(Buffalo News Editorial) The deplorable lack of leadership that has allowed the old Broadway Market to become a shadow of its former self does not only endanger a treasured cultural resource. It endangers the economic health of its East Buffalo neighborhood.
The 120-year-old marketplace, once the lively hub of the Broadway Fillmore neighborhood, is nearly half empty. The fear that it may die is only intensified by word that the market’s board is recruiting its own vulture, in the form of a check-cashing shop to replace a recently decamped bank. Such a move would only hasten the market’s descent from vibrant marketplace to enabler of poverty.
It is tragic that this rare source of healthful food has not been better managed and more innovatively marketed, not only to the immediate neighborhood but to the growing number of foodies across the region.
Various neighborhoods of Buffalo, like many urban environments, are what the experts call “food deserts.” That means that the food available to them is mostly high-calorie, low-nutrition, shelf-stable stuff, displayed among the cigarettes and the malt liquor. That adds up to the epidemic of obesity, diabetes and the risk that the current generation may be the first in American history not to have its life expectancy exceed that of its parents.
The good news is that the Broadway Market is a notable exception to that urban trend. Its independent businesses offer a healthy selection of meat, produce and baked goods, much of it grown or produced in Western New York.
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