Broadway-Fillmore will be the focus
By JAY REY
News Staff Reporter
8/30/2006
Buffalo is working on a strategy to weed out the gangs and drugs on the lower East Side.
U.S. Attorney Terrance P. Flynn joined Mayor Byron W. Brown on Monday at the Col. Matt Urban Center on Broadway to announce an initiative for a new “Weed and Seed” program, targeting the Broadway-Fillmore neighborhood, one of the city’s most violent.
“This will be an additional tool in our arsenal to reduce crime and violence in our city,” Brown said.
Buffalo has had 51 murders so far this year, compared with 56 during all of last year. Police blame the spike in violence on drug warfare and a resurgence in gang activity.
Weed and Seed programs, created by the Justice Department, combine the efforts of the police, prosecutors and community activists to “weed” out violent crime in neighborhoods and “seed” it with social and redevelopment opportunities, Flynn said.
