On friday Is the next Bandits home Game the play the Portland Lumberjax If menory is correct. That is also the same night as the opening Ceramonies for the Olympics. From what I understand there is no such Place as Torino, Italy it is Turin and the Americans have the name wrong. It wouldn't surprise me if I dissapear from this site for about two weeks. I may or may not depening on how well the games are covered and what sports are on.

V-day: I'm guessing I'll be busy watching TV or the Olympics and so I won't care to much about it. It has never really ben one of my holidays. I think it may go back to that whole exchanging them at school with everybody in class was weird. You made them out for everyone. I wonder if stripclubs do better or worse on V-day (not to be confuseed with the real v day wich is victory day, is that even a holiday anymore). The guys with girls wouldn't go but maybe single guys would go.

Sabres Play in about 5 minutes. Go Sabres!!!!!!!!!!!

24 was a good episode this week hopefully House Will be Tonight.

There where a bunch of great Superbowl ads, like all the Beer Comericals, that crazzy Burger king, Full Throtle and a few others. But that being said None of them was truely inovative and none of them took any chances except the streaking one.

Some of the calls in the Superbowl where Very close and The Seahawks could make a good case that there Touchdown should have counted and the Steelers shouldn't if you saw the game or the replays you know what I'm talking about.

Buffalo Auto Show is this weekend. I guess they are having some activities downtown some of them are at the Hyatt I think there is also free Ice Skating some people may be interested in that.

In yesterdays paper i Saw 3 coupons for like 15% off adult shops. One of them used to give ladies a discount on certain days. That sounds illegal to me, don't know if they still do that.

For Valentines day I want two bisexual stripers who force me to do drugs, and other stuff I won't get into. Even though it is't really a holiday I'm into that would still be cool.

Now I'm eating diner and listing to the sabres, still go Sabres!!!!!!!!!

I had a few politcal points I wanted to get to but forget what they are. Ok now I remember I think it is to bad that part of the Rollingstones songs where edited by ABC or was it the NFL for the Superbowl. I think that if you don't agree with the lyrics to a song then don't have the group perform. If you think the real lyrics will offend some one then again don't have them perform. If I where the stones and they said we don't want this part to be heard I'd tell them to go fuck them selves we arn't performing. Suposidly the stones where told before hand about it but they are still upset. Who knows what really happendend. Hopefully my next post will be better.

The L word was good this weekend. Some great Nudity. Not sure who my favorite lady is. I think Dana is the hotest or maybe carmen. But Jenny is the most interesting. She hasn't really been that interesting yet this season. But last season she was verry interesting.

Hopefully I read something in the paper or someone else post that gets me fired up and maybe even gets me to start a little trouble. In case I don't have anything to say and don't post Hope everyone has a great Valentines day.

Not sure what my favorite Commerical was during the Superbowl. I like the one with the Bear then those Full thortle ads where cool also. But That wasn't really why I posted. I have been a Steelers Fan for A Long Time. I remember they have allways been great I think I statred watching them when Chuck Knoll was still coach not sure I know Bradsshaw wasn't still playing. I remember people like Bubby Brister and can't rembember who used to be the running backs. I thought slash was the man Wide reciever then play QB. I am glad to to my steelers finaly Made it to the Superbowl and Won it has been a long time. Here are some pictures I got off the net of the Celebration.

Well not sure how to start. But here goes last night I took a nice walk down Elmwood down to coles. Coles was packed got there right around 8. But they said the bar was closed so I went out side maybe for about a minute with all the smokers and looked around and didn't see anyone I knew. If I would have been thinking I would have gone to see if Goodbar was showing the Sabres game and that would have fixed things but I decided to bail. So that makes it offical I'm unrealiable to show up for things, so if I say i'm going to be there don't count on. Some people here allready know that. This remindend me of one of the reasons why I never call anybody. Don't get me wrong at work I do a lot of work and if I don't understand something I ask. But in friendship I feal I have been a burden (maybe that is the wrong term) a few times and misunderstood some stuff. That got me to thinking about How even in highschoool I was an outsider. Yes I was in a couple differant groups of people that is true. But I was always in the outer circle of the groups I was in as opposed to the inner circle. I'm not complaining just making an observation. I thought some more but to hard to explain and to much to really get into. But on my way home went to just pizza and got a couple slices of pizza and watched the end of the sabres game. That 3 chese steak is really good. The sabres won in the shootout. So I still had a good time but there where a couple things I wanted to do that I didn't get to do. This moring I read an interesting article about Stripers and Street sex in Niagara Falls. I think I have to get up there more often. I may comement on the social aspects of it later but I need a bagel and I need to look at the ads in the sunday paper and then start watching the pregame today. I'm sure in the coming week I will have more thoughts on what I said above.





