NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. — The sightseers and wayfarers came on a February morning to see Niagara Falls. It was, maybe, the worst time of year — the end of winter, frigid and icy, with heaps of dirty snow dotting the city and cold winds chilling the soul. Still, the people came, converging in small clusters at a [...]

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Clouds of white, fruit-flavored smoke hang in the air of a cool spring night, further obscuring the faces of revelers sharing a hookah on John Crandall’s unlit porch. They are friends and strangers, these eclectic souls who have convened here on this Wednesday in May. Crandall, 31, a flight attendant with a [...]