A few weeks ago, B-F-A had a post updating the progress with Crescent Village development happening in B-F.
Today the Buffalo News has a Q&A sesssion with Marlies Wesolowski who is executive director of the Matt Urban Center. She talks more about the project and the East Side.
From the Buffalo News…
Q&A: Marlies Wesolowski on East Side housing development
Marlies Wesolowski is executive director of the Matt Urban Center, which is spearheading efforts on the East Side, involving mostly Muslim congregants of Masjid Zakariya on Sobieski Street, to build new homes or upgrade existing ones around the mosque. She discussed the project.
Q: Where and how are you beginning this project?
A: The neighborhood we’re targeting in Phase 1 is a 16-block area that is bound by Broadway to the south, Walden to the north, Loepere to the east and Sobieski to the west. The project is called “Crescent Village” because if you look at where people work, live and play you will see that it forms a crescent shape.
Because the neighborhood needs so much, we decided from a planning perspective that no one thing was going to be the silver bullet. So we have worked hard to put together a comprehensive approach to the neighborhood including securing funding through Congresswoman Louise Slaughter’s office in the amount of $472,000 to do targeted demolition. We’re hopeful we’ll be able to tear down between 30 to 40 homes in that area. Unfortunately, we need to take down about 70.
Q: How will improvements be funded?
A: We have received $62,000 from the Federal Home Loan Bank to assist homeowners in our target area who have minor code or housing violations in correcting these problems. This could be anything from small repairs and painting to yard work costing no more than $5,000. We believe we can help at least 10 to 12 homeowners within our target area.