FOCUS: NIAGARA FALLS, ONT.
THE DARK SIDE OF THE FALLS

---

Murders of women in Ontario shine some light on a world of illicit sex and street drugs

By MAKI BECKER
News Staff Reporter
2/5/2006





Derek Gee/Buffalo News
PAtrons leave Seductions Gentlemen's Club on Lundy's Lane in Niagara Falls, Ont. While Seductions and other men's clubs operate legally, many of them are located in an area of the city that draws men and women involved in drugs and the sex trade.


NIAGARA FALLS, Ont. - Around the corner from a landing pad for helicopter rides and the construction site of an indoor water park, a person walking through a desolate, wooded area off Whirlpool Road made a grisly discovery Jan. 24.
Wrapped in a sheet, amid garbage and large animal bones, were the remains of 22-year-old Cassey Joyce Cichocki, who had disappeared more than a month earlier.

She was last seen near an empty storefront in downtown Niagara Falls.

She was the fifth woman who had led what Canadian authorities politely call a "high risk lifestyle" to be found slain in or around the Niagara Falls region over the last 11 years.

Police soon arrested a man they believe responsible for Cichocki's death, but the murders have exposed the underbelly of this falls-side city, better known in the United States for its breathtaking vistas, the Skylon Tower and its revolving restaurant, two bustling casinos and the neon-lit tourist spots.

In the midst of theme park-like Clifton Hill and just a short drive west through Ferry Street and Lundy's Lane, or north of the city's sparkling tourist spots is a Niagara Falls teeming with illicit sex, drugs, massage parlors and strip clubs. "Of course there is an underworld in Niagara Falls," said Michelle, who identified herself as a 43-year-old street sex trade worker.

Michelle said she usually works in Toronto and Hamilton, Ont., but noted she once made $900 in two hours turning tricks near the casino in Niagara Falls. "I picked up four rich men, went to their hotel rooms," she said.

It's another side of this city of fewer than 80,000 that draws nearly 14 million visitors a year - a side that isn't spotlighted by the tourism bureau, which beckons "Discover Niagara Falls. There's more to us than meets the eye."





One who left the street

Deb Nanson knows this other Niagara Falls all too well.

Until two years ago, she was a street prostitute who sold her body for money to buy crack cocaine in Niagara Falls, and then later in Hamilton. Nanson went clean and stopped selling sex after being busted in Hamilton in a crack house. She now runs Come Walk a Mile Addiction Services in Hamilton, Ont., an outreach group that works with drug addicts and sex workers.

Nanson, 45, the granddaughter of a Falls daredevil who survived a plunge over the falls, grew up in this city. She was raised down the street from Dawn Stewart, the first victim in the five homicides now being revisited by authorities. Stewart's skeletal remains, along with those of her 6-month-old fetus, were found on a dirt road near a farm in Pelham in 1996. "We got high together," Nanson recalled of her old friend. "She was a sex trade worker, but she was a good mom."

She realizes she could easily have ended up dead herself, whether by a killer or by the drugs. On Friday, Nanson stood at Ferry Street and Sylvia Place by the Lundy's Lane Historical Museum, recalling how that had been her spot for picking up tricks. "This is the corner," she said, pointing out the back parking lot and the alleyway just around the way where she would go with her customers. "My stomach's in knots," she said, admitting that even after being clean for nearly 19 months, she still considers herself an addict.





Prostitution laws fuzzy

Canada's laws involving prostitution are not exactly clear-cut, and Canadian strip clubs are legally allowed to have all-nude dances as well as lap-dances, leaving a lot of gray area that is readily exploited by frisky customers and cash-driven dancers.

"The basic idea is prostitution itself is not illegal," explained Brenda Cossman, a law professor at the University of Toronto. "But solicitation of prostitution is."

