A motorized version of a Murphy bed makes raising and lowering the piece of furniture much easier thanks to a push button that puts the bed silently in place, as well as hides it again, in under 15 seconds.
Created by Odin Visser for Moooi, the contemporary, versatile suspension light is playful yet elegant, simple in functionality but visually intriguing.
The clock’s gently curved aluminum design, paired with its minimalist clock face typography, results in an iconic timepiece. It’s now available in four new colorways.
This series includes representations of some of the architect’s original masterpieces in the form of lighting, honing in on Wright’s refined style that highlights the relationships between natural and manmade elements.
The Toneoptic rpm isn’t your ordinary vinyl storage solution – it cleverly marries design and functionality to elevate your music listening experience.
Celebrating their 80th anniversary, the brand released a selection of home goods and furnishings from their archives with a colorful, contemporary refresh.
Melt gets you organized with four products that are 3D printed using bio-based filaments made from recycled food packaging waste with other compostable or renewable materials.
The IKEA research and design lab created Couch in an Envelope as a way to challenge traditional design and make it more sustainable, adaptable, and easy to transport.
Designer Sabine Marcelis’ 20-piece VARMBLIXT collection is a collaboration with IKEA that includes sculptural lighting objects, serveware, rugs, and more.
And the most popular Home Furnishings post of 2023 is…
IKEA had an amazing year of design and collaborations, with four posts included here acting as proof. This limited-edition series of 26 products, brings together Nordic design and self-care rituals. From furniture to glassware to textiles, vibrant patterns reflect nature back at you.
Kelly Beall is Director of Branded Content at Design Milk. The Pittsburgh-based writer and designer has had a deep love of art and design for as long as she can remember, from Fashion Plates to MoMA and far beyond. When not searching out the visual arts, she’s likely sharing her favorite finds with others. Kelly can also be found tracking down new music, teaching herself to play the ukulele, or on the couch with her three pets – Bebe, Rainey, and Remy. Find her @designcrush on social.
Despite their timeless appeal, all-white kitchens are a deceptively polarizing design trope. While some people applaud .css-fwmnzn-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-decoration-thickness:0.0625rem;text-decoration-color:inherit;text-underline-offset:0.25rem;color:inherit;-webkit-transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;word-break:break-word;padding-top:0.05rem;padding-bottom:0.05rem;-webkit-background-size:0 0;background-size:0 0;background-image:linear-gradient( to bottom, rgba(55, 119, 188, 0.2), rgba(55, 119, 188, 0.2) );background-repeat:repeat-x;-webkit-background-position:0 100%;background-position:0 100%;.css-fwmnzn:hovercolor:#000000;text-decoration-color:border-link-body-hover;-webkit-background-size:.625rem 3.125rem;background-size:.625rem 3.125rem;the pared-back palette for its enduring versatility and sophistication, die-hard maximalists might find these spaces on the snoozier end of the spectrum. If you’re not sure which side of the great kitchen debate you fall on, we’re here to make a case for the neutral culinary corner.
Don’t let this one-tone wonder fool you. Whether you incorporate tactile materials, sprinkle in a little bit of art, or incorporate an occasional pop of color, all-white kitchens are packed with ample design potential. “If you want a kitchen that will last a lifetime, white is a classic color that will always be in style,” says Atlanta-based interior designer Morse Design’s Andi Morse, who sees an all-white space as a prime canvas upon which one can bring in daring accessories and bold accents.
Looking to give your kitchen a clean transformation? A sleek space can transform the smallest details of the room into a museum-worthy backdrop, be it some cool cabinetry hardware or a fresh batch of brownies. To prove it, we’ve culled the archives for the very best white kitchens to use as inspiration. From farmhouse-forward setups to modern masterpieces, these 57 kitchens prove that an all-white theme equals a creative carte blanche.
Whether you want to manage your money better, rock your professional life, stay fit and eat healthy, or discover the keys to better mental health, Quick and Dirty Tips delivers short-form podcasts and articles every week to keep you at the top of your game, usually in ten minutes or less!
When “Winter Wonderland” was written in the 1930s, “parson” was a term for Protestant or Anglican ministers. They would often travel from town to town performing wedding ceremonies for those who did not have a local minister of their own faith. “Parson Brown” doesn’t seem to refer to any significant historical figure from the time period and is more likely a fictional name.
The Sentinel offers nonprofit and other community organizations an opportunity to promote upcoming events for free in the community calendar for three days before the event. Events requiring reservations may be promoted for up to two weeks before the reservation deadline.
Events that require a purchase from a for-profit business, even if a donation is made to the organization, are not eligible for the calendar.
Submit items at least one week in advance via email, [email protected]; call (717) 248-6741; online, Virtual Newsroom at www.lewistownsentinel.com; or mail or drop off, The Sentinel, 352 Sixth St., P.O. Box 588 Lewistown, PA 17044. The editor reserves the right to edit all submissions.
You must include a telephone number for verification purposes. The phone number is not for publication, unless so indicated.
Reserve Now:
•Chicken/ham pot pie sale — noon-6 p.m., Decatur Fire Co. Cookhouse, North 522, Alfarata. Order by calling (717) 543-0921 by Nov. 8.
•Freedom Avenue UMC and Shining Light Through the Darkness soup sale — Friday, Nov. 17. Soups available: chicken corn with and without rivels, ham bean, beef vegetable, stuffed pepper and French onion. Cost is $8 per quart. Pick up between 9 a.m.-6 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 17 at the Freedom Avenue UMC fellowship hall, 511 East Freedom Ave. in Burnham. Preorders recommended. Walk-ins welcome. To preorder, call or text Darlene Gray @ (717) 953-6352 by Sunday, Nov. 12.
