(Buffalo News – Deidre Williams, 07/10/06) – Maria Tisby was born and reared on Sherman Street on the East Side and remains a parishioner of St. Stanislaus Catholic Church on Peckham Street, even though she moved to the Town of Tonawanda years ago.
Her childhood memories are of the Broadway-Fillmore area surrounding the church. And she remembers when the community was bustling and full of people.
“My parents came from Poland. My dad’s first job was in St. Stanislaus Cemetery. That’s where he’s buried,” she said.
Tisby was one of about a dozen people who attended a public meeting Saturday in the church’s Adamski Social Center on Peckham Street to hear more about a home-development program in which 40 suburban-style homes are planned for a community where houses currently are valued at $5,000 to $20,000. With four different models to chose from – Warsaw, Krakow, Gorale and Zakopane – the two-, three- and four-bedroom homes with garages will start at $69,000.
“My dream would be to buy a house here,” Tisby said.
Bishop Edward M. Grosz, pastor of St. Stanislaus, and Clarence developer Michael McHugh hope to attract more people such as Tisby to the project. They have partnered with M&T Bank and the City of Buffalo to promote homeownership in that community.
“We’re not talking about the whole East Side,” Grosz said. “We’re just talking about a few blocks to show how, when we work together, things can happen. We’re not going to change overnight. We’re not living in a Pollyanna world, but we have to do something.”
