Articles for I'Jaz Ja'ciel

Jul 30

2024

So long, bed bugs

BMHA Executive Director Gillian Brown, left, and LBJ Apartments tenant representative Erma Ecford. Photo by I’Jaz Ja’ciel. The bed bug infestation is gone. So are the rats. And most of the washers and dryers in the laundry room are working again. That’s what tenants at the Lyndon B. Johnson apartments recently said, just over three months after Investigative Post reported that residents had been living with insect and rodent infestations, leaky ceilings and security concerns, among other issues. Tenant representative Erma Ecford, who initially brought to light conditions at the Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority-owned senior complex, said the incessant swarms[...]

Posted 10 months ago

Jul 11

2024

Buffalo sued over inner-city lead poisoning

Andrea Ó Súilleabháin, head of the Partnership for the Public Good. Photo by I’Jaz Ja’ciel. This story was updated at 2:11 pm on July 11, 2024 to include comments from the City of Buffalo. Tenants and community organizations are taking the City of Buffalo to court, contending it is failing to enforce rental inspection laws aimed at reducing lead paint in the city’s aging housing stock. The inspection law, enacted in 2020, was in response to the large number of children testing with high levels of lead in their blood. City inspectors have conducted relatively few inspections since then,[...]

Posted 11 months ago

Jul 2

2024

Buffalo daycare center has history of complaints

Mary’s Little Lambs Child Care Center. Photo by I’Jaz Ja’ciel. This story was updated July 2t 12:53 pm. An East Side daycare center whose owner was recently arrested and charged with shoving an employee has been cited for 20 violations in the past 2-1/2 years, a few referencing allegations of possible maltreatment or inadequate supervision of children. State inspectors since 2022 were called to investigate complaints at Mary’s Little Lambs Child Care Center eight times prior to the June 11 incident, when owner Mary Goodwill was charged after allegations she used physical force against a teenage staff member. Another employee[...]

Posted 11 months ago

Jun 20

2024

East Side landlord faces big fines

Farhad Raiszadeh, left, with city building inspector Tracey Krug. Photo by I’Jaz Ja’ciel. An East Side landlord being sued by the state attorney general for lead paint violations is also under the gun from city building inspectors — and it’s going to cost him. The city is prosecuting 69-year-old Farhad Raiszadeh in Buffalo Housing Court for 125 code violations at 11 properties. Raiszadeh, who lives in San Diego, was in Housing Court earlier this month, when he was ordered by Judge Patrick Carney to pay the city $65,000, half of which will cover the costs of demolishing a house and[...]

Posted 12 months ago

May 30

2024

A different approach to revitalizing Buffalo’s East Side

What do you like about your neighborhood, the interviewer asked. What are your concerns? How optimistic are you that things will get better? There was no right or wrong answer for the 567 residents who took the survey, but their responses will help determine which neighborhood serves as a pilot to help rebuild Buffalo’s East Side and elevate the city’s Black community. Henry Taylor, director of the University at Buffalo’s Center for Urban Studies, unveiled the framework last November in “How We Change the Black East Side: A Neighborhood Planning and Development Framework.” The model poses a radical challenge to[...]

Posted 1 year ago

May 17

2024

Continuing need for mental health services

Two years after the May 14 massacre at Tops Supermarket on Jefferson Avenue, counselors and other community advocates are calling for expanded mental health services on Buffalo’s East Side. What’s needed, they say, are more community centers serving as “safe spaces” where young people can go, as well as more mental health counseling and more funding for mental health services overall. The advocates and counselors are requesting funds be included in the 2024-25 city budget Mayor Byron Brown and the Common Council are currently working on. “Traditionally, there has always been a lack of any kind of service, and I’m[...]

Posted 1 year ago

May 7

2024

Yup, there’s plenty of bed bugs at LBJ Apartments

Sign in community room of LBJ Apartments warns of infestation. Photo by I’Jaz Ja’ciel. Days after Investigative Post revealed a bed bug infestation in the LBJ senior citizen apartments, the Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority arranged mandatory pest control inspections for each unit. Twenty-six of the building’s 206 apartments, including some vacant units, were found to have bed bugs, according to BMHA Executive Director Gillian Brown. He said bed bugs were also found in the community room, where Investigative Post on Monday saw each couch and chair had written signs posted to them advising residents not to sit on them, as[...]

Posted 1 year ago

May 2

2024

West Side property still the ‘House From Hell’

149 Arkansas Street on Buffalo’s West Side. Photo by Garrett Looker. Almost two years after two dead bodies were found in a boarded-up West Side house, the property remains a nuisance that continues to attract squatters, drug users and prostitutes, neighbors told Investigative Post. Complaints to the city, including to police, the Common Council and Housing Court seem to be falling on deaf ears, neighbors said this week. “I’m losing my patience,” said Arkansas Street resident Wilmer Peralta. “It’s been two years. The house is still vacant. What are they doing?” The boarded-up house at 149 Arkansas St., owned by[...]

Posted 1 year ago