BUFFALO, N.Y. — The 5/14 Memorial Commission is asking everybody for ideas on what a memorial for the lives lost in the Tops mass shooting should look like.
Anybody with an idea they would like to propose can submit it to 514memorial.com.
Current and former East Side residents shared that even the building still standing is a continued reminder of that terrible day.
“I know a lot of other people who haven’t been back in [the supermarket],” said East Side Resident Arthur Sharp. “It needs to be torn down and rebuilt.”
Gail Harden grew up in the East Side and her mother still goes to the Jefferson Ave. Tops as her normal grocery store, but even the parking lot is tough for Harden to look at.
“It traumatizes me. My mother had just left Tops when that incident occurred. She had just walked out when [the gunman] was walking in. I’m blessed to have my mother here.”
Both Sharp and Harden feel a great way to memorialize the lives lost is to close down the Jefferson Ave. Tops location and replace it with another grocery store in a different area of the East Side.
“There’s all these empty building around here,” Sharp said. “No, I don’t want to go in there.”
“A new grocery store in this vicinity just a different lot,” Harden said.
Mayor Byron Brown announced during a press conference Tuesday that the city will be accepting idea submissions for a memorial starting next month.
He shared that he is aware that there are people who do not go into the store anymore, however, he said the 13 to 15 million dollars listed in the ‘prototypical budget’ for a memorial cannot be used to build a new grocery store.
“We are not here to talk about new stores, because the government doesn’t build stores. The private sector builds stores.”
The size and location of the future memorial will be up to the people proposing, but the supermarket site itself is not an option as Tops is building a memorial of its own on-site.
Anybody within or outside of Buffalo can submit ideas.
A timeline for proposals is as follows:
- Q&A Submission Period: Oct. 3 – Oct. 23
- Answers for Q&A posted to 514memorial.com: Oct. 30
- Design Submission Period: Nov. 1 – Dec. 1
