For one section of Niagara Falls, the building a new home for an industrial plant is more than a story about jobs.
For two years, the big project along one section of Highland Avenue was the two-year, $15 million removal and cleanup of a brownfield, best known as the Prest-o-Lite battery plant.
Less visible was the construction of new housing, the Unity Park project next door. Now, that housing is open and Tulip Molded Plastics is building a new plant on the former brownfield and keeping jobs.
County Legislator Owen Steed compares it to the memorial to a murder, two-weeks ago.
"As you walked in, you saw the vigil for young Fajiri Hilson that was killed here, young man that was killed here. This is what we need here, jobs," Steed said.
"Jobs to put our young people back to work, to get them off the street. We often talk about them, pants sagging. They can put down these guns. They can pull up their pants and get them back to work."
Housing Authority Executive Director Stephanie Cowart says the Tulip plant in their own community might convince kids there is a future, jobs they can see in the neighborhood, perhaps tough jobs but good-paying ones people can use to build a family and a home.