Canada's criminal codes specifically ban street prostitution and brothels, called common bawdy houses. It's also illegal in Canada to live off the proceeds of a prostitute - a law designed to prevent pimping, but a law that could be applied to the children of prostitutes and a partner of a prostitute. "It's a bizarre situation," Cossman said.

The law allows a customer to call for an escort and have her, or him, meet for sex at the john's home or a hotel room that the john has rented, said Valerie Scott, executive director of Toronto-based Sex Professionals of Canada. But it's illegal for a john to meet the escort at her residence or even a hotel room the escort has rented, because that place could then be considered a common bawdy house.

Scott, whose group advocates decriminalizing prostitution, believes the law puts prostitutes in danger. "If it's your place where you're comfortable with your own surroundings, then you know there aren't three guys hiding in a closet," Scott said.

Operating a bawdy house can be punishable by up to two years in jail, she said. And police have been known to confiscate everything from a home determined to be a bawdy house, she said. "The police can and do show up with moving vans when they arrest someone, and they take absolutely everything."



Fears of serial killer

Although police quickly arrested a suspect in Cichocki's death, they don't know whether they have a modern day Jack the Ripper on their hands - or if they're faced with a disturbing increase in violent behavior toward women involved in stripping, prostitution and drugs.

Sex workers throughout Ontario are worried about a possible serial killer targeting them, Michelle said. Street sex-trade workers like herself face many kinds of dangerous predators, she said. "I remember hearing about a guy in Hamilton who was sleeping with women and giving them AIDS," she said. "I knew I was safe because I always use a condom. But it's scary what some guy will do to the girls. You never know what is going to happen to you."

Four out of the five Niagara Falls victims "worked the streets," said Detective Sgt. Cliff Sexton of the Niagara Regional Police, who is heading the task force.

The other one, Nadine Gurczenski, 26, who was found dead in 1999 in a ditch in Vineland, was an exotic dancer.

But with the street women, he said, "the driving force was drugs." Sexton, a longtime investigator in Niagara Falls, said drugs and prostitution have always plagued the city. "I don't see it as a growing problem," he said. "But I do think there's a problem."

Nanson recounted how she had slid into her dark life. First, she got hooked on cocaine and then crack, became increasingly desperate for money.

"Stealing didn't cover my addiction," she said. "First, I stole. Then I robbed. Then the sex trade. I thought it was glamorous. I would think, "He's picked me.' "

While drugs are a major problem among street workers, escorts - who probably make up the majority of prostitutes in Canada - aren't as affected, said Scott, of the Sex Professionals of Canada.

"What you're seeing on the street, a lot of times, are crack addicts turning tricks to get high," she said. "And that really is a different issue than prostitution . . . But that being said, we still consider them our sisters. Even though they're doing it for the drug money, they're still doing it."





Dancers provide extras

Niagara Falls' strip clubs are legitimate, but it's an open secret that there are plenty of dancers in some clubs who are willing to provide "extras" if the price is right.

A quick scan of an online chat site about one such club includes postings on recollections of sex acts performed in private back rooms as well as questions and advice about taking a dancer from the club back to a hotel. "You have to pay the club a release fee and then the girl for her time," one poster explained. "By the time you pay both fees you're better off paying for an escort . . ."

The Canadian government has taken steps to try to regulate the adult entertainment industry through special licenses, similar to those issued to taxi cab drivers and street food vendors.

Niagara Regional Police Services currently has licenses issued to 2,238 people in the adult entertainment business; about 40 are operators, the rest are exotic dancers.

Police throughout Ontario have taken some steps to stem violence against women in the sex trade without punishing them for reporting attacks.

Niagara Regional Police and Toronto Police operate "Bad Date" hotlines - toll free phone lines that allow women to anonymously report robberies, assaults and rapes. That information is put into a database and used to identify potential serial predators.

The task force will mine this database for any possible clues to help them solve the homicides, Sexton said.

Sex worker advocates also maintain their own "bad date" Web sites where they list descriptions, even cell phone numbers, of customers who stood them up, refused to pay, got violent or forced them to do things that hadn't been previously agreed to.

Nanson is now trying to start a self-monitoring program through her organization to help keep tabs on sex trade workers. If the sex worker fails to check in, Nanson's volunteers call around, then go to the police. Like other Canadian sex workers and their advocates, Nanson knows how critical it is for there to be some sort of safeguard for women in the sex trade.

