North Buffalo was predominately a Jewish neighborhood from its creation until the late 1960s when many people of Italian descent arrived, primarily moving from the West Side, to create a new "Little Italy" neighborhood. Thru the 1970s there were 5 active synagogues in the neighborhood, along with a Hebrew school and many merchants catering to the Jewish residents.
Just on this one street, within 4 short blocks mixed in with single and double-family homes, there were 2 synagogues, 4 delicatessen/grocers, and several other businesses (kosher butcher, printer, hair salon, game room, etc). Today, no grocers remain, one synagogue was replaced with apartments, another is a Christian church, and several businesses were converted to apartments.
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Multiple-occupant homes, apartment buildings, mixed-use apartments/shops, and even apartment rows are mixed in among single and double-family homes throughout the neighborhood.
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Like much of the city, there are numerous churches and church buildings that fell vacant or underused as the church going population fell, and many have been or are being converted to other uses as commercial or residential properties.
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Soon to be converted to apartments
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As the last neighborhood with land for development after World War 2, small houses, many below 1000 square feet, filled the remaining residential lots in the city.
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In the 1980s, with the decline of heavy industry in Buffalo and the neighborhood, many industrial sites and railroad right-of-ways were vacated, and today many have been filled with suburban-type retail centers, and recently new market-rate home construction is slowly filling the vacant land. A new hike and bike trail was also recently opened connecting to the far northern suburbs.
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