•Church bazaar — 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Nov. 18, Rhodes Memorial United Methodist Church, 500 Highland Ave., Lewistown. Vegetable soup, ham pot pie, coconut cream pie and apple pie. Must order ahead by Nov. 13
at (717) 248-1897.
•Mincemeat sale — 10 a.m.-noon pickup, Nov. 18, East Kish Presbyterian Church, corner of Walnut and Church streets, Reedsville. Cost is $11.50 per quart, $5.75 per pint. Order by Nov. 11 at (717) 667-2806. Leave a message with name, phone number and quantity. Proceeds benefit the church’s mission and Benevolence Fund.
•Annual craft show — Saturday, Nov. 18 from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. at Milroy United Methodist Church. Vendors can contact Paul at (724) 678-6619 for more information. Crafts, food, baked goods, jewelry, home decor and more available. Soup sale: $7 per quart. Chicken noodle, ham and bean and creamy chicken and wild rice available. Preorder by Wednesday, Nov. 15 by calling (724) 678-6619. Pick-up during craft show.
•Meal — pickup 10 a.m.-noon, eat-in 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m., Calvary Lewistown, 111 E. Third St., Lewistown, Nov. 23. Reserve meals by calling (717) 242-1481 no later than 2 p.m. Nov. 21. Shut-ins can receive free delivery in Lewistown, Burnham, Yeagertown, Reedsville and Milroy.
•AARP Safe Driving class — Nov. 29-30 from 9 a.m.-1:30 p.m. at the Mifflin-Juniata Regional Services Corporation (MJRSC) in Yeagertown. Classes will be held in the ground floor conference room. Instructor: Nancy Simmons. Cost is $20 for AARP members, $25 for non-members. Bring membership card and driver’s license to class. For reservations, call (717) 667-2763.
Saturday, Nov. 4
•Holiday bazaar — 9 a.m.-1 p.m., Milroy White Memorial Church, South Main St., Milroy. Benefits mission work.
•Graceful Soles Shoe Bank — 9 a.m.-noon, Grace United Methodist Church, 101 Logan St., Lewistown. Children up to age 18 are given a free pair of shoes with verification of low income through medical assistance. Parent or guardian must accompany child.
•Winter Wonderland Craft and Vendor Show — 10 a.m.-2 p.m., Mifflin County Youth Park. Event sponsors the Mifflin County Penn Roosevelt Camp and Lodge.
•Soup sale — noon, McVeytown Masonic Lodge, 25 N. Market St., McVeytown. Kettle cooked soup of ham and bean and chicken corn. $8/quart. Proceeds benefit local charities.
•General Thomas Mifflin Chapter of the Pennsylvania Daughters of the American Revolution — 3-5 p.m., Mifflin County Courthouse, Monument Square, 1 West Market St., Lewistown on the second floor in the courtroom. Speaker is Jackie R. Esposito. Program will be “Managing your Personal Archives.”
•Drive-thru beef and ham potpie sale — 4 p.m. at the Rescue Hose Company #20, 222 S. Sassafras St. in Beavertown. Sold by the quart. Proceeds benefit the fire company.
•Crafterday — 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., Mifflin County Library, Lewistown branch, 123 N. Wayne St., Lewistown. Susan Miriello will be teaching Tunisian Crochet. All supplies are provided. A $5 non-refundable fee will secure your spot. Information: (717) 242-2391.
Sunday, Nov. 5
•Burnham Lions Club turkey dinner — 10 a.m.-1 p.m. or until sold out. Take-out only. Turkey, filling, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn and green beans. Take-outs $12 per dinner. Burnham Lions Building, First Ave. in Burnham.
Monday, Nov. 6
•Bag sale — 10 a.m.-3 p.m., Sacred Heart Thrift Shop 4 N. Dorcas St., Lewistown. $5 for clothing and shoes.
•Bingo — 10 a.m.-1 p.m., McVeytown Senior Center.
•TOPS (Take off the Pounds Sensibly) PA 13339 meeting — 6:45 p.m., Rhodes Memorial United Methodist Church, 500 Highland Avenue, Lewistown. Weigh-in at 6 p.m. Welcoming new members. For information: (717) 994-0156
•Central Pennsylvania Grasp Chapter — 7-9 p.m. at CPYM Sausman Center, 12339 William Penn Hwy. in Thompsontown. There is no cost to attend. For more information, please contact: Shannon Zeiders at (717) 953-6810 or [email protected].
Reunions
Upcoming reunions, including missing classmate requests, are published as part of the calendar and should be sent to [email protected]. Brief reports of reunions and class reunion photos with the people identified in the order in which they appear are accepted for publication in the Saturday Living section and should be sent to [email protected].
Dublin, Oct. 19, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The “Online Home Decor – Global Strategic Business Report” report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com’s offering.
The global online home decor market is poised for remarkable growth, expected to reach a substantial $612.5 billion by 2030, according to a recent market research report. Titled “Global Online Home Decor Market,” this comprehensive report provides deep insights into the dynamic landscape of the online home decor industry.
Key Insights:
The global market for online home decor is predicted to grow at a CAGR of 23.1%, starting from an estimated $116.5 billion in 2022.
The report delves into various segments of the industry, with online home furnishing expected to achieve a robust CAGR of 21.2%, reaching a value of $565 billion by the end of the forecast period.
