(By Donn Esmonde – Buffalo News) Sometimes you have to put your money where your heart is. That is what Eddy Dobosiewicz figured out. Good intentions do not go far in a neighborhood this far gone.

That is how Dobosiewicz—aka Airborne Eddy, aka Maxwell Truth—came to own the old Strusienski Restaurant. It was his for a bargain-basement $2,000 at last fall’s city auction. He thought that it was a small price to pay for a neighbor-hood icon, three floors of boarded-up nostalgia and potential in the shadow of the Central Terminal.

Some neighborhoods are more of a state of mind than a street grid. Few capture the imagination of true believers like the blocks surrounding the Broadway Market. Once a working-class Polish- American enclave, the neighborhood stands as a worst-case scenario, a battered, crime-plagued victim of suburban flight and middle-income abandonment.

[read full story at the Buffalo News]

Forgotten Buffalo has posted some very cool images and a write up about a summer day in 1968 at the old Warsaw Inn on Broadway.

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[click here to go to Forgotten Buffalo to read full story--->]

Last week I received word that the former Strusienski Restaurant at the corner of Paderewski and Sears was purchased at Buffalo’s foreclosure auction.  That news was great…then I heard that the building was purchased by none other than neighborhood friend and activist Eddy Dobosiewicz of Maxwell Truth, Dyngus Day Buffalo and Forgotten Buffalo fame.

I sent Eddy some questions about the purchase and he was gracious enough to send along a response.

BFA: Have you been looking for a building in the neighborhood?

Eddy: I have been looking at all the buildings in the neighborhood. Especially after the destruction of the former Polish Village. Not necessarily to buy but to make sure they are not demolished without justification.

BFA: Why did you decide to purchase the former Strusienski Restaurant…is it a building you have had your eyes on?

Eddy: I decided to purchase the Strusienski structure after becoming aware that it was facing demolition and that no one else was willing to buy it.

BFA: What are your plans for it?

Eddy: Initial plans are to secure the building and begin repairs that are necessary due to decades of neglect.

BFA: Did you ever go the restaurant when it was open? When did it close? Any memories?

Eddy: I did indeed go there as a child and also when I had an apartment on Houghton Street. They had great roast beef sandwiches.

BFA: How important is it for the neighborhood to save buildings like the one you purchased and reuse them?

Eddy: It is extremely important to save the structures that are salvageable. The “Historic Polonia district” is filled with buildings and houses that are unique to our area and maybe even the country. The historical significance of this neighborhood is the key to it’s revitalization. Do not discount that. By sharing our past we will shape our future.

Not only does this area contain a business district that once competed with the downtown corridor in volume, we also have numerous churches within blocks of each other that rival anything found in Europe and one of the most magnificent art deco buildings in the nation. These things along with it’s close proximity to downtown the 190 and 33 plus the existing community already in place with the Broadway Market, Post office, banks, inexpensive housing stock, stores, shops, taverns, etc make the “Historic Polonia district” WNY’s largest shovel ready site for development.

Great stuff!!!!