Two doors from the home of Fillmore Council Member David
A. Franczyk, a group of his political opponents gathered this morn-
ing to clean up piles of debris and question why the Council president candidate has failed to deal with the festering problem.

ROBERT KIRKHAM/Buffalo News
Community activist Darnell Jackson,center,argues with County Legislator Gregory Olma, at left with his back to the camera, behind a Fillmore Avenue home that Jackson claims is an example of blight in the Fillmore District.

     About half a dozen people cleaned out the ramshackle garage
on Wilson Street behind a boarded-up and abandoned home at 866
Fillmore Ave., just down the street from Franczyk's home at 858 Fillmore. They cut overgrown weeds, hauled out old toilets and television sets from the dilapidated shed and claimed Franczyk can't control a problem almost literally in his back yard.
     Former Council Member Stephen J. Godzisz, a candidate for
the Fillmore seat this year, acknowledged that Franczyk does
not own the problem property.
"But, he has to drive past this every day," he said. "Take a ride
through the neighborhood and see some of these other streets.
They're terrible."
     Darnell Jackson, another long-time political opponent of Fran-
czyk's, ran a lawnmower over the weeds for assembled television
cameras and claimed abandoned properties and illegal dumping are prevalent throughout the Fillmore District.
     "David Franczyk's neighborhood is the worst in the City of Buffalo," he said.
     Ricky T. Donovan, who is seeking an at-large Council seat, also assailed Franczyk.
     "Look, there are piles of garbage everywhere," he said. "These
people don't deserve to live like this."
     Some local residents also complained about the. conditions on
Wilson Street.
     Franczyk said this morning that he has received "no special treatment" in his efforts to attack blight in the neighborhood.
     "I've done what I'm supposed to do," he said. "I ask for speedy
action, but I don't get special treatment. And I haven't run away
from the problems. I've stayed in the trenches to fight them."
     Franczyk also said conditions on Wilson Street have improved
significantly over the last year with the demolition of several aban-
doned buildings. The property targeted in today's protest, he added, is  on  city  demolition  lists  and eventually will be torn down.
     All demolition properties, he said, become targets for illegal
dumping.
     "They are routinely cleaned as time goes by," he said. "But people throw trash in there unfil they're demolished."
     He also said the street is improving because of ongoing city
programs.
     "Sixty percent of the houses there have been demolished in the
last 12 months," he said.
     The Council member said he has talked to. the owner of the
blighted property many times, to no avail. And the inability of the
city to attack every problem property demonstrates the scale of
blight in the city, he said.
     "It shows the extreme extent of a problem I have not run away
from," he said, pointing to incumbent Council President James W.
Pitts'  residence  on  a well-kept North Buffalo street.
     County Legislator Gregory B. Oirna, D-Buffalo, Franczyk's close
political ally, also appeared at the scene to defend the Council member and claim that the city is overwhelmed by similar situations.
     "This is all a result of properties being rented to drug dealers
and criminals by slumlords," he said,  calling  the  event  a  "cheap,
political publicity stunt."
     "This is happening essentially because David Franczyk is running against Jim  Pitts,"  Olma said.
"These are Jim Pitts' allies attempting to embarrass Dave Franczyk."