Geographic markets analyzed in the report include the U.S., China, Japan, Canada, and Germany, with each region showing substantial growth rates. For instance, China, the world’s second-largest economy, is projected to reach a market size of $102.6 billion by 2030, driven by a CAGR of 22%.
A detailed competitive analysis showcases leading companies in the sector, such as Amazon.com Inc. and Bed Bath & Beyond Inc., among others, offering valuable insights for business strategies.
The report includes a year-long complimentary update service, ensuring that businesses stay informed about significant changes in the industry.
This comprehensive report on the global online home decor market is an essential resource for industry stakeholders, offering valuable insights that can drive informed decisions and strategic positioning.
Market Scope
These tables offer a comprehensive analysis of the online home decor market, covering the years 2020 through 2027 and providing a historical review from 2012 through 2019. They focus on different geographic regions, including the USA, Canada, Japan, China, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Rest of the World. The data includes annual sales figures in US$ million and the Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) percentages for various segments, such as Online Home Furniture, Online Home Furnishing, and Other Segments. Furthermore, these tables provide a 15-year perspective on the online home decor market, offering insights into the percentage breakdown of value sales for the specified regions. Overall, these tables enable a detailed examination of the past, present, and future trends within the online home decor industry.
Market Overview
Influencer Market Insights
World Market Trajectories
Online Home Decor – Global Key Competitors Percentage Market Share in 2022 (E)
Competitive Market Presence – Strong/Active/Niche/Trivial for Players Worldwide in 2022 (E)
Impact of Covid-19 and a Looming Global Recession
Select Competitors (Total 14 Featured) –
Amazon.com, Inc.
Ashley Furniture Industries, Inc.
Bed Bath & Beyond, Inc.
Cabela’s Inc.
Carrefour Group
Costco Wholesale Corporation
Herman Miller Furniture (India) Pvt. Ltd.
Home24 SE
Inter IKEA Systems BV
jcp Media Inc.
Otto (GmbH & Co KG)
Sears Brands LLC
Target Brands, Inc.
Tesco PLC
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Wayfair LLC
What’s New for 2023?
Special coverage on Russia-Ukraine war; global inflation; easing of zero-Covid policy in China and its `bumpy` reopening; supply chain disruptions, global trade tensions; and risk of recession.
Global competitiveness and key competitor percentage market shares
Market presence across multiple geographies – Strong/Active/Niche/Trivial
For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/hedqq7
About ResearchAndMarkets.com ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world’s leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.
Insofar as home ownership is a key contributing factor to the health of the US economy, the mortgages that back home loans are a positive indicator of the strength of the housing market.
The Federal Housing Administration insures private mortgage lenders against the possibility of default. FHA insured loans are a form of federal assistance. The FHA market share therefore indicates the strength of private versus public mortgage insurance.
The Mortgage Bankers Association releases data on the number of mortgages that they forecast will be originated each quarter. Mortgages originations, shown in dollars, indicates the level of market activity. Divided here between original purchases and refinances provides even greater insight into the types of originations and the condition of the market recovery.
Data Release: http://www.mbaa.org/ResearchandForecasts/ForecastsandCommentary
Delinquency rates on all loans secured by real estate and commercial banks are released by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve. Seasonally adjusted, the measure indicates the percentage of borrowers who have been unable to make timely payments on their loans. This measure is reflective of the overall economy and macroeconomic factors like unemployment. This data is released quarterly with the Fed report on “Charge-Off and Delinquency Rates on Loans and Leases at Commercial Banks.”
We all know about the marvels of Washi Tape. The once cult-followed and nearly impossible to find Japanese tape is now ubiquitous in the blogging world. It is the DIYer’s dream.
And while it’s been well-documented that I am not DIY friendly, this is an idea that I might actually steal: Washi Tape frames! We’ve all probably seen a version of washi tape frames floating around the blogosphere. But there are three specific things I love about this one.
First – the mix of colors. The peach is the perfect pop against the black & white photos. The second is the various sizes of the prints. It creates a perfectly balanced vignette.
That balance is further enhanced by the use of the washi tape to create geometric patterns. That’s way more interesting and fun than a regular old square! I’ve got those unframed pieces hanging in the Apartment 34 office.
The Jefferson Avenue commercial district in Buffalo, New York, is anchored by a supermarket.
There are dozens of other businesses and services along the 12-block corridor — a couple of bank branches, a library, a coffee shop, gas stations, a small plaza with a dollar store and a primary care clinic and a business incubator for entrepreneurs of color.
But Tops Friendly Markets, the only grocery store on Buffalo’s vast East Side, is the center of activity. More than just a place to buy food, pick up medications and use an ATM, the store is a communal gathering space in a predominantly Black neighborhood that, for generations, has been segregated, isolated and disenfranchised from the wealthier — and whiter — parts of the city.
Which explains how it came to be the site of a mass shooting on a spring day in May of last year. On that Saturday, a gunman, who lived 200 miles away in another part of the state, drove to Jefferson Avenue and went into Tops, and in just a few minutes killed 10 people, injured three and inflicted mass trauma across the community.
It is a scenario that has sadly, and repeatedly, played out in other parts of the country that have experienced mass shootings. But this one came with a twist: The gunman’s intention was to kill as many Black people as possible.
To achieve that, he specifically targeted a ZIP code with one of the highest percentages of Black residents in New York state. All 10 who died that day were Black.
