Businesses work to improve the West Side

By Jeffrey Heras and Kevin Hoffman
Bengal News reporters
 In an area that was once thriving with business, prosperity and positive feelings, the current state of the West Side is one that falls well short of those standards. With a renewed effort towards bringing productive change to the area, history may very well be poised to repeat itself.

Judy Frizlen of The Rose Garden Early Childhood Center

 Since he opened the Meating Place in 1975, moving it to 185 Grant St. in 1986, Jimmy Lorigo said retail activity on the West Side has declined. He added that many of the shops have packed up and moved rapidly and to a point that there are just a few businesses left.
 The area, according to Lorigo, was a place where people would go out and shop in an atmosphere like that of an outside shopping mall. But the business atmosphere changed when crime issues that started in the late ‘70s and ‘80s caused many businesses to depart from the West Side.
 “It was always a good business area until the residents started moving out and then you see a decline in business and then you see your old time customers who keep coming back, but even some of them have passed away or even faded away,” Lorigo said.
 Throughout the years, Lorigo said that he has seen his business expand on the West Side by adding a storage facility in back of his five-story brick building.
 Lorigo states the business climate in the West Side has improved, but it will still take some effort from residents, business leaders and local politicians to work together to reduce the crime in the area in order to create a place that people will want to live and work in.
 He said that the advantage of getting the business community together is that they can work together for a certain goal, but the difficulties that can arise come from the language and cultural barrier can halt such a process.
 According to Dr. Gary S. Welborn, vice president of the Grant-Ferry Association, it is important to improve the business climate in the area. In order accomplish this task, the association has thrown its first business mixer to cater to establishments located on the West Side.
 Welborn believes the quarterly mixers will help the business owners get to know each other, make connections, and break cultural barriers. With everyone working together, the idea of a “global commercial marketplace” will be more easily obtained.
 Judy Frizlen, director of The Rose Garden Early Childhood Center located at 257 Lafayette Ave. agrees that people in the community have to work together. She added that many new immigrant businesses bring valuable richness in diversity to the West Side that any business community can benefit from.
 “I think that immigrant businesses bring a strong work ethic, a real enthusiasm to embrace the opportunity,” she said. “I think that it is more of a benefit to have other cultures, which makes it interesting. I really think that the West Side’s renewal will be assisted by the immigrants.”
 Frizlen opened her business in September 2009. She was a witness to what she calls a positive business climate, and was quickly enveloped with support from Guercio and Sons and Sweetness 7. She was encouraged to put her business on the West Side because she saw that business leaders like Prish Moran, owner of Sweetness 7, had great success. With just one year in business herself, Frizlen said that she has experienced success by expanding the number of children that attend her day care.
 “I can’t think of a place I would rather be than the West Side, I am really glad that we came over here,” Frizlen said. “I think there is this feel that something is about to happen.”

Judy Frizlen, on improving conditions on the West Side:


 Frizlen said she was motivated by results of recent study about child care.
 “There was a Cornell study linking quality childcare with economic renewal. If a city wants to have vital businesses, you have to have childcare. More than 50 percent of the work force is now women and women will do better at their jobs if their children are well tended,” she added.
 The New York Main Street program is expected to award $500,000 in grants for the revival of downtown areas through commercial and residential improvements such as façade renovations, residential buildings, interior upgrades and streetscape improvements. Specifically, the grant will target the areas located between Delevan and Auburn avenues.
 Lorigo said that there is hope that the grant will change the business climate throughout the West Side. If the money is used well enough to show big improvements in the area, more money could possibly be awarded to the West Side community to continue similar renewals in other parts of the area.
 “I would love to walk down to that Somali Star to get my curry chicken and pass thriving businesses and other people walking down the streets and to see the streets cleaned up to have people feel safe,” Frizlen said.

Edited by Heidi Friend and Kristine Starkey

Healthy menus lead to healthy choices

David Simpson, owner, Dolci Dessert Bakery & Gelateria

By Antoine Darden and Saintia Dorestal
Bengal News reporters
 Restaurants on the West Side may be adding nutritional facts to their menus, according to the new Healthy Choices program in Erie County.
 The program, which is organized by the county Health Department and the Western New York chapter of the New York State Restaurant Association, will allow restaurant owners to add nutritional facts such as the calories, total fat, cholesterol and protein.
 Although this may sound like a great plan for those who are looking for healthy options, some restaurant owners fear the program may take business away.
 “I don’t think people would order food from us, once they know how much fat and calories are in it,” said Dana Hernandez, who sets up events at the Niagara Café.
 The initiative is similar to the law that was passed on Nov. 8, 1990 by President George H. W. Bush, which required manufacturers to provide consumers with the nutritional content of their product.
 The new local initiative will not only provide consumers with information about the foods they are eating but it is also an opportunity for restaurant owners to publicize their healthy menu options, said Cheryll Moore, coordinator for the Erie County Department of Health.
 The facts will be added using the free software called “Menu-Calc,” which will calculate the nutrition results using a method called database nutrition analysis.
 Robert Free, president of the local chapter of the restaurant association said the Healthy Choices program, does not endorse the items the restaurateur picks as the healthiest choices.
 Free said that if owners wanted to they could put prime rib on the healthy menu. It’s more a matter of giving people information on what they are eating.
 Dave Alessi, manager at La Nova Pizzeria on West Ferry Street, said if the company had to add the nutritional facts themselves it would be tedious and costly.

Dave Alessi, on the new menu initiative in Erie County:

 “I have 55 subs on my menu and 30 different pizzas, calzones and the other stuff,” Alessi said.
 With the initiative being voluntary and limited in budget, restaurant owners will have the option of choosing up to four items on their menu.

 David Simpson, owner and manager of Dolci Dessert Bakery & Gelateria on Elmwood Avenue, which not only serves pastries and cakes, but also soups and breads and vegan and health-food items, hopes to be among the first to make the additions to his menu.
 Moore and Free said they hope to see the project expand. It will target 200 local restaurants and provide the service free of charge for the first two months using a $25,000 state grant.
 “I think it’s a great educational opportunity for consumers,” Moore said. “It’s also a great opportunity for restaurants that otherwise wouldn’t have the ability to do this because of cost.”

Edited by Caitlin Behm and Tiffany Monde