Articles for Adam Smith-Perez

Jan 8

2026

Buffalo sued over East Side police training facility

A notice posted this summer outside the site of a proposed police training facility on Buffalo’s East Side. Photo by Adam Smith-Perez. An activist organization and four East Side residents have sued the city, the Common Council and the police department to stop the conversion of a former community center into a police training facility and shooting range. The organization Liberation For One, Liberation for All, also known as LOLA, filed the lawsuit on Dec. 23, arguing that the rezoning violates several state and local laws. Much of the suit is based on the city’s alleged violation of state environmental[...]

Posted 3 weeks ago

Jan 1

2026

Adam Smith-Perez’s first year covering Buffalo

I’ve visited Buffalo’s East Side to report over a dozen times, but the first time will stick with me. During my first weeks, my editor, Jim Heaney, told me to meet a few sources on the East Side: Steve Karnath at Broadway-Fillmore Neighborhood Housing Services, and Chris Hawley at his socialist, volunteer-run bar, the Eugene V. Debs Social Hall. I arrived at Debs at dusk on a summer evening. All the doors and windows were open. Hawley and his giant dog greeted me, along with a couple of his friends. A regular was barbecuing out front. I sampled a few[...]

Posted 4 weeks ago

Dec 24

2025

Tenants again sue judge-turned-landlord

APL Property’s apartment building on Elmwood Avenue. Photo by I’Jaz Ja’ciel. A Buffalo couple is suing former county judge-turned-developer Anthony LoRusso for alleged rental fraud — the third lawsuit LoRusso and his real estate companies have faced this year. Two of those court actions originated with renters, the other with a contractor. All told, courts this year have levied more than $300,000 in judgments against LoRusso’s companies. The first suit was filed by LaBella Associates D.P.C., an environmental consulting firm, in March, followed by the attorney general’s in May. In September, Sabrina and Antonéo Page filed a lawsuit against[...]

Posted 1 month ago

Dec 3

2025

Opioid epidemic funds lack oversight, transparency

Overdose-reversal drugs at a liquor store on Niagara Street in Buffalo’s Riverside neighborhood. Photo by Adam Smith-Perez. This is the second of two stories about government’s response to the opioid epidemic. Nearly half a billion dollars intended to address the opioid epidemic has flowed through state agencies in New York over the past four years, the result of an ongoing legal battle against opioid manufacturers and distributors for abetting addiction. Experts have concerns about how those funds are being deployed — not just by the state, but by the counties, cities and towns that have been granted shares of the[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Dec 2

2025

Buffalo’s indifferent response to opioid overdoses

Editor’s note: This is the first of two stories on the use of opioid settlement funds by government agencies. Part 2 is here. The City of Buffalo has spent less than a third of the almost $6 million in state funding it has received over the past three years to fight the opioid epidemic. During that time, more than 500 people died of overdoses within Buffalo city limits, according to data from the Erie County medical examiner. The victims have been disproportionately Black and Latino. Of the $1.75 million the city has spent, about $500,000 went for equipment and activities[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Oct 16

2025

The Central Terminal’s costly redevelopment plan

The nonprofit charged with redeveloping Buffalo’s landmark New York Central Terminal, situated in one of the city’s poorest neighborhoods, has proposed converting two buildings on the sprawling campus into apartments that could cost as much as $900,000 per unit to build. Critics tell Investigative Post the cost is astronomical and a poor use of taxpayer dollars. In June, the developer and nonprofit announced plans to spend $80 million to develop 90 to 110 affordable apartments, plus potential commercial space, in a former mail sorting and storage facility adjacent to the Central Terminal’s iconic tower and a city-owned structure that housed[...]

Posted 3 months ago

Sep 4

2025

Process for police shooting range misses the mark

Vacant community center sports mural of civil right champion John Lewis. City of Buffalo officials failed to follow state law in their rush to turn a former East Side community center into a shooting range and training facility for police. In July, the city failed to include a required environmental evaluation in a zoning change application for the proposed $5 million facility, in violation of state law. City officials twice marked the application complete when it wasn’t, then moved it through the planning board, a public hearing, and the Common Council anyway. The missing environmental assessment was only made public[...]

Posted 5 months ago

Jul 15

2025

Another Buffalo cop cited for misconduct

The state attorney general’s office has determined another Buffalo police officer abused his authority through his use of excessive force and other misdeeds. The AG’s office reviewed 14 complaints made against Officer Justin Ayala between October 2021 and August of last year. The findings were based on five incidents, including his punching of a man while held down by other officers, pepper-spraying a handcuffed suspect, and use of vile language on a teen-age girl and her mother. The office of Letitia James also took issue with the department’s investigations into Ayala’s conduct, arguing the department erred in exonerating him in[...]

Posted 6 months ago