Wilson Park on track for 2026 opening

Ralph Wilson Park Conservancy Executive Director Katie Campos believes the construction progress on LaSalle Park is going well. Located on the shoreline of Lake Erie where it meets the Niagara River, the project aims to give families and kids more activities to do. The park looks to add outdoor fields that will need time to sod and grow also.  A project that was introduced pre-COVID-19, the park aims to open to the public by summer 2026.  By Chris Giacobello

Wage hike of little impact among W.S. small businesses

By Richard Miller

            As of Jan. 1, 2025, the minimum wage in New York State has increased by 50 cents. For those working in Buffalo, the starting wage has gone from $15 an hour to $15.50 an hour.

            The wage increase was a part of an initiative by Gov. Kathy Hochul to help the working class afford their everyday needs. Per the New York State Department of Labor, the wage will increase another 50 cents in January 2026.

            West Side small businesses tend to agree that the minimum wage increase is necessary in order for people to keep up with the cost of living. Many were unfazed by the increase because they said they already had been paying employees well above the minimum wage to begin with.

            Diane Lopes, relationship manager for the microloan program at the Westminster Economic Development Initiative, said her clients indicated in a survey that the increase would have no impact.

            “They already pay more than the minimum wage, with salaries ranging from $16.50 to $17.60,." Lopes said. "These clients own retail stores, including women's clothing and bookstores.”

            Dr. Fred Floss, economics professor at Buffalo State University, said the increase in minimum wage would not result in a decrease in success nor fewer workers for small businesses. Rather, small businesses have to focus on restructuring funds elsewhere.

Professor Fred Floss

            “The vast majority of small businesses that go out of business were going out of business before the minimum wage was really a factor," Floss said. "We’ve seen small businesses do things that have actually made some sense and made them more profitable."

            An example can be found in restaurants that had menus of 10 to 15 pages in length, which Floss deemed as "wasteful." A better, more profitable option is to have a shorter menu with standard

            Very rarely do wage increases such as the one enacted this January result in businesses actually having to lay off employees, sources said.

            For many businesses, increasing financial success just comes down to drawing in more customers.

            Jonathon Welch, co-founder of the Talking Leaves Bookstore, 951Elmwood Ave., said  that bookstores are faced with a unique challenge that other businesses don’t have  to encounter.

            “The only leeway that we have in terms of margins is basically increasing sales because the prices are printed on the books that we buy," Welch said. "We don’t have the ability to just raise prices, which is what most people do when they want to change their margins. For us, it’s always a question of trying to cut costs in other ways or increase sales. We do that in all the traditional ways. We do sales by just trying to be a good business that people can trust on rely on.”

            This community-based business model and willingness to adapt is what has kept Talking Leaves as a pillar in the community for over half a century. Welch also is an adamant supporter of wage increases and helping workers afford the cost of living,

            While businesses elsewhere may blame the increase for their shortcomings, many businesses in the West Side seem to understand the importance of employee satisfaction, said Olivia Harbol, business advisor for the Small Business Development Center.

            “I am all for my clients pushing for a higher wage," Harbol said. "That is how they become competitive and get really great employees to stick around and really love the business that they’re working for and want to stay for years.”

Apartments, hotel rooms next on Statler agenda

 

Property Manager Joe Konze, stands in the newly renovated Terrace Room in the Statler Buffalo.  Also renovated were the main lobby and Golden Ballroom were recently renovated.  The major event that led to the renovations was a call from the mayor’s office, in 2022, stating that the mayor wanted to host the State of the City address.  The rooms were painted and plastered giving an updated look but keeping the nostalgic feel that the Statler Buffalo is known for. The next phase, which will begin next year, is to update and renovate the hotel rooms and apartments.  Historic hotel room floors will be on

Golden Ballroom

levels nine, 10 and 11.  Residential units will be on levels three through eight and levels 12 through 18.  The reasoning for this is that the goal was to put the hotel rooms in an area with beautiful views.  The goal for the Statler Buffalo is to have a cohesive ecosystem in which hotel guests and residents can come and go without bothering the other. “We are going to put the hotel in first and then we will do residential above and below,” Konze said. “We are going to have different banks of elevators, meaning the hotel guests will have their elevators and residential will have their elevators.  Residents will not have access to the hotel floors and hotel guests will not have access to the

Terrace Room

residential floors.” Konze is excited for the future of the Statler Buffalo.  “The idea is that while we are doing the renovations to the hotel, we are still able to provide Buffalo with nostalgia, a nostalgic building that people maybe had their proms and weddings at or where they attended a wedding here.  That is what we wanted to do, is get people in the door to host these special days.” 

