By Nellie Graham
In the Eastside neighborhood of Buffalo, a team of community and city leaders formed under the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Community Connectors Program to build a vibrant neighborhood and transportation future after a tragic mass shooting. The program, which sought to build capacity for teams in 15 small- to mid-sized cities seeking to overcome divisive and harmful transportation infrastructure, helped the Buffalo team build support for the Bailey Avenue Bus Rapid Transit project and address the challenges of food access, transportation justice, and investment in the Eastside neighborhood. The team included representation from East Buffalo Development Corporation, LISC NY, Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority, NFTA Buffalo Roundtable MOVES, Bailey Business Association, and the City of Buffalo.
The Buffalo Community Connectors project had its roots in a senseless atrocity: in May 2022, a young man committed a mass shooting at a Tops Friendly Market in Eastside, Buffalo, killing ten people and wounding three others. Eleven of the thirteen victims were black. This shooting was all the more traumatic because it was a hate crime: the shooter had written a white supremacist manifesto and had intentionally chosen a community hub in the predominantly black Eastside neighborhood in an act of racial violence.
After the shooting, Tops, which was the only supermarket in the neighborhood, closed down. Residents were left grappling with the devastating loss of their neighbors, friends, and family, fearing for their safety in public spaces, and now faced an added challenge of accessing healthy food options in what had become a food desert. The challenge was particularly acute for households without a vehicle who relied on public transit. These households had to figure out how to reach grocery stores in other parts of the city via public transit, an option which was unreliable and time consuming. Systemic inequities such as transportation and food access came sharply into focus as the community picked up the pieces from the painful tragedy.
Buffalo residents pay their respects at a makeshift memorial near the scene of the mass shooting. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
In response, a group of community and civic leaders joined together to address these transportation challenges. In the short term, the Niagara Frontier Transportation Association (NFTA) suspended collection of bus fares on select East Side routes and facilitated a partnership with Uber and Lyft to help take people in the affected zip codes to grocery stores. Community members also organized free shuttles that would take residents directly to Tops in other neighborhoods. But community leaders also began to think about the long term: the role of public transit in Eastside Buffalo, and how reliable, frequent transit could shape greater opportunities for residents and contribute to community resilience.
From this context the Buffalo Community Connectors team emerged. East Buffalo Development Corporation, LISC NY, NFTA, NFTA Buffalo Roundtable MOVES, Bailey Business Association, and the City of Buffalo joined together to build capacity to create this long-term future. The team’s objectives were to strengthen community-based organization and resident participation in NFTA’s planning initiatives, especially as it related to Bus Rapid Transit along Bailey Avenue. The Bailey BRT project is set to break ground in 2027, and will improve the quality and efficiency of transit service on one of the NFTA’s busiest corridors.
The goals of the Buffalo team aligned with the Community Connectors program by redressing long-standing inequities and barriers to opportunity by reenvisioning Bailey Avenue. The Bailey Avenue corridor is one of the most densely populated, low-income, zero-or one-car household areas in western New York, but traffic and throughput have been prioritized over the needs of the local community. The neighborhoods immediately surrounding Bailey Avenue are primarily residential and 54 percent of residents identify as African American or Black. In addition to planning for a Bailey Ave that better meets the needs of local residents, the Buffalo Community Connectors team wanted to build support for a BRT system along the corridor, and educate the public on related land-use improvements.
Over the course of two years, this team supported ten block clubs adjacent to Bailey Avenue. Eligible block club projects focused on beautification, safety, and wellness. Block club members also participated in farmers markets to give out free bags of fruits and vegetables, and provided information on BRT on Bailey Avenue. The farmers market presence contributed to relationship building for future phases of BRT engagement, while also making a clear connection for residents that food access and transportation are linked. Block club members also lead street clean ups focused on trash removal, pruning, and mulching, and tested 200 homes for lead. Ultimately, the work of the block clubs created more visibility for the potential benefits of reconstruction and maintenance projects along Bailey Ave, while also building relationships and support for future transit initiatives in the neighborhood.
Photo from the Buffalo News.
As a Community Connectors Program Partner, Equitable Cities supported the Buffalo team through trust building workshops, capacity building on anti-displacement strategies, and grant writing training in order to sustain and amplify the work of the block clubs and BRT engagement. The New Urban Mobility Alliance (NUMO) was also able to provide land use analysis maps showing vacant lot activation opportunities on the Eastside, zoning maps highlighting single family and mixed use, homeownership rates, senior populations, mobility challenges, and air quality.
Follow the Buffalo team as they continue to address legacies of structural racism, and build a more resilient Eastside that centers the experiences of those who have been historically excluded from investment.