One thing you've got to hand to the Mexicans, they certainly know how to set up a tourist trap. Instead of spending millions to send John Percy over to Katmandu or wherever it is he goes and attempting to lure imaginary "eco-tourists" to one of the most famously polluted cities in the nation, leaders here would do well to head down to Isla Mujeres, off the northeastern tip of the Yucatan Peninsula, and see how a real tourist operation is run.

The main thoroughfares are laid out like this: Restaurant, souvenir store, nightclub. Sometimes the souvenir store is replaced by a jewelry store, or the nightclub is more like a regular bar. All of these places, block after block of them, open at 10 or 11 in the morning and stay open into the late night and early morning hours. They create a carnival-like atmosphere that seemingly lacks organization, but rakes in the cash like blackjack dealers at the Seneca Niagara Casino on a busy night.

I'm certain that "City Planner" Tom DeSantis would object with some snooty comment -- "We don't want our downtown looking like that!" -- but that is why our downtown has a depressing and somewhat scary appearance that resembles nothing so much as the Stalinist "planned cities" of the postwar era. I certainly didn't see any abandoned storefronts along the Avenida Hidalgo.

Probably the closest thing here to what we saw on Isla Mujeres is the successful operation Frank Parlato runs on the first floor of his One Niagara building, which the city has been trying to shut down ever since Jimmy Glynn picked Dyster to be the mayor. Make no mistake, Frank's making money, and so are the 300-odd people who work there. During the high season, the place is packed with tourists from all over the world who come because it's one of the few places downtown that's even open.

Hot dogs, hamburgers, pizza, pita wraps and other delicacies fly off the grills and out of the ovens as fast as they can be cooked, and Niagara Falls key chains, ashtrays, snow globes, t-shirts and post cards move as quickly as they can be imported from China.

Why city leaders have for decades discouraged this kind of freewheeling, all-American entrepreneurial capitalistic spirit is one of the great mysteries of life here.