A long-time columnist for the Buffalo News takes issue with the view that demolition is the way to deal with blighted neighborhoods -- citing the revival he's seen on his city's West Side.
"I saw a neighborhood deep into a seemingly irreversible slide into slumville. I saw it dig in its heels and turn around, with hardly any tax-dollar handout," he said in a recent column addressing a reported plan to demolish 5,000 homes in five years to deal with blight in Buffalo.
He reports that the key to neighborhood rehabilitation is a group like the West Side Collaborative -- the "band of some 100 urban pioneers includes students, activists, block-clubbers, long-suffering homeowners and new blood, all united for revival" -- and their leader, Harvey Garrett.
Read his entire column at:
http://www.buffalonews.com/cityregion/story/709907.html
