The fall of Niagara Falls: Will it ever rise again?

In the Fifties, Niagara Falls was known as the “Honeymoon Capital of the World” as young newlyweds, attracted by the romance of the city, flocked to the banks of the Horseshoe falls. More than 50 years on, the honeymoon is well and truly over. The world’s most famous waterfalls continue to attract millions of visitors every year, but the American city that bears the same name has a problem. At the most recent census, in 2010, the City of Niagara Falls, New York, had a population of 50,193. If that number drops below 50,000, it will lose its status as a city and the millions of dollars in federal funding that come with it. In an effort to keep the population up, the city has come up with a controversial plan: offering to help pay off the student debt of college graduates, giving them $7,000 (£4,300) over two years, if they agree to go and live there. But with only 20 graduates being accepted on to the scheme, it has drawn criticism and ridicule, with opponents poin