She points out Vancouver, where Robert William Pickton is on trial for the murder of 27 prostitutes from that city. For years, police there dismissed the women's disappearances - until their remains were found at Pickton's pig farm. "We don't want another Vancouver," Nanson said.


e-mail: mbecker@buffnews.com

Yeah The super bowl is a huge event. Sometimes I think it is more of an event then a game. There is more pregame then game itself. I will admit that I have seen some verry good pregame stuff before the game in the past. There have been a couple amazing comericals that where only on during the pregame, some good music performances and interesting information. I found the article below on line at the buffalo news website. I thought it could have included more info but still enjoyed it. Hope all you football fans enjoy the event of it and game, I know I will, not sure when the TV will go on and what I will do for dinner but I don't even know what I will eat tonight. Hope you enjoy the article hopefull I will see some of you tonight.

Super Bowl takes over Sunday

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From pizza parlors to church services, the big game has a big impact

By FRANK GREVE and IRIS KUO
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
2/4/2006

WASHINGTON - Football has disrupted regular life ever since hordes of medieval villagers put down their scythes and caldrons to amuse themselves by throwing, lugging or kicking a ball across the countryside and between the stoutly defended gates of a rival village's parish church.
So it's no surprise that during the Super Bowl, a descendant of that rowdy ancient sport, some of usual American life stops. And some reaches new heights. Among the changes, cosmic and mundane, are these:

• Crime - It really does go down. The Dallas Police Department reports an 18 percent drop in calls during Super Bowl hours compared with the same time period on Sundays before and after the game. Both violent and property crimes fall, according to Geoffrey Alpert, a criminologist at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. "Of course," he said, "some of it could be cops just watching the game and not responding."

• Movie attendance - It plummets nearly 40 percent compared with the average Sunday, according to VNU Media, which studies entertainment audiences. Movie studios often release their deadest dogs on Super Bowl weekend.

• Traffic - It's sparse, according to Bob Ryan, the operator of Atlanta South 75 Travel Center, a truck stop in Jacksonville, Ga. He said his gas, diesel and restaurant sales dropped about 20 percent. Business might fall off even more without the stop's big-screen TV to lure truckers who are heading home from weekend deliveries. "Drivers pull over and pack the house in the TV lounge come game time," Ryan said.

• Takeout service - Super Bowl hours are the busiest of the year for Domino's and Pizza Hut, which move about 40 percent of the nation's takeout pizzas. Business for the day is 20 percent higher than most Sundays, and nearly half the pies go out in the three hours before halftime, according to Pizza Hut spokeswoman Christa Osswald. • Snack fare - Until 2002, avocado sales peaked in the run-up to the Latin holiday Cinco de Mayo, followed by the Fourth of July. Today, it's the Super Bowl, according to Jan DeLyser, the vice president for marketing at the California Avocado Commission in Irvine. Florida avocado producers agree. For the California avocados and Latin imports that the California Avocado Commission handles, Super Bowl consumption last year totaled 43.8 million pounds, nearly 6 percent of the year's total sales. No surprise: Pre-Super Bowl chili seasoning-sales doubled their weekly average, according to a 2004 AC Nielsen survey. Salsa was up 30 percent; tortilla chips, 25 percent.

• Shopping - Customers slow to a trickle about an hour before kickoff at grocery chain Safeway's stores. "I guess the men are home, hunkered down waiting," said Craig Muckle, Safeway's East Coast spokesman. A surge in female shoppers occurs during the game, he said, so the net drop is 10 to 15 percent on the day, compared with an average Sunday.

• Church attendance - Lots of churches cancel services or otherwise yield ground to the Super Bowl. Then there's Hunter "Doc" Sherman, pastor of Bellview Baptist Church, five miles north of Springfield, Mo. His parishioners move the church's seats aside, roll out Astroturf, put up a goalpost in front of the altar and watch the game on a 9-by-12-foot drop-down screen. For those who don't like football, there's a chick flick room and a nails and cosmetics parlor.

"We follow Jesus, too," Sherman said in a telephone interview. "But we rejoice in the world that he's put us in and feel that he wants us to enjoy it."

