Anarchy in Action begins in the garden

By Aaron Garland and Brandon Schlager
BengalNews Reporters

Nestled into the corner of the intersection at Normal Avenue and Vermont Street sits a plot of land that formerly existed as an empty lot sparsely filled with grass and not much else.

Avorm Siegel prepares his plot for strawberries

Today it’s flush with budding optimism in the form of sweet strawberries, plump tomatoes and dozens of other fruits and vegetables planted to bloom for a West Side community in need thanks to the efforts of one new organization on the block.

Neighborhood residents gathered at the junction on May 4 with members of Anarchy in Action to christen the Normal Avenue Community Garden, the newest public garden on the West Side.

Drawn to celebrate a rare positive development in their community, it was a fun-filled afternoon of dirt-digging and seed-planting for community members, who learned from gardening experts the tips and tricks to growing and maintaining a successful garden as they planted their own.

For Anarchy in Action, an upstart local anarchist group focused on changing the way Buffalo thinks through education and voluntary action, it was a landmark day.

The opening of the garden marked the official beginning of the community garden initiative. It was also the first “major” outreach program carried out by the growing organization, which was established in November.

Dustin Snyder, a West Side resident and one of the founders of Anarchy in Action, said it was a simple choice to settle on a site for the group’s first project. The site was donated by Carrie Nadar, a resident on the adjacent Plymouth Avenue.

“The people who live on the West Side you’ll find have a really incredible sense of community and projects like this have a way of taking off,” Snyder said. “… That’s exactly what we wanted to do. We saw that this was a part of anarchism that was not present in the Buffalo community and we wanted to fill that niche.”

Dustin Snyder, on Anarchy in Action:






The foundation of the group is built upon the ideals of interdependence and relying on a sense of community for growth. They had been active with smaller events like neighborhood “street cleanups” until now.

But a community garden, Snyder said, best demonstrates the mission statement Anarchy in Action is hoping to get across: to put responsibility and accountability back into the hands of local communities.

“There are two things that man knows naturally,” said John Roszman, a volunteer with Anarchy in Action whose experience in gardening aids in leading the project, “That’s war and gardening.

“One of the things that I believe is it (a community garden) is probably one of the ways that we can have peace on this earth. It also shows somebody that he has a piece of land. A king has land that he can garden. It turns people from pawns into kings.” 

John Roszman, left, demonstrates seeding techniques

As part of their community garden initiative, Anarchy in Action will organize weekly gardening times to assist residents with their personal plots throughout the summer, mixing in monthly workshops for growers to hear from area gardening professionals. 

Each of the garden’s 14 plots will function as a resident’s personal garden, hosting seasonal crops that will become a self-sustaining food source for the community. Residents can grow fresh fruits and vegetables for themselves or donate them to local charities.

Michael Pacheco, who can see the gardens from the balcony of his Normal Avenue residence, was in attendance May 4 to prep his plot.

He said the values the garden adds to the community are endless, especially for his nieces. They will work together this summer to maintain their sunflowers and peas and decorate the garden.

“It will teach them responsibility and also to look out for everyone else, too,” Pacheco said. “Now when they come home from school they can always keep an eye on the lot when they’re playing and riding their bikes up and down." 
         "This is such a benefit to the community that it's a shame that there's not more," he added. "You go to any store, I would say, within 10 blocks of where we're at, you're not going to find fresh produce anywhere. Everything is a corner store, so something like this gets people thinking differently.”

New beginnings towards an Open Buffalo

By Malniquia Evans and Janiel Thomas
BengalNews Reporters -->

PUSH Buffalo and three other non-profit organizations in Buffalo have teamed up to create Open Buffalo, a collaborative program working towards a more democratic innovative and united Bufflao.

PUSH Buffalo, Partnership for the Public Good, Coalition for economic Justice, and VOICE Buffalo were selected to receive a grant from the Open Society Foundations.  Open Society Foundations awarded a $100,000 grant to the four organizations to design a plan to increase low-income and minority communities’ influence in Buffalo.

According to Megan Connelly, director of programs and development at Partnership for the Public Good, Buffalo was one of 16 cities that were invited to apply for the foundation’s new Open Places Initiative program. The program aims to bring about systematic change relating to equity, justice, and democratic practice. The four non-profit organizations in Buffalo were chosen to form collaborations and come up with a proposal. 

