The City of Buffalo is investing $2.7 million into the Fruit Belt neighborhood. Mayor Byron Brown announced the funding during a Monday afternoon news conference at Carlton and Peach in front of Futures Academy in the heart of the neighborhood.
Brown says the funds will make the Fruit Belt a more attractive community and he says the neighborhood is turning around.
"This investment will further strengthen the infrastructure that is essential to the continued growth and success of the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus and its surrounding neighborhood," said Brown.
Much of the the turn around is credited to the burst of economic activity radiating out from the medical campus, with its buildings visible in the distance.
The projects around Carlton include a new kind of street paving, curbs, LED street lights, and a new water line.
It's all more than $3 million in construction, with around $1 million of that from the sale of Goodrich Street to the medical campus.
Ellicott District Common Council member Darius Pridgen said the neighbors had views on where that money should go and they had a voice.
"People just want to be included, want to know what's going on," said Pridgen. "People are excited from every area about the developments, the positive developments in the Fruit Belt. Simply they want want to know."
Mayor Brown said the improvements will show the better community to its residents and to those who travel through on the way to the medical campus.
The new infrastructure will also serve development, like the 49 townhouses for $16 million being built by the Saint John Fruit Belt Community Development Corporation.