“The mere fact that someone can research, ‘Where will the greatest number of Black people be … on a Saturday morning,’ that’s not by chance,” said Franchelle Parker, a community organizer and executive director of Open Buffalo, a nonprofit focused on racial, economic and ecological justice. “That’s not a mistake. It’s a community that’s been deeply segregated for decades.”
The day of the shooting, Parker, who grew up in nearby Niagara Falls, was driving to Tops, where she planned to buy a donut and an unsweetened iced tea before heading into the Open Buffalo office, which is located a block away from Tops. The mother of two had intended to complete the mundane task of cleaning up her desk — “old coffee cups and stuff” — after a busy week.
She saw the news on Twitter and didn’t know if she should keep driving to Jefferson Avenue or turn around and go back home. She eventually picked the latter.
When she showed up the next day, there were thousands of people grieving in the streets. “The only way that I could explain my feeling, it was almost like watching an old war movie when a bomb had gone off and someone’s in, like, shell shock. That’s how it felt,” said Parker, vividly recounting the community’s collective trauma in a meeting room tucked inside of Open Buffalo’s second-story office on Jefferson Avenue.
Almost immediately following the May 14, 2022, massacre, which was the second-deadliest mass shooting in the United States last year, conversations locally and nationally turned to the harsh realities of the East Side and how long-standing factors that affect the daily life of residents — racism, poverty and inequity — made the community an ideal target for a white supremacist.
Now, more than a year after the tragedy, there is growing concern that not enough is being done fast enough to begin to dismantle those factors. And amid those conversations, there are mounting calls for the banking industry — whose historical policies and practices helped cement the racial segregation and disinvestment that ultimately shaped the East Side — to leverage its collective power and influence to band together in an effort to create systemic change.
The ideas about how banks should support the East Side and better embed themselves in the neighborhood vary by people and organizations. But the basic argument is the same: Banks, in their role as financiers and because of the industry’s history of lending discrimination, are obligated to bring forth economic prosperity in disinvested communities like the East Side.
I know banks are often looked upon sort of like a panacea, but I don’t particularly see it that way. I think others have a role to play in all of this.
Chiwuike Owunwanne, corporate responsibility officer at KeyBank
“Banks have been very good at providing charitable contributions to the Black community. They get an ‘A’ for that,” said The Rev. George Nicholas, an East Side pastor who is also CEO of the Buffalo Center for Health Equity, a four-year-old enterprise focused on racial, geographic and economic health disparities. “But doing the things that banks can do in terms of being a catalyst for revitalization and investment in this community, they have not done that.”
To be sure, banks’ ability to reverse the course of the community isn’t guaranteed — and there is no formula to determine how much accountability they should hold to fix deeply entrenched problems like racism. Several Buffalo-area bankers said that while the Tops shooting heightened the urgency to help the East Side, the industry itself cannot be the sole driver of change.
“There are a lot of institutions … that can certainly play a part in reversing the challenges that we see today,” said Chiwuike “Chi-Chi” Owunwanne, a corporate responsibility officer at KeyBank, the second-largest bank by deposits in Buffalo. “I know banks are often looked upon sort of like a panacea, but I don’t particularly see it that way. I think others have a role to play in all of this.”
A long history of segregation
How the East Side — and the Tops store on Jefferson Avenue — became the destination for a racially motivated mass murderer is a story about racism, segregation and disinvestment.
Even as it bears the nickname “the city of good neighbors,” Buffalo has long been one of the most racially segregated cities in the United States. Of the 114,965 residents who live on the East Side, 59% are Black, according to data from the 2021 U.S. Census American Community Survey. The percentage is even higher in the 14208 ZIP code, where the Tops store is located. In that ZIP code, among 11,029 total residents, nearly 76% are Black, the census data shows.
The city’s path toward racial segregation started in the early 20th century when a small number of job-seeking Black Americans migrated north to Buffalo, a former steel and auto manufacturing hub at the far northwestern end of New York state. Initially, they moved into the same neighborhoods as many of the city’s poorer immigrants and lived just east of what is today the city’s downtown district. As the number of Blacks arriving in Buffalo swelled in the 1940s, they were increasingly confronted with various housing challenges, including racist zoning laws and restrictive deed covenants that kept them from buying homes in more affluent white areas.
Black Buffalonians also faced housing discrimination in the form of redlining, the practice of restricting the flow of capital into minority communities. In 1933, as the Great Depression roiled the economy, a temporary federal agency known as the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation used government bonds to buy out and refinance mortgages of properties that were facing or already in foreclosure. The point was to try to stabilize the nation’s real estate market.
As part of its program, HOLC created maps of American cities, including Buffalo, that used a color coding scheme — green, blue, yellow and red — to convey the perceived riskiness of making loans in certain neighborhoods. Green was considered minimally risky; other areas that were largely populated by immigrant, Black or Latino residents were labeled red and thus determined to be “hazardous.”
“The goal was to free up mortgage capital by going to cities and giving banks a way to unload mortgages, so they could turn around and make more mortgage loans,” said Jason Richardson, senior director of research at the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, an association of more than 750 community-based organizations that advocates for fair lending. “It was kind of a radical concept and it has evolved over the decades into our modern mortgage finance system.”
The Federal Housing Administration, which was established as a permanent agency in 1934, used similar methods to map urban areas and labeled neighborhoods from “A” to “D,” with “A” considered to be the most financially stable and “D” considered the least. Neighborhoods that were largely Black, even relatively stable ones, were put in the “D” category.