• Commode use - Does toilet use really rise sharply during Super Bowl breaks? Yes, reports Mark Stanley, the operations and maintenance superintendent for the Salt Lake City Department of Public Utilities. Stanley's system burst a 16-inch water main during the 1984 Super Bowl. "It was during halftime," he said. Stanley suspects a Super Bowl role partly because he had seen big water-use surges during commercial breaks for the February 1983 "M*A*S*H Special," the highest-rated TV program of all time.

An interesting fact: The Super Bowl TV audience is not overwhelmingly manly. Forty-five percent of its viewers have been female for the last decade, according to Stacey Lynn Koerner, executive vice president for global research at Initiative Media, an analyst of TV audiences. Women are just as likely as men to watch until game's end, Koerner said, though 53 percent of the women in a recently reported study said they watched mainly for the commercials.

Last night I listened to and watched some of the Sabres, glad they won. The Fans where chanting USA. There are a lot of fans who thought Miller should have made the Olympic Hockey team, I'm one of them. That remindend me that the olympics start a week from tonight. If memory serves they are on NBC, USA, CNBC, MSNBC and is there one more oh yeah then there is the Canadian coverage also. I saw one comerical during wrestling that said that Team USA hockey will be covered on USA and it will be Commerical free. That is truely awesome. I assume they will have ads on between period breaks. But anyone who likes Hockey should check into it. Hopefully I will see you all or some off you on saturday. It would be a cool Bonus if coles is showing the Sabres game. So if I'm a little distracted on sat. sorry, or if your a chick just hit me or something but not on the arm that I have a drink or food or something in.

Man I was just really getting into chat and trying to put up a post and (e:strip) crashed as I was listing to the Sabre game. I was originaly going to put up Marilyn Manson lyrics and talk about religion a little. But I saw this article on the Usa Today web page I was directed there from a link on Net Zero's Home Page.

Dressed in black, armed, teen sought for bar rampage
NEW BEDFORD, Mass. (AP) â€" The attacker wore black, hiding his weapons inside a hooded sweat shirt, as he entered a popular gay nightspot in this historic seaport.
He flashed an apparently fake ID to the bartender, calmly ordered a drink and asked if it was a gay bar. Told that it was, the teenager attacked the patrons with a hatchet and handgun, sending three men to the hospital early Thursday, one with critical injuries.


AP
Robida

Authorities searched for Jacob Robida, 18, who was charged in an arrest warrant with assault, attempted murder and civil-rights violations.

According to court papers attached to the warrant, Robida's mother told police he came home around 1 a.m., bleeding from the head, then left again. Officers who searched his bedroom found what they described as "Nazi regalia" and anti-Semitic writings on the wall, the police affidavit said. It said Robida was recognized by a woman in the bar.

"Obviously, we have a man who's dangerous, who's not rational, and he has weapons," said Bristol District Attorney Paul Walsh Jr.

The bartender at Puzzles Lounge told The Associated Press the assailant walked in around midnight and drank a rum on the rocks. He ordered another and walked to the back of the bar, where two men were playing pool.

The attacker shoved one of the men to the ground, then pulled a hatchet from his sweat shirt and began swinging it at the man's head, said the bartender, who asked to be identified only by his first name, Phillip, because of concerns about his own safety while the gunman is at large.

The second pool player intervened, swinging at the assailant with his pool cue, but the attacker fended him off, the bartender said.

Several other patrons tried to stop him, and he was knocked off his feet, sending the hatchet flying, Phillip said.

The attacker then pulled out the handgun and shot one man, according to the bartender. He fired another bullet into the chest of a patron who was leaving the bathroom.

"He was shooting at everyone," Phillip said.

The attacker shoved the bartender before leaving the building and running up the street, he said.

Police arrived moments later, finding the hatchet on the barroom floor and a knife lying on the ground outside, though it was apparently never used in the attack.

Court documents said a woman in the bar recognized Robida as a current or former student at New Bedford High School. School officials declined to confirm whether Robida was enrolled there.

He was also known to New Bedford police because he graduated in 2001 from the city's Junior Police Academy, according to acting Police Chief David Provencher. The "boot camp" program is designed to teach discipline to 12- to 14-year-olds, many of whom are referred by juvenile courts or social services agencies.

Robida's mother, Stephanie Oliver, declined to comment Thursday through a family friend who answered the door at their home.

The wounded men were identified by police as Robert Perry of Dartmouth, Alex Taylor of Fairhaven and Luis Rosado of New Bedford.

