Buffalo's Choice Neighborhoods Ribbon Cutting

(From left to right) Michael Seaman, BMHA Chair; Dawn Sanders, BMHA Executive Director; Byron Brown, Mayor of Buffalo; and a BMHA resident

There was a grand celebration this week in Buffalo that will hopefully breathe new life into a once former vibrant downtown community. Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority (BMHA) Executive Director Dawn Sanders, BMHA Chair of the Board Michael Seaman, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown and BMHA residents joined together to cut the ribbon on the agency's Choice Neighborhood Planning and Information Center. HUD awarded BMHA a $250,000 Choice Neighborhood Planning Grant in 2011, and the Agency opened the center in its Perry Homes Housing Project to give BMHA residents and other neighborhood participants the opportunity to provide input and advice. The University of Buffalo's School of Architecture and Planning Center for Urban Studies will be joining the effort and working with BMHA to restructure, redevelop and rehabilitate a diverse and declining area in downtown Buffalo.

The newly-opened Planning and Information Center, which is located in one of the apartments of Perry Homes, provides neighborhood residents with both a perspective and a vision. On some walls hang pictures of what the old neighborhood used to look like, and on other walls are chalkboards and corkboards for residents to leave their ideas and wish lists for their new neighborhood. Visitors can also ask questions and get information on the status of the planning grant and the development of the implementation grant. "It is a place for families to dream big dreams," said Executive Director Sanders.

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