Megan Connelly, on Open Buffalo:

Buffalo became one of the eight cities to win the planning grant.

 “The program has been in a few other cities, but Buffalo’s version brings together PUSH Buffalo, Partnership for the Public Good, Coalition for Economic Justice and VOICE Buffalo,” Lonnie Barlow, communications coordinator at PUSH Buffalo said. “These organizations will work together to help bring about change in different areas throughout the city of Buffalo.”

PUSH Buffalo is geared towards improving housing in Buffalo, while Coalition for Economic Justice and VOICE Buffalo works to create economic justice in the city. Partnership for the Public Good caters to Buffalo by creating a more cultural and vibrant community.

Each of the participating organizations were sent email invitations to apply for the grant, which allows the organizations to focus their efforts on different areas they would like to work on.

 “What I think that says is that there is some very interesting non-profit activity going on here in Buffalo that is maybe not so well-known here,” Lou Jean Fleron, co-director of Partnership for the Public Good said. “It’s getting attention outside our own area because we didn’t seek out the grant.”

The next step in the planning process will take place from April to September 2013 and will propose a plan for building the region’s capacity and bring about long-term change. Open Buffalo will work with other organizations that cater to the West Side like the Belle Center, Jericho Road Ministries, Boys and Girls Club and the Peace Keepers’ Coalition. The program will also have a community rollout in June to include West Side residents in the planning process.

“Access to communications is really important so we want to make sure that people know about what we’re doing so we can present it in a way they feel is going to affect them,” Connelly said.  “We have an incredibly vibrant refugee and immigrant community on the West Side so we want to make sure that there’s a cultural competency to everything we do.”

Connelly says she is confident that the organizations will win the implementation grant, and that Open Buffalo will continue even if they do not win.

“Open Buffalo started the day that we received the planning grant,” Connelly said  “We want this process to continue regardless of whether we get the implementation grant or not.”

Tour highlights W.S. environmental concerns

By Jasmine Peterson and Maria Yankova
BengalNews Reporters

On a sunny, windy day in late April, groups of people equipped with fishing poles gather down by the Niagara River at Squaw Island.
 The river’s current is strong and rapid, and the water is seafoam green.
          But the river is contaminated by sewage, where some fish for food, making it the first stop on the Environmental Justice Walking Tour.
          Hosted by students at the University at Buffalo Law School, the tour took visitors through various troubled locations throughout the West Side. It’s based on a 36-page report produced by the students about environmental hazards in the neighborhood. The report focuses on Squaw Island, Buffalo Sewer Authority Treatment Plant and Rich Products.
  
Vanessa Glushefski, on West Side environmental  issues:

Squaw Island, just off of Niagara Street on Robert Rich Way, used to be a place for swimming and other activities, said student Irene Rekhviashvili. In the nineteenth century, it was a stop on the Underground Railroad; a place for slaves to rest on their way to Canada.
          Today, it is frequented by many people looking for fresh, affordable fish to eat.
          “The many refugee groups and immigrants, they used to fish back in their hometowns, so they continue this tradition here,” Rekhviashvili said.
           But pollution gets concentrated in parts of the river that are nonmoving, she said. There are also signs warning people not to swim. The United States Army Corps of Engineers recently took steps to close off the island due to drownings and health hazards.
          Congressman Brian Higgins put a stop to that because of how necessary the island is to the community. Higgins addressed a letter to the Buffalo Commander, in which he wrote that “wealthier people fish on boats, and less wealthy people fish on land,” making it unfair to the community to close off the island.
          “The benefits of having access are just tremendous,” Rekhviashvili said. “Maybe food for some, activities, having green space. It’s all very important.”
          At the coast of the river sits the Buffalo Sewer Authority Treatment Plant. A century ago, the river, Scajaquada Creek, Black Rock Canal and the Buffalo River were major depositories for sewage, said student Brendan McGrath.
          But as Buffalo’s population expanded, pollution in the water became a big problem. In 1938, the treatment plant was built to address this issue. However, the city still uses the sewer infrastructure from 1908, and there is now a combined sewer overflow problem.
          There’s a total of 1.75 billion gallons of sewer output into Buffalo’s waterways per year, McGrath said. One of the city’s 52 registered combined sewer overflow release valves is at the Niagara River, contaminating the same water people fish in. It takes only an inch of rain for valves to activate, releasing both sanitary and storm water waste into the river. But the Sewage Authority has submitted a proposal to the Environmental Protection Agency to control this issue, McGrath said.
          The plan proposes the use of green infrastructure, or natural resources, as an alternative to using sewers. One idea is to use the city’s vacant land as storm water holding environments to allow water to slowly absorb back into the ground instead of ending up in the sewer system, McGrath said.  
          Rich Products is just a few steps away from the river. The corporation's two massive buildings, each settled on either side of Robert Rich Way, are connected by an internal walkway that stretches over the street. Rich’s is in the process of expanding – it will soon replace a Niagara Street butcher shop with a parking lot. This may cause problems, said student Vanessa Glushefski said.