Two were taken to Boston hospitals, where one was in critical condition with head wounds, according to police, who did not say which one. A third was taken to a hospital in New Bedford.

The two other victims had gunshot wounds, police said, but their exact conditions were unknown.

Puzzles is popular with the local gay community and is listed on several websites offering resources to gays and lesbians. Police said they rarely respond to reports of trouble there.

"If all the bars in the city were that quiet, we'd be great," police Capt. Richard Spirlet said.

---

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

What I dodn't get is why if you are going to bash gays then why do it that way, it makes no sense. Why would you present a Fake ID to the bar tender and have a few drinks after you ask if it is a gay bar. Why not just walk in pull out the weapons as soon as you see all guys togather or pretend to hit on them and then go to town. Maybe I missunderstood what happened but to me it dosn't make sense . Now people in the bar know what you look like, and people have seen you have a few drinks. The part that is so scary is the hate. Since he had weapons on him it was planned it isn't like he went in there was hit on and freaked out. What makes it even worse is that it is a well known gay bar and is thought of (from my reading of it) as safe and a place you don't need to worry about attacks. It is one thing to not agree with how someone lives there life but, to attack someone because of it is insane and very evil. I think that is a lot scarier then if it happend out in the street because everyone is in there own small little safe community (the bar). It is also scary because in Many Places being gay isn't thought of as being a big deal. This reminds us that it can still be dangerous even in places where it is generaly excepted.

I like a great variity of music. I'm sure not as much as some. But one song I have allways liked was Eleanor Rigby. Yeah Some beatles songs are amazing. But being a kid and liking the song should have been a warning sign. I look back on it as Ironic now. But oh well still a great song lyrics below for anyone who feals like reading it that dosn't know them (I only do when I hear the song).



(Lennon/McCartney)

Ah, look at all the lonely people
Ah, look at all the lonely people

Eleanor Rigby picks up the rice in the church where a wedding has been
Lives in a dream
Waits at the window, wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door
Who is it for?

All the lonely people
Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people
Where do they all belong?

Father McKenzie writing the words of a sermon that no one will hear
No one comes near
Look at him working, darning his socks in the night when there's nobody there
What does he care?

All the lonely people
Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people
Where do they all belong?

Ah, look at all the lonely people
Ah, look at all the lonely people

Eleanor Rigby died in the church and was buried along with her name
Nobody came
Father McKenzie wiping the dirt from his hands as he walks from the grave
No one was saved

All the lonely people (Ah, look at all the lonely people)
Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people (Ah, look at all the lonely people)
Where do they all belong?




THE BEATLES - "Eleanor Rigby" lyrics

One thing I find interesting is how Elmwood Changes. Some businesses close and some open. Buildings come down and new ones go up. Lately it seems that more have been closing then opening but maybe that is just me. The below article is verry good about how Elmwood is changing. I got it from the Buffalo News on line today.









Three-story building to house upscale apartments, retail space

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$1.2 million project set for Elmwood Ave.

By SHARON LINSTEDT
News Business Reporter
1/31/2006



Sharon Cantillon/Buffalo News
Workers put in the foundation Monday for a commercial/residential building at 504 Elmwood Ave.




This artist's rendering of the 500-block of Elmwood Avenue shows how the three-story residential/commercial building will fit among the adjacent structures on the block.

Work has begun on a new $1.2 million commercial/residential project in the 500-block of Buffalo's Elmwood Avenue.
Crews are digging the foundations for a new three-story building at 504 Elmwood Ave., near the intersection of Elmwood and Utica avenues.

When complete this summer, the structure will feature 2,300 square feet of retail space, plus a handicap-accessible studio apartment on the ground floor. The upper floors will house eight, upscale apartments.

The project is the brainchild of three long-time Elmwood Avenue advocates, attorney Michael Ferdman, architect Karl Frizlen, and contractor Paul Johnson, working together at FJF LLC.

Ferdman, who served many years as president of Forever Elmwood, said the idea came out of conversations between he and Frizlen about targeting a derelict building on Elmwood Avenue for transformation.

"The idea was that instead of urging someone else to upgrade their building, we'd take it on ourselves," Ferdman said.