                   By Jim Tammaro

Community asked to help keep stray cat population down

Veterinarian Timm Otterson at the Summer Street Cat Clinic, 25 Summer St., has worked with the stray cat population for over 20 years. Whether the cat is an indoor cat or outdoor cat, Otterson says the best practice to help keep the stray cat and feral cat population at lower numbers is to spay and neuter all cats. Community members are encouraged to work with local vet offices and rescue groups to take stray cats they are feeding or partially taking care of in for health checkups and treatments of common illnesses carried in stray cat colonies. The community can also take cats to free rabies clinics hosted each month by the Niagara Frontier Veterinary Society and the Erie County Health Department. By Rylee Shott

Flip It saves the planet, one piece of clothing at a time

 Maria Chayban and Jennifer Holmes, owners of Flip It Reverse It, 515 Elmwood Ave., let environmental awareness guide them in their business of giving longevity to the clothing by reselling and refurbishing vintage and modern unique pieces.  The owners have passion for preventing carbon and chemical pollution by preventing clothing from going to landfills. “Saving the planet. Yes. If we can get people to continue to shop secondhand because there is enough to go around, and you don’t even need to make another piece of clothing,” Holmes says.  Chayban says they are always considerate of the prices and even make special deals for most of their clothing. “We always have a $5 rack available for anyone,” Chayban said. According to First Research, the used merchandise industry in the US includes about 20 stores with a combined revenue of $15 billion. By Emmanuel Rogers

Provisions 139 announces special hours for Dec. 28

Mary Schaefer, director of operations at West Side Community Services, is stocking shelves at Provisions 139, the organization's food pantry at 44 Breckenridge St. The pantry serves residents living in these zip codes 14201, 14209, 14213, and 14222 and is open on Wednesdays from 12-3 p.m. and Thursdays from 5-7 p.m. It will be closed on Christmas and New Years Day. Instead, it will be open on Saturday, Dec. 28 at noon for special giveaways that include prepacked bags of food and other items. Provisions has been serving the West Side since 2021. Schaefer said Provisions does accept donations and relies on FeedMore WNY and a five-year contract with the New York State Department of Agriculture where it receives over $100,000 a year to spend on food grown, raised, and produced in New York State. If you are looking to donate, the pantry can use non-food items like toiletries or cleaning supplies, or food not covered by the grant like sugar, flour, and coffee. By Alex Miley

 

Apartments coming to Richardson complex

Apartments to add to historic Richardson campus

By Rylee Shott

                  The historic Richardson Hotel is looking to start its next renovation project, apartments.

                  After the current renovation on the porte-cochere in the front of the building is finished in the summer of 2025, Douglas Development plans to work on putting apartments into the six adjacent buildings on the property.

                  Currently the property is being surveyed to start the process of the apartment renovations.

“Over the next few years, the idea is to create a community inside a community. How cool would it be for people to live at a historic property? So, what we would like to do is develop apartments and livable spaces,” Joe Konze, property and operations manager with Douglas Development, said.

                  The Richardson Hotel has gone through several changes over the years from its beginning as an asylum in the 19^th century, to near abandonment, to Hotel Henry, to The Richardson Hotel and now adding apartments to the mix.

                  Mark Saglian whose great aunt was a patient in the

Mark Saglian with a family memento

asylum supports the changes. He is a volunteer with the Richardson Center Corp. who has done tours of the campus for seven years

“I am positive about it in the sense it gives us an opportunity to preserve this historically significant space so that it doesn’t disappear, so that it doesn’t face the wrecking ball,” Saglian said.

Over the years the community has had mixed views on the building that holds The Richardson Hotel, but the community has started to see the building in a positive light Saglian said.

Saglian sees the life coming back into the building benefits the spiritual life and history of the building.

 “For life to come back into those buildings, children’s voices, music, light, art, if you’re a lingering spirit that has to be positive, it has to be hopeful, and it has to be healing. So, for me the development its beautiful and it’s a positive thing,” Saglian said.

                  Since the reopening of The Richardson Hotel, Visit Buffalo Niagara has seen an increase of tourism on the West Side.

“Because of the nature of the property, the historic significance of it, the preservation of it, it has gotten a lot of great press. That has helped tell the story of the neighborhood as well,” Patrick Kaler, president and CEO of Visit Buffalo Niagara, said.

Douglas Development’s goal is to put the word out about the city of Buffalo and the growing community on the West Side.

“For those who are local and want to stay the weekend or those who are staying from out of town really get a feel for what Buffalo is about,” Konze said. “I feel like some people don’t really understand Buffalo and I think where The Richardson Hotel sits in the Elmwood Village with the Elmwood Village really showcasing what Buffalo is about.”