                     “When you are a corporation like Rich Products, you need to be mindful of what you’re doing,” Glushefski said. “Because, yes, they can buy this building, they can pave it into a parking lot -- that may be a viable business solution for them – however, they have to think of what that does to the neighborhood surrounding them.”
                     A parking lot is not only detrimental to the attractiveness of the neighborhood, but it may also give the impression that the area is lifeless and dilapidated, she said.
                    “This is why Rich’s buying this old butcher shop and turning it into a parking lot may not seem like a big deal initially, but it can become a big deal,” she said.
                     Despite the environmental issues in the area, there are signs of growth and change. On West Avenue, in the neighborhood across the street from Rich Products, some vacant lots are being used to grow fresh vegetables for the community. It’s part of an effort by 5 Loaves Farm, an outreach of Vineyard City Church on Potomac Avenue.
                    The project aims at “creating sustainable market gardens on Buffalo’s Upper West Side that produce healthy foods along with educational and economic opportunities,” according to its website.
                    Since last year, neighbors, volunteers and teenage interns from the area have grown onions, spinach, potatoes and other foods for the community, said Matt Kauffman, initiator of the community gardens. 
                    “We’re trying to engage neighbors,” Kauffman said. “Even the young teens in some of these things that are going on in the neighborhood and trying to be a positive voice for redeeming some of abandoned and vacant places here in Buffalo.”

New mural to be painted on West Side

By Anika Rawlins and A.J. Speier

BengalNews Reporters

    At first glance, the corner of Grant Street and Auburn Avenue may not be very appealing with the view of a large blank wall that does not have much attraction.

           With just a 7-Eleven and a large vacant lot across the street, this area may be overlooked with very little to offer a neighborhood with a great deal of culture and diversity.

The view of this West Side corner is about to change.

            By September, this corner will be ornamented with a beautiful mural reflecting the large immigrant population and variety of cultures that are present on the West Side.

Grant Street Global Voice Public Arts Project: Celebrating Immigrants and Refugee Experience is the project to commemorate the immigrant community through different visual arts projects. 

            The mural design project is one of the Buffalo State Community Academic Center’s projects in efforts to showcase the diverse cultures while integrating student input from West Side schools Lafayette High School and International School 45.

The mural project is a collaboration between Buffalo State College, Young Audiences of Western New York, Buffalo Public Schools and the City of Buffalo.

Funding for the mural is a 75 thousand dollar Our Town Grant from National Endowment for the Arts who provide grants for art projects that will add to the culture of different communities.

 The proposal for the grant consisted of a Mural, speaking to the theme of cultural diversity and a series of community and school based art workshops that would be incorporated into the mural.

“We’re budgeted for the year with the grant but we see this as starting the possibilities for Grant Street being an arts corridor and really celebrating its history in a visual way,” Maureen McCarthy, director of the Buffalo State Community Academic Center said.

Ellen Melmed a teaching artist and leader of school based workshops held at International School 45 and Lafayette, and Augustina Droze, the muralist that will paint the mural on Grant Street, held workshops for students to come up with their own art designs that may be incorporated into the mural and in window shops down Grant Street.

The workshops that are conducted for the mural will allow students and members of the community to incorporate their ideas and refugee stories pertaining to the theme of diversity to be included in the mural.

With plans to start the mural painting in May, Droze is currently focusing on incorporating artwork from students and locals of the West Side.

“It will be a celebration of diversity and unity incorporating some of the student artwork created in workshops over the past months as well as numerous photos recently taken of local people” Droze said.

The mural is expected to be complete by September of this year with earlier unveilings throughout July and August.