The result was that banks, which wanted to be able to sell mortgage loans to the FHA, were largely dissuaded from making loans in “risky” areas. And Buffalo’s East Side, where the majority of Blacks were settling, was deemed risky. Unable to get loans, Blacks couldn’t buy homes, start businesses or build equity. At the same time, large industrial factories on the East Side were closing or moving away, limiting job opportunities and contributing to rising poverty levels.
“Today what we’re left with is the residue of this process where we’ve enshrined … a pattern of economic segregation that favors neighborhoods that had fewer Black people in them and generally ignores neighborhoods that had African Americans living in them,” Richardson said.
Case in point: Research by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition shows that three-quarters of neighborhoods that were once redlined are low- to moderate-income neighborhoods today, and two-thirds of them are majority minority communities.
Adding to the division between Blacks and whites in Buffalo was the construction of a highway called the Kensington Expressway. Built during the 1960s, the below-grade, limited-access highway proved to be a speedy way for suburban workers to get to their downtown jobs. But its construction cut off the already-segregated East Side even more from other parts of the city, displacing residents, devaluing houses and destroying neighborhoods and small businesses.
As a result of those factors and more, many Black residents have become “trapped” on the East Side, according to Dr. Henry Louis Taylor Jr., a professor of urban and regional planning at the University at Buffalo. In 1987, Taylor founded the UB Center for Urban Studies, a research, neighborhood planning and community development institute that works on eliminating inequality in cities and metropolitan regions. In September 2021, eight months before the Tops shooting, the Center for Urban Studies published a report that compared the state of Black Buffalo in 1990 to present-day conditions. The conclusion: Nothing had changed for Blacks over 31 years.
As of 2019, the Black unemployment rate was 11%, the average household income was $42,000 and about 35% of Blacks had incomes that fell below the poverty line, the report said. It also noted that just 32% of Blacks own their homes and that most Blacks in the area live on the East Side.
“Those figures remain virtually unchanged while the actual, physical conditions that existed inside of the community worsened,” Taylor told American Banker in an interview in his sun-filled office at the center, located on the University at Buffalo’s city campus. “When we looked upstream to see what was causing it, it was clear: It was systemic, structural racism.”
Banks’ moral obligations
As the East Side struggled over the decades with rampant poverty, dilapidated housing, vacant lots and disintegrating infrastructure, banks kept a physical presence in the community, albeit a shrinking one. In mid-2000, there were at least 20 bank branches scattered across the East Side, but by mid-2022, the number had fallen to around 14, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s deposit market share data. The 14 include four new branches that have opened since early 2019 — Northwest Bank, KeyBank, Evans Bank and BankOnBuffalo.
The first two branches, operated by Northwest in Columbus, Ohio, and KeyBank, the banking subsidiary of KeyCorp in Cleveland, were requirements of community benefits agreements negotiated between each bank and the National Community Reinvestment Coalition. In both cases, Northwest and KeyBank agreed to open an office in an underserved community.
Evans Bank opened its first East Side branch in the fall of 2021. The office is located in the basement of an $84 million affordable senior housing building that was financed by Evans, a $2.1 billion-asset community bank headquartered south of Buffalo in Angola, New York.
Banks have been very good at providing charitable contributions to the Black community. They get an ‘A’ for that. But doing the things that banks can do in terms of being a catalyst for revitalization and investment in this community, they have not done that.
The Rev. George Nicholas, an East Side pastor who is also CEO of the Buffalo Center for Health Equity
On the community and economic development front, banks have had varying levels of participation. Buffalo-based M&T Bank, which holds a whopping 64% of all deposits in the Buffalo market and is one of the largest private employers in the region, has made consistent investments in the East Side by supporting Westminster Community Charter School, a kindergarten through eighth-grade school, and the Buffalo Promise Neighborhood, a nonprofit organization focused on improving access to education in the city’s 14215 ZIP code.
Currently, Buffalo Promise Neighborhood operates four schools. In addition to Westminster, it runs Highgate Heights Elementary, also K-8, as well as two academies that serve children ages six weeks through pre-kindergarten. Twelve M&T employees are dedicated to the program, according to the Buffalo Promise Neighborhood website. The bank has invested $31.5 million into the program since its 2010 launch, a spokesperson said.
Other banks are making contributions in other ways. In addition to the Jefferson Avenue branch and as part of its community benefits plan, Northwest Bank, a $14.2 billion-asset bank, supports a financial education center through a partnership with Belmont Housing Resources of Western New York. Meanwhile, the $198 billion-asset KeyBank gave $30 million for bridge and construction financing for Northland Workforce Training Center, a $100 million redevelopment project at a former manufacturing complex on the East Side that was partially funded by the state.
BankOnBuffalo’s East Side branch is located inside the center, which offers KeyBank training in advanced manufacturing and clean energy technology careers. A subsidiary of $5.6 billion-asset CNB Financial in Clearfield, Pennsylvania, BankOnBuffalo’s office opened a month after the shooting. The timing was coincidental, but important, said Michael Noah, president of BankOnBuffalo.
“I think it just cemented the point that this is a place we need to be, to be able to be part of these communities and this community specifically, and be able to build this community up,” Noah said.
In terms of public-private collaboration, some banks have been involved in a deeper way. In 2019, New York state, which had already been pouring $1 billion into Buffalo to help revitalize the economy, announced a $65 million economic development fund for the East Side. The initiative is focused on stabilizing neighborhoods, increasing homeownership, redeveloping commercial corridors including Jefferson Avenue, improving historical assets, expanding workforce training and development and supporting small businesses and entrepreneurship.
