Latest News

May 31, 2022

Buffalo News: "Racist attack highlights sparse supermarket options in Buffalo's largely Black neighborhoods"

By: Stephen T. Watson | May 31, 2022  The Tops Markets on Jefferson Avenue, targeted by an avowed white supremacist in a massacre that killed 10 Black people, is the only supermarket within the 14208 ZIP code and a wider section of Buffalo's East Side. The closest full-service grocery …

May 30, 2022

Buffalo News: "The Editorial Board: An ingrained system of segregation led the Tops shooter to Buffalo’s East Side"

The Buffalo News Editorial Board | May 30, 2022 This is the first in a series of editorials.  The cauldron of hate had been brewing for a while, fueled by false notions of “replacement theory.” But long before the shooter stepped foot in that Tops supermarket on May …

May 27, 2022

Black Enterprise: "The supermarket that was the scene of he Buffalo shooting is also an example of supermarket redlining"

By: Derek Major | May 27, 2022  The Tops Supermarket that was the scene of the Buffalo mass shooting was once a beacon of progress for the city’s Black residents. CNN reported in August 2001, Sens. Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer attended the announcement of the  Tops …

May 26, 2022

City & State New York: "“We battled to get that food store:” What the Tops supermarket meant to Buffalo’s Black community"

By:Justin Sondel | May 26, 2022 Shortly after President Joe Biden laid flowers at a memorial for the dead in the days after the racist attack that took the lives of 10 Black people at a supermarket in Buffalo, Robert Scott, who has frequented the store for years, spoke with other mourners. He …

May 23, 2022

NPR: "Buffalo plagued by economic neglect, segregation long before shooting, residents say"

By: Alana Wise | May 23, 2022 Buffalo is one of the most economically stunted cities in the nation. It is also one of the most segregated. In the city's East Side neighborhood – where last week, Black shoppers were mowed down by an accused racist gunman – the contrast is clear. The …

May 21, 2022

CBC Radio: "A gunman cost east Buffalo its only large grocery store - so locals are banding together to keep people fed"

CBC Radio | May 21, 2022 This article accompanies the May 19th, 2022  episode of CBC Radio's show The Current with Matt Galloway. Listen to the full episode here and read the transcript here. 

May 20, 2022

Food Access Data: How Many People Might Have Depended on Tops for Groceries?

We wanted to understand the scope of impact this tragedy had on food access in our city. To do this, we mapped the major grocery stores in the area and then calculated how many people lived closer to Tops on Jefferson Ave than to any other major grocery store nearby.

May 19, 2022

CNN Business: "The long struggle to bring a supermarket to a nearly all-Black Buffalo neighborhood"

By: Nathaniel Meyersohn | May 19, 2022  In August of 2001, more than 100 people gathered on the East Side of Buffalo, New York. The setting, an empty lot in a nearly all-Black neighborhood of this upstate New York city, drew prominent visitors. They included Hillary Clinton and Chuck …

May 16, 2022

Reuters: "An oasis in underserved Buffalo neighborhood..."

By: Jenna Zucker | May 16, 2022 For many people in the neighborhood, the Tops Friendly Market was an answer to prayers when it opened for business 19 years ago, providing an oasis of fresh groceries at affordable prices in the middle of an area long considered a "food desert." Before Tops …

February 3, 2022

WBEN: "Lawmakers weigh-in on call for community benefits agreement in new stadium deal"

By: Tom Puckett| February 3, 2022 When a deal on a new lease for the Buffalo Bills and new stadium is finally reached and announced, it will eventually make its way to the desks of Erie County and New York State lawmakers for review and approval. Without the details being yet known, some area …

February 3, 2022

Investigative Post Daily Post: "Stadium benefits campaign goes public"

By: Geoff Kelly| February 3, 2022 A coalition that wants a community benefits agreement attached to public subsidies for a new Buffalo Bills stadium has taken their campaign public, after months of quiet organizing. The coalition held a press conference Tuesday morning at Johnnie B. Wiley stadium …

February 2, 2022

WBFO: "Coalition calls for community benefit agreement tied to new Bills stadium"

By: Thomas O'Neil-White| February 2, 2022 A Community Benefits Agreement, or CBA, attached to a large-scale development project is an agreement that spells out what contributions could come back to the community impacted by the project. In Erie County, talk of a new football stadium for the Buffalo …