The two then brought Johnson, who has done several Elmwood Strip projects, onto the team. After weighing a few options, they decided on 504 Elmwood Ave., formerly the long-time home of Avenue Pizza, and most recently the short-lived Bidwell Elmwood, an eBay-linked auction business.

"Our original plan was to renovate, but we came to the conclusion that no matter how much money we put into the existing building, we couldn't guarantee it would be a structure with integrity," Ferdman said.

The trio received approvals from planning, preservation and neighborhood agencies to raze the existing building - a wood frame residence with a small brick addition in the front - and start from scratch.

"If you have to tear something down, it's critical to replace it with something much better. In this case the street is getting what we think is a very attractive building that will provide significantly more tenant density that what was there," Ferdman said.

Forever Elmwood Executive Director Justin Azzerella supports that goal.

"A great mixed use project is exactly what we are encouraging on Elmwood Avenue and we think this one will be phenomenal," Azzerella said.

Even as bulldozers were excavating the site, the development team started to get inquiries from prospective retail and residential tenants.

"Our goal for the first floor is to bring in a tenant that would add something new to the community. We would prefer to have something other than a restaurant, hair salon or gift shop," Ferdman said.

The 400 to 500 blocks of Elmwood Avenue are currently experiencing a turnover in retail tenants, including the upcoming closure of Pier One Imports, at 495 Elmwood Ave., which has been one of the street's anchors for two decades.

Artcrafters Gallery, at 472 Elmwood Ave., another veteran retailer, is preparing to close its doors and is having a going-out-of-business sale. And a Subway Sandwich shop sits idle a few doors away.

The block has also welcomed BeYouTiful, a new women's apparel shop at 513 Elmwood Ave. which debuted in last December. The store, owned by Jetaun Jones, offers "contemporary chic" clothing.

The new building features two upper floors of balconied residential units. The second floor will have four one-bedroom, and two two-bedroom apartments, ranging in size from 600 to 850 square feet of space.

The third floor will have four loft-style units with as many as three bedrooms, ranging in size from 800 to 1,100 square feet. All of the dwellings will be accessed from a central stair tower at the rear of the building.

The Community Preservation Corp., a nonprofit, private mortgage firm, is providing some $900,000 in construction and long-term financing.


e-mail: slinstedt@buffnews.com

Well last night and this moring I watched the X games that I taped last night, the mens part one of the finals in snowboard super pipe where great. Then there where the finals in Moto X best trick that was awesome. Tonight it is wrestling and X games and Taping 24. I look forward to watching 24 on tape on tuesday that should be great. Really looking forward to finals of SB Super Pipe tonight and finding out what happenend at the rumble.

I bearly have any food in the house, enough to live. But I don't really want to go shopping and when I set off the alarm be accused of stealing It may be a big hassle.

On another note (e:Jessika) looks so much differant then in her user pic. I could have been standing right next to her and never known it was her(I say do the movie if you feal comfortable, I wish someone would approch me about doing one, don't know as I really would be it would but it would be a great compliement).

I am glad to be finaly over and done with the religion debate; I hope.

Looking forward to the Superbowl. Go Steelers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sometimes the pregame stuff is as good as the game. Hope there are some great commericals.

Maybe some day I will be one of the cool kids. Doubt it I'm always kinda the outsider a little.

Saw a preview for a movie that looks like it might be verry Funny callde "Date Movie". On the add it even says writen by 2 of the 6 writers from scary movie so the ad makes fun of itself.

I had some other stuff but I forgot it and this post is getting kinda boaring now.

Well Yesterday I watched sports on TV. I watched the winter X-games and got to see two four peats in snow board slopstyle mens and womens. Then I went to this Benefit for the famil of Linda Markle it was very nice and I saw a few people I knew. When I came home I watched the X Games that I taped. Moto X got delayed untill today so it will be on from 2-6 pm. So both Finals will be on today. But last nights Womens super pipe was a lot of fun to watch. Not sure what sports are on today other then more snow mobile racing what ever it is called just went blank.

Well below are a few pics from around Buffalo







one thing I didn't know is that all of the pictures didn't show up not sure why. But On an iteresting note. Yesterday I walked into tops and set of the buzzer thing by the door and did it again as I left. Then I was going to go to Target to buy some stuff walked in beeped so instead of being bothered after I buy stuff for setting it off I walked right out the out door and set it of again, verry stange maybe I have a demon following me or something else weird is going on who knows.