In conjunction with the funding, a public-private partnership called East Side Avenues was created to provide capital and organizational support to the projects happening along four East Side commercial corridors. Six banks — Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America, the second-largest bank in the nation with $2.5 trillion of assets; M&T, which has $203 billion of assets; KeyBank; Warsaw, New York-based Five Star Bank, which has about $6 billion of assets; Northwest and Evans — are among the 14 private and philanthropic organizations that pledged a combined $8.4 million to pay for five years’ worth of operational support, governance and finance, fundraising and technical assistance to support the nonprofits doing the work.
Laura Quebral, director of the University at Buffalo Regional Institute, which is managing East Side Avenues, said the banks were the first corporations to step up to the request for help, and since then have provided loans and other products and education to keep the program moving.
Their participation “is a signal to the community that banks cared and were invested and were willing to collaborate around something,” Quebral said. “Being at the table was so meaningful.”
Richard Hamister is Northwest’s New York regional president and former co-chair of East Side Avenues. Hamister, who is based in Buffalo, said banks are a “community asset” that have a responsibility to lift up all communities, including those where conditions have arisen that allow it to be a target of racism like the East Side.
“We operate under federal charters, so we have an obligation to the community to not only provide products and services they need but also support when you go through a tragedy like that,” Hamister said. “We also have a moral obligation to try to help when things are broken … and to do what we can. We can’t fix everything, but we’ve got to fix our piece and try to help where we can.”
In the wake of a tragedy
After the massacre, there was a flurry of activity within banks and other organizations, local and out-of-town, to respond to the immediate needs of East Side residents. With the community’s only supermarket closed indefinitely, much of the response centered around food collection and distribution. Three of M&T’s five East Side branches, including the Jefferson Avenue branch across the street from Tops, became food distribution sites for weeks after the shooting. On two consecutive Fridays, Northwest provided around 200 free lunches to the community, using a neighborhood caterer who is also the bank’s customer. And BankOnBuffalo collected employee donations that amounted to more than 20 boxes of toiletries and other items that were distributed to a nonprofit.
At the same time, M&T, KeyBank and other banks began financial donations to organizations that could support the immediate needs of the community. KeyBank provided a van that delivered food and took people to nearby grocery stores. Providence, Rhode Island-based Citizens Financial Group, whose ATM inside Tops was inaccessible during the store’s temporary closure, installed a fee-free ATM near a community center located about a half-mile north of Tops, and later put a permanent ATM inside the center that remains there today. And M&T rolled out a short-term loan program to provide capital to East Side small-business owners.
One of the funds that benefited from banks’ support was the Buffalo Together Community Response Fund, which has raised $6.2 million to address the long-term needs of the East Side.
Bank of America and Evans Bank each donated $100,000 to the fund, whose list of major sponsors includes four other banks — JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, M&T and KeyBank. Thomas Beauford Jr., a former banker who is co-chair of the response fund, said banks, by and large, directed their resources into organizations where the dollars would have an immediate impact.
“Banks said, ‘Hey, you know … it doesn’t make sense for us to try to build something right now. … We will fund you in the work you’re doing,'” said Beauford, who has been president and CEO of the Buffalo Urban League since the fall of 2020. “I would say banks showed up in a big way.”
Fourteen months later, banks say they are committed to playing a positive role on the East Side. For the second year, KeyBank is sponsoring a farmers’ market on the East Side, an attempt to help fill the food desert in the community. Last fall, BankOnBuffalo launched a mobile “bank on wheels” truck that’s stationed on the East Side every Wednesday. The 34-foot-long truck, which is staffed by two people and includes an ATM and a printer to make debit cards, was in the works before the shooting, and will eventually make four stops per week around the Buffalo area.
Evans has partnered with the city of Buffalo to construct seven market-rate single family homes on vacant lots on the East Side. The relationship with the city is an example of how banks can pair up with other entities to create something meaningful and lasting, more than they might be able to do on their own, said Evans President and CEO David Nasca.
The bank has “picked areas” where it can use its resources to make a difference, Nasca said.
“I don’t think the root causes can be ameliorated” by banks alone, he said. “We can’t just grant money. It has to be within our construct of a financial institution that invests and supports the public-private partnership. … All the oars [need to be] pulling together or this doesn’t work.”
‘Little or no engagement with minorities’
All of these efforts are, of course, welcomed by the community, but there is still criticism that banks haven’t done enough to make up for their past contributions to segregating the city. And perhaps more importantly, some of that criticism centers on banks failing to do their most basic function in society — provide credit.
In 2021, the New York State Department of Financial Services issued a report about redlining in Buffalo. The regulator looked at banks and nonbank lenders and found that loans made to minorities in the Buffalo metro area made up 9.74% of total loans in Buffalo. Overall, Black residents comprise about 33% of Buffalo’s total population of more than 276,000, census data shows.
The department said its investigation showed the lower percentage was not due to “excessive denials of loan applications based on race or ethnicity,” but rather that “these companies had little or no engagement with minorities and generally made scant effort to do so.”
“The unsurprising result of this has been that few minority customers or individuals seeking homes in majority-minority neighborhoods have made loan applications … in the first instance.”
Furthermore, accusations of redlining persist today, even though the practice of discriminating in housing based on race was outlawed by the Fair Housing Act of 1968.
In 2014, Evans was accused of redlining by the New York State Attorney General, which said the community bank was specifically avoiding making mortgage loans on the East Side. The bank, which at the time had $874 million of assets, agreed to pay $825,000 to settle the case, but Nasca maintains that the charges were unfounded. He points to the fact that the bank never had a fair lending or fair housing violation, no specific incidents were ever claimed and that the bank’s Community Reinvestment Act exam never found evidence of discriminatory or illegal credit practices.
