The Jefferson Ave. Myth

There was a Buffalo News article that caught my eye last week. It was about Mayor Brown being openly antagonistic over a proposal by the NAACP to convene a national advisory panel to examine what has been holding back development and economic growth, and to come up with a series of “action steps” to spur revitalization in the neighborhood; And it wants county dollars to help pay for it.” I not sure what that means?

According to the article, the mayor took great umbrage at the proposal on the grounds there are plans already in the works and it would be a waste of time and money on a Jefferson Avenue problem that has been studied and discussed for the past 50 years.

I’ll say what I suspect the mayor wants to say. We don’t need to pay a bunch of elites to tell our community what’s best for Jefferson Avenue or the residents of the eastside.

In the article, Rev. Blue was quoted saying Jefferson was once a “busting Black business district.” That is simply not true. I grew up on Riley and Jefferson Avenue, in the 60’s. My father owned Earl D. Gist Insurance on Jefferson and E. Utica. I worked my first job at the Black owned C&B Men’s Shop also at Jefferson and E. Utica, so I consider myself as a reliable primary source on the reality of Jefferson Ave. “back in the day.”

It is absolutely true Jefferson was a bustling business district, complete with everything a community could need or want. From several full service banks, supermarkets (A&P and Loblaws ), the Apollo Theater, War Memorial Stadium, Five and Dime store (Newberry’s), Gas Stations, Night Clubs, butchers, bakers, clothing stores, shoe stores, hat shops , liquor stores, hardware stores, jewelry stores, pop factories, a potato chip factory and pool halls, night clubs, drug stores, record stores, and more.

But the vast majority were owned and operated by Jews and white people, (including the famous Pine Grill). Certainly, there were a few Black owned businesses on Jefferson, my father being one, but by no means was it a “Black Wall” street as some has erroneously asserted. Jefferson Ave. crashed within a few years after the 198- Expressway cut through the eastside and created a bee line for many of Jefferson business to the suburbs . The “provocateur” riots of 1967 was the final straw for the Jefferson Ave. strip. It was never the same. And can never be the same because Buffalo is a different place now.

Personally, I think it’s a fool’s errand to believe Jefferson can be restored to a bustling business district without “gentrifying” the entire community. People forget that in the 1960s, the Cold Spring was considered a middle-class community. It was a time when the factories and plants were cranking out good jobs for Black families. People had money for the most part. Also, Buffalo had three times the population.

The only way Jefferson can rise again is if middleclass people start buying and residing on the Eastside thus gentrifying the community. That just might be the plan.