The sounds of front loaders and jackhammers breaking up the old street and sidewalks can be heard up and down Jefferson Avenue as the first phase of the Jefferson Avenue Streetscape Project is underway.
No one is more excited about the project being underway than Zeneta Everhart, Masten District Councilmember and President Pro Tempore of the Buffalo Common Council. Well, almost no one. The sounds of construction, she says, mean “Mr. Stitts can stop hounding me.”
With a smile, but an underlying tone of seriousness, Everhart checked off a list of times that Larry Stitts accosted her in public about when the project would begin — in meetings, at the gas station, and at Stitts’ business, Golden Cup Coffee.
Golden Cup has been a cornerstone on Jefferson Avenue for more than a decade at the corner of E. Utica Street, a block away from Tops.
“We can't go back to the past, but we can make the future bright,” says Stitts. “This streetscape project brings a new breath of life into a community.”
The business owners and residents along Jefferson have been waiting for decades to see the same level of infrastructure improvement some parts of the city have seen two or three times since it’s last happened on the street running through the heart of the East Side.
Knowing the day would come, Stitts and his wife have been pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into the building they bought across the street from the current shop. They are poised and ready to double down on the Jefferson Avenue infrastructure investment for themselves and for their community.
“We could have taken our coffee shop anywhere,” says Stitts, “but we're dedicated to the East Side of Buffalo and Jefferson Avenue. We're renovating our building, and we're going to give Jefferson Avenue their own ‘Starbucks,’ but it will be ‘Golden.’”
He says his hopes for the Jefferson Avenue of tomorrow are realistic and doable.
“We look at the reality of it all, we know we're not going to get a McDonald's, but if we get a Checkers — I mean the second level — that's huge for Jefferson Avenue.”
While he's running his own business, Stitts is also working to bring other businesses, too, as President of the Greater Jefferson Avenue Business Association.
“What we're trying to do is build Jefferson Avenue," he said. "We're investigating the vacant lots, what the owners plan to do with them, and trying to coordinate between the business association, the property owners, and the city, so that we can bring some businesses.”
By sheer force of his will, Stitts will make sure that at the end of the multi-year, multi-million dollar project, there will be more than just new streets on Jefferson Avenue.
“Support for the streetscape project is more than support for Jefferson Avenue," Stitts said. "It's support for the history of Buffalo's East Side and for those standing in the fabric of what makes this city resilient."
