21-03-2025
Former mayoral hopeful Nix out of jail, back in business on Pine Avenue
Former Niagara Falls mayoral candidate Demetrius Nix is out of jail and back behind the counter at his restaurant on Pine Avenue.
He said this week that he also has much bigger plans now, including pursuing the development of a program to help improve the lives of residents living in poverty and high-crime areas in Alexandria, Louisiana.
Nix, who failed in his bid to become mayor in 2023, was released from the Niagara County jail on March 5 after serving a six-month sentence stemming from a plea agreement on charges that he broke in and caused damage to a house on Pierce Avenue that he was hired to renovate.
'I came home with my mind right,' he said. 'While I had time in jail, I had time to think about how to do things and how to do them right.'
While he was offered a probationary sentence, Nix chose to serve time in jail so he could be 'done and free' with the case. After his release, his first order of business was to restart N-Town Wingz, the restaurant he opened in April 2024 to raise the money needed to cover the $32,000 restitution ordered by the courts as part of his plea deal. Nix credited income from the restaurant with allowing him to cover the full restitution. He said he has now hired three people to help run the restaurant.
'One thing this situation did do, it created a new means of income for me,' he said.
The charges against Nix stemmed from a break-in at a home on the 1100 block of Pierce Avenue on Jan. 16, 2023. Nix was also linked to a reported burglary at an apartment building on the 500 block of 20th Street, between Jan. 18 and 19, which is under the control of the same owners as the Pierce Avenue property.
He was never charged in connection with the 20th Street incident.
The Pierce Avenue break-in resulted in an estimated $30,000 of property damage.
The property was being renovated by Rod Davis, a Western New York developer, whose firm Power City Ventures, LLC, had been designated by the city as the preferred developer for a housing renovation project that was eligible for up to $1 million in reimbursable grant funds through the state's Restore New York program. Davis withdrew from the project after a Niagara Gazette investigation raised questions about his record of payment to vendors, handling of rent payments he collected for a company that managed properties in the Falls and his involvement in a Cedar Avenue development project that was never completed.
Nix said he's glad to have the issues with Davis and the Pierce Avenue property behind him and is now concentrating on the restaurant and fixing up and renting out apartments he owns in the city. He is also continuing to work with co-director Trent Hamilton on offering services to residents in need out of the Entrepreneur School of Thought, an adult resource center located at 1110 19th St.
'I'm really trying to make it bigger and put more time and more energy into the school because it helps so much,' he said.
Prior to going to jail, the center received a visit from Reddix Washington, a member of the Alexandria city council who expressed interest in opening a similar school in his community. Nix said he has also met with the city's mayor and police chief to talk, and that Washington stayed in touch with him while he was in jail and they have agreed to talk again now that he has been released.
'Alexandria has the same population as us but three times the murder rate. The killing that's going on out there is crazy and they don't know what to do with it,' Nix said.
Nix said he's also interested in finding ways to expand on another one of his ideas, the motivational slogan and movement he dubbed 'WAWG,' short for the slogan he ran on during his mayoral campaign, 'We All We Got.' Prior to serving jail time, Nix met with rapper and music producer Master P to discuss the possibility of expanding WAWG to other parts of the country.
He said he often does not receive the same level of interest or response from leaders in this area.
'In Niagara Falls, nobody wants to help,' he said. 'The only help I'm getting is from my people. There, the government wants to help. When it comes to the system here, I'm always running uphill.'
