A damaged sidewalk in a Buffalo neighborhood where a baby was tragically killed last month is being repaired. But residents staging a brief protest outside City Hall on Tuesday suggested if not for the death of Nyree Anderson, they might never have seen those repairs in action.
Those taking part in the protest lay motionless in a seven-minute "die-in." It was one minute for each month in the life of Nyree Anderson, who was in a stroller when it was struck by a passing car on Moselle Street last month. The baby died of her injuries.
The baby and her mother were on the street because conditions on the sidewalk, contend neighbors, were too rough to successfully use the stroller there. The protesters displayed photos of broken down sidewalks in their neighborhoods.
While work has finally begin to fix sidewalks on Moselle, residents say that's just the start. Several other streets in the Fillmore District, they say, are also in dire need of repairs.
"We need to get sidewalks done in that neighborhood, period. End of that," said Rhonda Lee, one of three women who spoke at the die-in.
"And not just started, but finished," added Mercedes Wright. "They need to be completed. They need to be completed when the news isn't out there looking."
Speakers also took aim at their representative on the Common Council, David Franczyk. The lawmaker spoke earlier this month about sidewalk conditions that he personally observed while walking for a political campaign months before. Those outside City Hall on Tuesday, though, say Franczyk is getting undeserved credit for the action finally taken on Moselle.
"That is not true," said Taniqua Simmons. "That was done when the community came together and we got an impromptu meeting with the mayor, and it was the mayor's actions that helped and was instrumental in getting those sidewalks cleared up on Moselle."
Inside City Hall, Franczyk offered this response: "It's the city. We are the legislative branch of government. We put the money in the budget, so I'm glad the mayor took the money we voted on to fix those sidewalks."
Often times, the sidewalks are damaged by contractors working on demolition or construction jobs, and the mayor's office has previously spoken of enforcing contractor obligations to make good with repairs. the system, Mayor Byron Brown said earlier this month, has improved in recent years.
The same residents who credited the mayor's office, though, also suggested that no one might be taking action on city sidewalks if not for Nyree Anderson's death.
"We want to let them know this is not the end. This is only the beginning," Simmons and Wright said. "No one else, if we can prevent it, is going to lose their life because we have impassable sidewalks."
