if people could discuss their ideas on changing this page, prior to defacing it or placing advertising.

If you don't agree that the Casino offers a great deal to the economy of Niagara Falls (or even the province), then discuss it here.

Unbolded Niagara Livery Service - doesn't make sense for this to be in bold.

Oakes Park

That info is nice but really sohuld be in its own Wiki page. I don't see why one park in the city warrants a whole section of the Niagara Falls, Ontario article while the major attractions (even the falls itself) has nothing more than a link. We should move that to it's own article and make a section in here called "City Parks" or something along those lines. --Avwhite 17:49, 2 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

It was in its own article, but was merged back in here. See Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Oakes Park. --Qviri (talk) 17:54, 2 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I suggest we merge it with the Sir Harry Oakes article and just make a list here that says "Parks in Niagara falls" and link to that. It's really not important enough to get three paragraphs of nicely referenced data in this article. --Avwhite 18:09, 2 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for cleaning that up after I moved it Qviri. It fits much better now.

Canadian Dollar

In the section titled "Economy" it says "The casino business has been successful in attracting American tourists with the currently lower Canadian dollar." Does this make sense any more?

Well the CDN dollar IS still lower, just not as low. If it becomes an issue we can just rewrite that so that it reads something like "Upon launching the casino business was successful in attracting American tourists due to the then lower Canadian dollar." Or something like that. We're not there yet though Avwhite 19:18, 18 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

An anonymous user changed it to

The casino business has been less successful in attracting American tourists with the currently higher Canadian dollar.

which was confusing. I changed it back to

The casino business has been successful in attracting American tourists with the Canadian dollar lower than parity.

which, while introducing a term that may be not obvious to some, is perhaps the best way to phrase it given the confusing situation here. Does anyone know if the casino actually lost substantial amount of business because of the rising dollar? --Qviri (talk) 19:18, 29 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

the location map

That map we have where the Falls is hightlighted in red is a bit confusing, I think we should get a map showing the location of the river. I'm not very good at inserting maps tho...! Tommyt 15:30, 20 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not entirely sure what you mean. The map shows the location of the municipality of Niagara Falls in the Niagara Region. The actual built-up area is smaller, but I wouldn't want to go around defining it. The Niagara River forms the eastern border of the city.

Were you looking for the precise location of the Falls, perhaps? --user:Qviri 15:56, 20 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

OOOPS, mea culpa, I didn't realize this was Ont, not USA. Altho, a map showing the Niagara River would help clarify that I think, but don't worry about it! Tommyt 16:34, 20 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Tacky and ugly tourist trap

Would it be pertinent to mention that the town is a tacky and ugly tourist trap? Lee M 02:16, 16 Apr 2004 (UTC)

No. That would be POV. RickK 02:44, 16 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Yeah, just shooting off a bit there. One could mention however that the town is tourist-oriented, and apparently insensitive to the jarring visual impact of some of the buildings and watchtowers along the shoreline. Lee M 03:47, 17 Apr 2004 (UTC)

It's actually a beautiful city to live in as a resident, though the traffic is heavy. Residents know not to go into the tourist areas. I actually miss living there. And of course, Niagara Falls, ON is far better than that muckhole known as Niagara Falls, New York. Snickerdo 21:03, 7 May 2005 (UTC)[reply]

What are residents of the City of Niagara called?

Many city (etc.) articles state early on in the intro: "Residents of <whatever location> are [called or known as] [[Link to famous people from or residing in <whatever location>|<whatever residents are called>]]''."

E.g. Residents of Niagara Falls are called Niagara Fallsites, Niagara Fallsonians, Fallsers of Niagara?

It's a tough one to try to figure out and I've never heard it referenced, just the usual around here; you're from Niagara Falls just as I'm from Toronto (humblest apologies for that) not "a Torontonian". But there has to be some term used to refer to the residents of Niagara Falls. —S-Ranger 21:01, 17 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I've seen "Niagran" used (here's one [1]) but it's awkward and I don't see it used often. I've seen "Falls Residents" or "Niagara Residents" in papers more often than not. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Avwhite (talk • contribs) 00:27, 18 March 2007 (UTC).[reply]

All I can suggest is contacting your (um whomever lives in Niagara Falls, nothing personal) city councillor(s), mayor's office, MPP, etc. to find out what the official designation is. If they were my employees/reps I'd contact them myself. —S-Ranger 00:44, 18 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Another thought re "Niagran": how could that term distinguish between residents of Niagara Falls, ON from Niagara Falls, NY? "Ontario Niagrans" and "New York Niagrans"? —S-Ranger 01:01, 22 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Personally I'd be hesitant to use "Niagran" at all. While there's some evidence of it being used online it's certainly not prevalent, nor do I recall it being commonly used in conversations among locals here. A good indicator is the city paper, and the Review never uses "Niagran" as far as I can see. Here's a sampling of references to residences in today's issue:

"A Niagara Falls contractor faces fraud charges..."

"A Niagara police officer was on patrol in Thorold..."

"Niagran" doesn't appear in any Review article via their search engine either, nor can I find it via the City's official website. I think this may simply be one of those cases in which the name of the city doesn't lend itself to a convenient label for the citizens. Avwhite 02:46, 22 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

See Also