NIAGARA FALLS — For the past few months, the Rev. Kevin Dobbs and members of his church have been doing a lot of work in the neighborhood.

   Chances are the neighbors haven’t noticed because much of the cleaning and repairing has been done inside their new home, the former site of Our Lady of Rosary Church at 22nd and Niagara streets.

With warmer weather on its way, Dobbs said his congregation plans to begin sprucing up the exterior of the building, which became home to his Christ Redemption Tabernacle church late last year.

“We’ve been working feverishly on the inside,” said Dobbs, whose 130-member parish moved out of a small brick building on Forest Avenue and into the old Our Lady of the Rosary site last Fall.

Dobbs is hoping his parish will not just fit in with the Niagara Street neighborhood, but make an impact on it as well. His members are planning to convert the old rectory building into a community learning center, a space to hold religious education classes and outreach programs. Eventually he’s hoping the property will serve as a beacon for the east side of the city, a neighborhood that is home to several well-known area restaurants and businesses and one that has, in recent years, been impacted by its ties to what police describe as one of the highest crime corridors in all of Niagara Falls.

“We just want to let them see some life on the corner,” Dobbs said. “It will happen. It will take some time but it will happen.”

A leap of faith

A few blocks down from Christ Redemption Tabernacle, Cathi Ruhlman-Rotella and Al Piccirillo are busy putting together flower arrangements for an afternoon delivery. The longtime co-workers and friends recently decided to go into business together. Three weeks ago, they opened their very own flower shop — Piccirillo’s Florist Inc. They chose a location in the 2500 block of Niagara Street, an area near the recently constructed elementary school that is within walking distance of Dobbs’ church and several restaurants, bars and small businesses that make up the bulk of the Niagara Street business

district. 

Upon seeing it for the first time, Ruhlman-Rotella, who lives in the area, felt like it was the ideal spot.

“It seemed like it was just meant to be a flower shop,” she said.

Ruhlman-Rotella and Piccirillo have big plans for the place. Right now, there’s a temporary sign above the front door, but in time they are going to add a canopy with their business name on it to give the shop a real professional feel. As word spreads, they’re confident the business will grow.

Piccirillo says he’s enthusiastic about the surrounding neighborhood as well, pointing to ongoing improvements at Gill Creek Park and the annual summer concert series as signs that the local business community is working hard to promote the area.

“I think this area is up and coming,” Piccirillo said.

Another view

Dave Bieksza owns a garage and several other properties on the east side. He grew up in the neighborhood and remembers well what it was like years ago. He gets mad just thinking about its condition today.

“Where’s the pride?” he asks, referring to the high concentration of neglected and abandoned properties that line parts of Niagara, Falls and other streets.

Bieksza’s auto shop, located at the intersection of 24th and East Falls streets, has been robbed twice and vandalized several more times. He says it is symptomatic of a larger problem: An increase in crime and questionable activity being committed by individuals who don’t share the same level of pride and character as those who have called the neighborhood home for generations.

He’d like to believe there’s hope for the future, but he just can’t look past all the problems, especially in the area of 19th Street, a corridor considered by police to be one of the highest crime areas in the city.

“I did well in this neighborhood,” said Bieksza, who is now retired. “The people in this neighborhood took good care of me when I was in business. I feel so bad for the older people who are afraid to walk out of their houses. People are afraid. When people are afraid, they are not going to do anything in this area.”

Advocating for change

“The Niagara Street business area, I think, has come a long way in the last three or four years,” said Ron Anderluh, revitalization coordinator for the local business association. “We’re a unique area. We’ve still got a lot of the ethnic groups that live in our area, which we kind of concentrate on whenever we have any of our festivals or putting up our flags on Niagara Street. We want to keep that ethnic core and that history there.”

Anderluh, whose job is funded through the city’s Community Development department, works with other members of the business association in an effort to grow the neighborhood surrounding Niagara Street from Hyde Park Boulevard into the downtown area and from Ferry Avenue south to the Upper Niagara River. In recent years, a great deal of focus has been placed on Gill Creek Park, a space that was once a popular home for local little leagues that is slowly being transformed into recreational space for a wider audience. Today, the park’s gazebo is home to summer concerts and other events. An agreement with the Niagara Falls School District will allow $102,000 in funding from the Niagara River Greenway to build an educational nature trail that will run from Buffalo Avenue through the park over to Ferry Avenue.

“That park is our pride and joy,” Anderluh said.

Anderluh argues that businesses are growing along with the park, with Piccirillo’s Florist being the latest example. He said the neighborhood is still home to several of the more popular restaurants in the city, including The Bakery Lounge and the Polish Nook. Other new businesses, like Denny’s Kitchen across from Niagara Street school have sprouted up, the Dairy Queen restaurant recently underwent an expansion and Johnny Ryan’s is still churning out its unique brand of pop at its site across from Gill Creek Park.

Association President Jim Szwedo believes small business growth is key to revitalizing the neighborhood, arguing that it could have a positive impact on the largest player in the Niagara Street area, Niagara Falls Redevelopment. Although the company, which is owned by New York City real estate developer Howard Milstein, controls more than 400 properties within the Niagara Street business district, much of its land remains vacant or undeveloped.

“The city of Niagara Falls, when it was great, when we were doing things in the city, when we had development, was built on the back of small businesses,” Szwedo said. “It wasn’t one giant project. It was the guy that owned a hotel or a store.”

Both Anderluh and Szwedo acknowledge that the neighborhood has its share of crime, blight and other problems, but they don’t believe they are any different than the types of things being experienced in other parts of the city. Szwedo said addressing those issues takes time, energy and teamwork. He said the association believes strongly that it can help bring about positive changes by continuing to advocate for funding and resources from local, state and federal officials and is continuing to work with city officials on ways to improve the quality of life for residents and business owners.

“At one point, that east side was a power point in the city,” Szwedo added. “That was the place to go. Like everywhere else, we had our fall and now we are coming back.”

Contact Mark Scheer at 282-2311, ext. 2250.