NIAGARA FALLS — In Detroit some residents have spent the last 20 years using color and art to turn abandoned houses into sculptures and galleries to inspire young people to take a sense of neighborhood ownership.

In Philadelphia gardeners have taken over thousands of vacant lots to beautify the city’s neighborhoods and increase investment incentive.

In Houston a block of formerly abandoned historic rowhouses now serve as art galleries and housing for artists in residence, as well as providing support and housing for young mothers and children.

And in Youngstown, Ohio, the mayor is leading efforts to strengthen the city’s center through “right sizing,” converting emptying neighborhoods to greenspace through targeted demolition and development.

The vacant houses and abandoned lots that pock-mark the neighborhoods around downtown Niagara Falls may seem to represent a certain hopelessness to those that pass by. But, there is also an element of opportunity that can be found among the broken structures and untended grass.

About 160 people from all over the country attended a conference in Buffalo last week to talk about the many ways being to bring life back to urban neighborhoods, sponsored by Buffalo ReUSE, and the Building Materials Reuse Association.

Speakers from neighborhood restoration projects in such places Detroit, Philadelphia and Youngstown, Ohio, shared their stories about how they have created beautiful, safe spaces out of ugly, neglected properties.

There were no business suits to be seen anywhere, except on the lawyers at the seminar down the hall. Reuse attendees, many who worked for urban non-profits, favored open collars, work books and blue jeans.

Niagara Falls City Planner Thomas DeSantis pointed out another unusual feature of the conference — the age of the attendees.

“I go to a lot of the meetings and see a lot of the same faces,” he said. “This conference seemed to be distinguishable in that a good portion of the faces were 20- or 30-somethings, and it’s always refreshing to see that kind of enthusiasm,” he said.

There was talk about how vacant homes were painted over with polka dots in Detroit, how urban farms were created in Philly and how the Youngstown mayor was drawing his community tighter together through drawing neighborhoods together and making them smaller.

“It certainly is interesting and intriguing,” said DeSantis, “and the benefits seem to indicated we should be — as a community — exploring this kind of a program here.”

Buffalo ReUSE is a non-profit business which uses careful building deconstruction as a way to re-use materials and develop communities, as well as train workers and create jobs. Deconstructed materials are sold in a reuse store at 298 North Hampton in Buffalo.

DeSantis said he thought Niagara Falls could benefit by bringing Buffalo ReUSE staff to this city to share their knowledge and perhaps help community members start a similar non-profit resale store.

“All by itself it would be very encouraging to residents to know other residents care about the same thing,” he said.

Michael Gainer, executive director of Buffalo ReUSE, told the assembled group that reuse wasn’t just about doing good and helping people, but that it also had economic benefits.

“How do we create both the political will and the momentum,” he asked. “How do we enable this movement in a big way?”

“It’s a process,” he said, answering his own question. “We need to knit together in our own communities, celebrate success and create momentum that will really speak to people,” he said.

Linda Gibbons, a Niagara Falls resident who also attended the event, said she was hoping to bring all the information she’d learned back to her Memorial Parkway block club.

“The block clubs are pushing for demolition of some homes,” she said. “Maybe we should be looking at deconstruction and material reuse.”

She also wondered about the feasibility of moving some salvageable abandoned houses onto vacant lots in certain thriving neighborhoods, to match the architecture and time period of the surrounding homes.

Such wondering and imagining is exactly what the conference was about, according to the planners, who said they were hoping that the networking begun at the event would strengthen the reuse movement nationwide.

Kathie Kudela, executive director of the Niagara Arts and Cultural Center on Pine Ave., was another attendee who was leaving the conference with a lot of ideas to think about.

“I don’t think we’ve sorted it all out yet,” said Kudela, who has an interest in encouraging artists to move to the many empty homes around her center which were once owned by the city’s elite.

“One thing we’ve learned here is that tearing down one historic house often provides enough material to help restore ten others,” she said.

Overall, the event yet went beyond expectations of the organizers. A continued discussion will take place online at www.reusewiki, said Rebekah Williams, the event coordinator. Web users can also visit the Buffalo ReUSE Web site at www.buffaloreuse.org.

“It was amazing,” said Williams said of the event. “It shows how strongly people feel about the issue of vacant property and reuse. It shows we’re on the right track.”

Contact reporter Michele DeLucaat 282-2311, ext. 2263.