The bank has a greater presence on the East Side today, but that’s because it has grown in size, not because it is trying to make up for previous accusations of redlining, he said.
“Ten years ago, our involvement [on the East Side] certainly wasn’t what you’re seeing today,” Nasca said. “We were looking to participate more, but we were participating within our means and our reach. As we have grown, we have built more resources to be able to do more.”
Shortly after accusations were made against Evans, Five Star Bank, the banking arm of Financial Institutions in Warsaw, New York, was also accused of redlining by the state Attorney General. Five Star, which has been growing its presence in the Buffalo market for several years, wound up settling the charges for $900,000 and agreeing to open two branches in the city of Rochester.
KeyBank is currently being accused of redlining by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition. In a 2022 report, the group said that KeyBank is engaging in systemic redlining by making very few home purchase loans in certain neighborhoods where the majority of residents are Black. Buffalo is one of several cities where the bank’s mortgage lending “effectively wall[ed] out Black neighborhoods,” especially parts of the East Side, the report said.
KeyBank denied the allegations. In March, the coalition asked regulators to investigate the bank’s mortgage lending practices.
Beyond providing more credit, some community members believe that banks should be playing a larger role in addressing other needs on the East Side. And the list of needs runs the gamut from more grocery stores to safe, affordable housing to infrastructure improvements such as street and sidewalk repairs.
Alexander Wright is founder of the African Heritage Food Co-op, an initiative launched in 2016 to address the dearth of grocery store options on the East Side, where he grew up. Wright said that while banks’ philanthropic efforts are important, banks in general “need to be in a place of remediation” to fix underlying issues that the industry, as a whole, helped create. (After publication of this story, Wright left his job as CEO of the African Heritage Food Co-Op.)
Aside from charitable donations, banks should be finding more ways to work directly with East Side business owners and entrepreneurs, helping them with capital-building support along the way, Wright said. One place to start would be technical assistance by way of bank volunteers.
“Banks are always looking to volunteer. ‘Hey, want to come out and paint a fence? Want to come out and do a garden?'” Wright said. “No. Come out here and help Keshia with bookkeeping. Come out here and do QuickBooks classes for folks. Bring out tax experts. Because these are things that befuddle a lot of small businesses. Who is your marketing person? Bring that person out here. Because those are the things that are going to build the business to self-sufficiency.
“Anything short of the capacity-building … that will allow folks to rise to the occasion and be self-sufficient I think is almost a waste,” Wright added. “We don’t need them to lead the plan. What we need them to do is be in the community and [be] hearing the plan and supporting it.”
Parker, of Open Buffalo, has similar thoughts about the role that banks should play. One day, soon after the massacre, an ATM appeared down the street from Tops, next to the library that sits across the street from Parker’s office. Soon after the ATM was installed, Parker began fielding questions from area residents who were skeptical of the machine and wanted to know if it was legitimate. But Parker didn’t have any information to share with them. “There was no outreach. There was no community engagement. So I’m like, ‘Let me investigate,'” she said. “I think that’s a symptom of how investment is done in Black communities, even though it may be well-intentioned.”
As it turns out, the temporary ATM belonged to JPMorgan Chase. The megabank has had a commercial banking presence in Buffalo for years, but it didn’t operate a retail branch in the region until last year. Today it has four branches in operation and plans to open another two by the end of the year, a spokesperson said.
After the Tops shooting, the governor’s office reached out to Chase asking if the bank could help in some way, the spokesperson said in response to the skepticism. The spokesperson said that while the Chase retail brand is new to the Buffalo region, the company has been active in the market for decades by way of commercial banking, private banking, credit card lending, home lending and other businesses.
In addition to the ATM, the bank provided funding to local organizations including FeedMore Western New York, which distributes food throughout the region.
“We are committed to continuing our support for Buffalo and helping the community increase access to opportunities that build wealth and economic empowerment,” the spokesperson said in an email.
In the year since the massacre, there has been some progress by banks in terms of their interest in listening to the East Side community and learning about its needs, said Nicholas. But he hasn’t felt an air of urgency from the banking community to tackle the issues right now.
“I do experience banks being a little more open to figuring out what their role is, but it’s slow. It’s slow,” said Nicholas. The senior pastor of the Lincoln Memorial United Methodist Church, located about a mile north from Tops, Nicholas is part of a 13-member local advisory committee for the New York arm of Local Initiatives Support Coalition, or LISC. The group is focused on mobilizing resources, including banks, to address affordable housing in Western New York, specifically in the inner city, as well as training minority developers and connecting them to potential investors, Nicholas said.
Of the 13 members, seven are from banks — one each from M&T, Bank of America, BankOnBuffalo, Evans and KeyBank, and two members from Citizens Financial Group. One of the priorities of LISC NY is health equity, and the fact that banks are becoming more engaged in looking at health disparities is promising, Nicholas said. Still, they have more work to do, he said.
“I need them to think more on how to strengthen and build the economy on the East Side and provide leadership around that, not only to provide charitable things, but using sound business and banking and community development principles to say, ‘OK, if we’re going to invest in this community, these are the types of things that need to happen in this community,’ and then encourage their partners and other people they work with … to come fully in on the East Side.”
Some bankers agree with the community activists.
