No makeover for suspected drug house

Some of Buffalo's west side homes are being left out of the mammoth "Extreme Makeover" episode being filed for national television.

Promoting the Buffalo Extreme Makeover show came easy for one of the shows stars. Designer Eduardo Xol, a son of Mexican immigrants, has identified with the family of Delores Powell, the Jamaican immigrant who will return to her new Buffalo West Side home on Saturday.

Xol says, "Fighting for that American dream and everything that goes along with it. It's not easy and I'm just glad that I'm here telling the story."

The Buffalo story is incredible because thousands of volunteers are simultaneously making improvements to dozens and dozens of homes and vacant lots on and around Massachusetts Avenue.

David Stapleton, owner of David Homes, said "Show people that it's still possible to have hope and be inspired to give back to their community, and as you can see, look around you, there's activity everywhere."

Well, almost everywhere.

Across from all this activity, there's a house that stands out like sore thumb. It's a house in rough shape that is not being touched. It is a house that in the past has been raided for drugs.

Sources in law enforcement tell me it was raided many times, although its owner told me only once, and that she is not involved with selling drugs.

"There's people that come in this area and stand on the corner and sell drugs, and right away every house on the block got blamed. I don't know why they're blaming my house. I don't sell drugs," explained Herminia Gonzalez, owner of the home.

Sources tell me volunteer agencies were encouraged to back off from considering this house for rehab.

The new American dream is to live in a community free from shootings and drug use. That's the hope on Buffalo's West Side and why Marie Maraschello has decorated her home with lights.

"Christmas came to the West Side early," exclaimed Maraschello.

There is a vacant lot on Plymouth, which is around the corner, being turned into a community park. This is a neighborhood where shootings and drug use have been commonplace.

"There was going to be a big tree in the back which I was concerned about because then they would come back there and hide behind a tree and so, they're not going to put the tree in now," said Maraschello.