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A longtime community activist says he is ready to file a multi-million dollar class action lawsuit against the City of Niagara Falls on behalf of residents and businesspeople in the neighborhoods along Niagara Street and Highland Avenue.
Roger Spurback, who resigned last week from the Niagara Street Business Association, told the Reporter that decades of neglect at the hands of various city administrations and city councils are primarily responsible for the deteriorating conditions in those areas.
Spurback said city government has lavished money on street paving, sidewalks, water and sewer work and other amenities in places like DeVeaux, Pine Avenue and Cayuga Island, all but ignoring the suffering of people living in the city's most blighted areas.
A lifelong city resident, Spurback is the founder of the city's block club movement and has sat on the boards of directors of Neighborhood Housing Services and numerous youth sports programs. He discussed the problems with the neighborhoods and his planned lawsuit during a recent interview.
Q. You've just resigned from the Niagara Street Business Association. What made you get involved there in the first palace?
A. I've been active all over the city for a long period of time. I got involved there two years ago, trying to help the small businesspeople there. I did it because I know that the neighborhoods have to be rebuilt first. You've got to strengthen the neighborhoods to support the businesses. Look at the neighborhoods around Niagara Street. The conditions are atrocious, primarily because of the slumlords who own most of the properties. Look at the in rem list this year. There's property after property that was on the in rem list three years ago. They buy them, they don't care if they rent to dope dealers, they don't pay the taxes and they don't keep the property up.
Q. Why doesn't the city just tear these places down?
A. We all know that when you start tearing down property in this city, demolitions that should cost $5,000 end up costing $20,000. We have a city of 50,000 and Buffalo is a city of 300,000. It's six times as large and yet we tear down 12 houses in one year and they tear down 900. Why?
Q. In your resignation letter, you were particularly critical of the current city administration. Aside from not being able to tear down derelict housing, what are some of the other problems?
A. You've got crack houses, prostitutes, youth violence, slumlords, and these things have all been identified. What you have to do is go into these neighborhoods and shut this down. The mayor said the police would work with us, but the problem in Niagara Falls that she refuses to acknowledge is that the deployment of police isn't to the areas where you have the problems. How many murders have to happen on 10th Street before they realize there's a problem there? And this is only going to get worse. When you have this type of an environment and you don't do anything about it, it grows. Out of neglect, you're creating more drug dealers, more prostitutes.
Q. You supported Irene Elia when she ran for mayor two years ago. What happened?
A. I have tried to work hard with this administration. Every time I went to City Hall, Irene would pat me on the back and say, ³You're doing such a good job.² Well, you've got a group of paid department heads who aren't doing such a good job. (Public Works Director) Paul Colangelo runs City Hall like he's Adolph Hitler. We were going to do a fund-raiser for the United Way and (Niagara Street Business Association President) Fran Scarfone went to him to get the stage they use. He said no, that it was put away for the winter. This is the same stage they use for A Festival of Lights in the winter! It's all political. Irene has surrounded herself with political hacks.
Q. Let's talk about the lawsuit you're planning against the city. Where did that idea come from?
A. San Diego. In San Diego there were neighborhoods that launched a lawsuit charging racial discrimination on the part of the city. The neighborhoods were ignored, and it was proven that, over a number of years, the lack of money going to those neighborhoods and actually being directed away from those neighborhoods led to high crime, slumlords, drugs, all the things we see on Niagara Street and Highland Avenue. They created that environment. The residents won that suit, the city appealed it to the State of California and the state ended up giving the people more money, hundreds of millions of dollars.
Q. How does that relate to Niagara Falls?
A. Why isn't money coming down here to Niagara Street? Why is money constantly directed away from the neighborhood between Fourth Street and Portage Road? I've had city officials tell me it's Niagara Falls Redevelopment's responsibility. Why isn't there a police substation down here? Why don't they just give some of these derelict properties to people so they can fix them up? When Irene ran for mayor she said she was going to take care of the drug dealers, she was going to clean up the neighborhoods, force the slumlords to bring their properties up to code. Guess what? It's been business as usual. And that has hurt the quality of life for every resident living in those neighborhoods and it's hurt every small businessman trying to make a living there.