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(Sandra Tan \u2013 Buffalo News) <\/em><\/p>\n Forgotten and forsaken.<\/p>\n That\u2019s how residents feel in census tract 16, the southern end of the Broadway-Fillmore neighborhood.<\/p>\n The rectangular census tract between Broadway and William Street lost 47 percent of its population \u2014 more than 2,000 residents \u2014 over the past decade. That\u2019s the biggest population drop of any census tract in Erie County.<\/p>\n Fewer than 2,300 residents remain.<\/p>\n Sitting in the shadow of soaring and venerable churches \u2014 St. John Kanty and Corpus Christi \u2014 are weary old homes with broken and missing windows, boarded-up doors, faded paint, sagging rooftops and broken-down porches.<\/p>\n In between stand vacant lots and lived-in homes struggling to fight the tide of desolation. The old Central Terminal and railroad tracks line the southern boundary of the tract, bounded by Smith Street to the west and Bailey Avenue to the east.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a wreck now,\u201d said 58-year-old Clark Street resident Ed Kijania, who left the neighborhood in 1987 for Florida and returned in 2000. \u201cIt used to be beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n This area was once home to a large Polish population. Most left decades ago. In more recent years, residents \u2014 both black and white \u2014 have left to flee the crime and overall neglect that has taken hold here. Others passed away.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re not moving,\u201d said Coit Street resident Diane Kilanowski, 57. \u201cThey\u2019re dying.\u201d<\/p>\n Kilanowski\u2019s home was built in 1816 and has been in her family for three generations.<\/p>\n With the city\u2019s help in 2001, Kilanowski got a redevelopment loan to side and reroof her house. But the contractors did such a shoddy job that moisture leaked into the walls and she can\u2019t live on the first floor anymore because of all the mold.<\/p>\n Nobody wants to help, she said, despite the countless calls she\u2019s made for assistance.<\/p>\n That\u2019s the story in a neighborhood where the remaining habitable homes sell for $1,000 or $2,000 a pop. Redevelopment programs here have failed so far, she said.<\/p>\n Since 2000, this part of town has lost 1,094 blacks and 893 whites.<\/p>\n Morton, an M&T Bank clerk from Coit Street, doesn\u2019t blame people for leaving.<\/p>\n Her own home is modest but warm. She owns it free and clear and is glad she has a working alarm system.<\/p>\n But the area isn\u2019t safe, and there\u2019s no sense of community pride. She\u2019s embarrassed to tell co-workers where she lives and doesn\u2019t invite them over.<\/p>\n Just recently, she said, someone came through the neighborhood and scraped the inspection stickers off people\u2019s windshields to resell on the street. Her car was one of the ones left with a cracked windshield.<\/p>\n \u201cIf opportunity allows, and I can get enough money where I can afford to, I\u2019d live somewhere else,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019d move, too.\u201d<\/p>\n