This is a follow up to a post BF Alive made last week… The Buffalo News has an article today with more details. This is really a great opportunity to help revitalize the B-F Area…
View Press Release and complete Plan (pdf) for a total rundown of what this development is all about.
(Thanks to Leslie Vishwanath from the Matt Urban Center for the documentation…) ________________
A mosque as hub of a wheel
(Buffalo News – DEIDRE WILLIAMS- News Staff Reporter)
A group of 45 people, mostly Muslim, is about to embark on one of the biggest revitalization projects the East Side has ever seen.
For the last six months, these investors – many of them congregants of the Masjid Zakariya Mosque on Sobieski Street – individually approached the city about buying 59 parcels of vacant, city-owned lots and abandoned homes. The parcels make up a 16-block area around the mosque.
They were taking to heart a message the mosque’s imam has been delivering for the last five years: If people want to be a part of the mosque’s school and community, they should be a part of the neighborhood.
“We encouraged [mosque congregants] to buy houses here and to move into the area,” said Imam M. Ibrahim Memon. “When we first moved here in 1993, [homeowners] were offering their houses and $1,000 or $2,000 cash to take it off their hands. Currently, the market value is $20,000 to $30,000.