“Putting a branch in is great. Having a bank on wheels is great,” said Noah of BankOnBuffalo. “But if you’re not embedded in the community, listening to the community and trying to improve it, you’re not creating that wealth and creating a better lifestyle for everyone.”
What could make a substantial difference in terms of banks’ impact on the community is a combination of collaboration and leadership, said Taylor. He supports the idea of banks leading the charge on the creation of a comprehensive redevelopment and reinvestment plan for the East Side, and then investing accordingly and collaboratively through their charitable foundations.
“All of them have these foundations,” Taylor said. “You can either spend that money in a strategic and intentional way designed to develop a community for the existing population, or you can spend that money alone in piecemeal, siloed, sectorial fashion that will look good on an annual report, but won’t generate transformational and generational changes inside a community.”
Banks might be incentivized to work together because it could mean two things for them, according to Taylor: First, they’d have an opportunity to spend money in a way that would have maximum impact on the East Side, and second, if done right, the city and the banks could become a model of the way to create high levels of diversity, equity and inclusion in an urban area.
“If you prove how to do that, all that does is open up other markets of consumption all over the country because people want to figure out how to do that same thing,” Taylor said.
Some of that is already happening, at least on a bank-by-bank case, said KeyBank’s Owunwanne. Through the KeyBank Foundation, the company is able to leverage different relationships that connect nonprofits to other entities and corporations that can provide help.
“I see this as an opportunity for us to make not just incremental changes, but monumental changes … as part of a larger group,” Owunwanne said “Again, I say that not to absolve the bank of any responsibility, but just as a larger group.”
Downstairs from Parker’s office, Golden Cup Coffee, a roastery and cafe run by a husband and wife team, and some other Jefferson Avenue businesses are trying to build up a business association for existing and potential Jefferson-area businesses. Parker imagined what the group could accomplish if one of the banks could provide someone on a part-time basis to facilitate conversations, provide administrative support and coordinate marketing efforts.
“In the grand scheme of things, when we’re talking about a multimillion dollar [bank], a part-time employee specifically dedicated to relationship-building and building out coalitions, it sounds like a small thing,” Parker said. “But that’s transformational.”
“Look at this,” Kris said yesterday when she returned from grocery shopping. She held up two yogurt containers for me to see.
“So what?” I said. “Black cherry yogurt.”
“Look closer,” she said.
“That one’s smaller,” I said. “Did they change the container size?”
“Yes,” she said. “But they didn’t change the price.”
The Incredible Shrinking Yogurt
I’ve received several e-mails lately from readers noting the same thing. They go to buy a product they’ve been using for years, only to discover that the container has shrunk. The price hasn’t changed — only the packaging. Reader David Cox, for example, wrote with the following anecdote that mirrors our own:
We went to the grocery last night and one of the items I wanted to get was yogurt. The store always seems to have their brand of yogurt on sale @ 10/$5.00. I was about to scoop up a bunch, when I noticed that they had redesigned the packaging with pretty new colors, but the package seemed a bit smaller. On closer examination, it was.
The new size was 6 oz. of yogurt, while the old style had been 8 oz. The price per package hadn’t changed, but the package now contained 25% less product. I thought it was very tricky of them to leave the big sales sticker on the shelf (10/$5.00!!!) just like we were used to seeing, without any thing to warn you of the repackaging. I guess they would claim it was obvious, but it still seems a bit tricky to me.
Is it tricky? I don’t know. I understand that manufacturers need to make a profit, but when they reduce the container size instead of raising the price, it does seem a little sneaky. It’s as if they’re unwilling to raise prices directly, so they take a circuitous route.
Standard Operating Procedure
I recently had a conversation with a friend who knows a great deal about this subject.
“You see marketing stories like this over and over,” Freeman told me. “Fabric softeners cut the sheets from 40 to 36 — same size box and same price. Ketchup switches from a glass bottle to a smaller plastic bottle and the price stays the same. Some companies mess with cap and lid sizes as a way to increase consumption. Want a bottle of laundry detergent to run out faster? Then increase the cap size slightly. (Many people use a capful per load.)”
Freeman then pointed out other ways companies subtly manipulate spending. “Think of the famous lather, rinse, repeat instructions on shampoo. Like you really need to do that. Same things happen with chips, cereal, and on and on. Just consider: maybe a box of cereal hasn’t gone up in price much in the past decade, but I guarantee you that the average box size has certainly decreased.”
Another friend, Jeffrey, chimed in: “I always wondered why, if the cost of packaging is so expensive, do cereal companies reduce the amount inside the box but the leave the size of the box alone?”
“They also do this with cereal bars,” Jeffrey said. “A while back, General Mills came out with Fiber One bars. The box is the same size as all the other boxes but there’s only five bars in the box, not the standard six bars that are in every other box. Nature Valley does the same thing with their family size box of granola bars. You open the box and only half of the box has product. It’s the same thing as lying but it’s disguised as ‘marketing’ so it’s okay.“
Savvy Shoppers
Again, I’m not sure it’s lying, but it’s obvious that shoppers don’t like to be duped this way. But both David’s e-mail and Jeffrey’s comments reveal they don’t appreciate being tricked. They’d rather have the same package size but see the price increase. I would, too.
Food inflation is a hot topic in the United States right now. I think we’re all beginning to realize that the things we love cost more. But some of us would rather pay the increased price than have manufacturers try to hide the inflation with packaging.
For more on this subject, take a look at Nickel’s thoughts on product packaging. He observes that suggested portion sizes are increasing even as package sizes are decreasing. You may also be interested to read about unit pricing in the GRS archives.