I admit that I was looking for a post that I found [inlink]metalpeter,428[/inlink]. I'm sure those of you who read it may remember it. . It was about how if Elmwood will expand to Grant St and if that is a good thing or a bad thing here is the link to it [inlink]metalpeter,428[/inlink]. I think Paul and either Uncut and or leetee respondend to it. I'm I little bit Tired of the Hotel Debate. The reason that I'm sick of it is it seems to be all about asthetics and looks and not weather or not it is good for elmwood. So I add this thought what if the hotel opened on Grant Street instead? Would anyone stay there? Would that depend on where it was. I remeber growing up when the Black and Gold Signs went up and that was a huge deal that they all matched. In any event this article from the news sounds like it grant might be able to be able to come around and get better.

Former Forever Elmwood chief sets sights on Grant-Ferry
By MICHELLE KEARNS
News Business Reporter
3/6/2006



Harry Scull Jr./Buffalo News
Bob Franke stands on Grant Street where a revitalization effort will be launched to help businesses prosper.

To help solve the puzzle of how to make businesses on Grant Street prosper like they do on Elmwood Avenue and develop a plan for new Grant-Ferry Association, Bob Franke parked his car, studied Guercio's market and watched people dash in and out.
The grocery at 250 Grant with a reputation for obscure variety in herbs, cheeses, pasta, dried beans and produce, manages to draw cooks to the old Italian section of the city even though it now has a bleak, dangerous look with graffitied walls and boarded-up buildings.

Franke, who hopes to start a series of business improvement committees at an upcoming meeting, watched customers climb into their cars and drive away without stopping elsewhere as they do on Elmwood.

"The thing I can't understand is the buildings right across the street from it don't seem to spring to life," said Franke, 50, who quit his job as director of the Elmwood Avenue association in December to work on business-improving community action on Grant Street.

Guercio's faces a record shop and a derelict store with its windows papered in newspaper and a sign promising a new shop opening soon. A hole smashed in the glass revealed a bare room. Franke traces such neighborhood decay to a decline in population after the Italians moved away.

Newcomers from Somalia, Puerto Rico and Vietnam have since moved in, but the numbers are still down. Modern immigrants move out and don't stay as long as others did. "I'd like to see Somalian markets," said Franke. He measured the change by analyzing census data that showed fewer people and fewer homeowners, a sign of socioeconomic decline.

In 1970, the population in the district several blocks west of Elmwood was 23,837 with 4,600 owner-occupied households and 3,000 rentals. In 2000, there were 17,000 people in 2,156 owner-occupied households and 3,925 rentals in the same area. That is a 29 percent population drop and a 53 percent drop in owner-occupied households in 30 years.

"The big goal is to increase the population," Franke said. "You have to start making a more attractive, desireable neighborhood and that starts with the businesses."

To figure out how to make things better for the part of the city that surrounds Franke's own Dorchester Street residence, the former communications manager for Delaware North Companies spent two years with Forever Elmwood and its 600 or so resident and business members.

The Elmwood neighborhood has been thriving lately with million-dollar building projects and increasing residential demand. For the last two months, Franke has been working to apply what he learned to Grant Street. He wants to get businesses and residents to pitch in and develop an identity with a street festival, outdoor concerts and a farmer's market.

Instead of Elmwood's fashion and boutiques, Franke said Grant could become a specialty food district with an international food festival. Already he has offers of help from Guercio's and potential grants and loans from the Community Preservation Corporation (CPC). "This is a project that I've been trying to get somebody to bite for the last two and a half years," said Fred Heinle, CPC assistant vice president.

Louis Guercio, one of the brothers who own the market and restaurant supplier, would like to see Grant Street develop the same kind of walking and shopping traffic that Hertel Avenue has. "I wish they could do that here," he said.

The improvement project will officially begin on March 15 at 7 p.m. when Franke will hold the first organizational meeting of the Grant-Ferry Association at the old library building at 271 Grant. The library's new tenant, the Massachusetts Avenue Project is an agency that helps food entrepreneurs start up and sell their creations, such as quiche and veggie burgers. It is among those interested in collaborating with the new street association.

"I've talked to so many people and now it's time to bring them together," said Franke, who has compiled a contact list of 200 business and property owners. "I just don't want to waste any more time. I'm kind of pushing everybody along now."

As word of Franke's plan gets out, people doing business here say they're willing to consider a new approach.

"Anything that will help the business climate here is a plus," said Jim Lorigo, owner of the Meating Place, sausage maker and meat distributor at 185 Grant. For the last five years that he has been president of the 75-member West Side Business and Taxpayer's Association, he has worked to incorporate charity work, such as food deliveries and winter coat and hat giveaways. Next week, the group, which had about 110 members five years ago, will consider Franke's proposal to affiliate.

"This community is in so much of a need," Lorigo said.

When the owner of Rotundo's dry cleaner at 332 West Ferry St., near the Grant intersection, takes his dog for walks in the neighborhood, he sees houses without footprints in the snow. The population drop and closed shops is a cycle.

"How do you stop it?" said Gary Rotundo. Businesses don't want to open in ailing neighborhoods, and people don't want to move to places that seem decayed and dangerous.

"Elmwood was easy," he said. "Now this one's going to be a real undertaking."

At Russ's Pastry Shoppe at 294 West Ferry, just beyond Grant, the owner has put his three-story building up for sale for $250,000.

When Franke stopped in for coffee and asked the owner's daughter if she could be talked into staying, she shook her head. "Nope. No way," said Rosalie Patronaggio. The bakery's counter stools and window tables were empty. It was Monday, the shop's first day open after closing for the slow months of January and February.

In the third floor kitchen, her father Russell worked spreading carrot cake dough as fig cookies cooled in pans. There was a time during his decades in business when he would sell out of his eclairs and pastry-wrapped baked apples each day.

"Every morning I used to come to work and my shelves were empty," said Patronaggio. "Now I come to work and my shelves are full."

In April he plans to open an outlet store at 1612 Niagara Falls Blvd. in the Town of Tonawanda to lure clients who tell him they won't drive to Grant Street.

Yet Franke is optimistic that dramatic change can come to the street. He wants to start small. To make the point, he stopped at one of the trash bins posted on a pole. The black paint on the metal holder had rust spots. To him, that made it look like nobody cared about the street.

"That's a few bucks and a little bit of paint. That's something we can do right now," said Franke, who expected to talk to business owners about the trash, as he had on Elmwood. "If there's no scold on the street, the culture doesn't change."

Further down the street he tried a gentle "scold" when he stopped by the Rainbow clothing shop at 110 Grant St. Big flakes of red paint hung in peels from the sign. A worker opened the door to explain that someone painted it a couple of years ago and didn't do a good job.

"Maybe you've got to do something again," Franke said before she ended the conversation by closing the door.


e-mail: mkearns@buffnews.com