Articles for Adam Smith-Perez

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 5 days 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 6 days 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 2 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 3 months ago