Dyster's First 500 Days Marked by Puzzled Indecision, Procrastination: Many Here Wonder Why They Voted for Him in the First Place (Analysis‪)‬

There is a depression in the pavement as you drive north on Portage Road at the intersection of Buffalo Avenue. Often this depression is filled with water, bubbling to the surface from a broken main deep down in the ground. Occasionally, a city crew can be seen there--doing what, nobody knows, since a few days or a week after they leave the site, the asphalt beaks and the water comes bubbling up again. As much as anything else, that broken water main and the periodic, listless and unsuccessful attempts to repair it are emblematic of life in Niagara Falls since Paul Dyster became its mayor, 16 long months ago. To be sure, it was broken when he took office on Jan. 1, 2008, and the great likelihood is that it will be broken when he leaves.