Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Buffalo residents and activists gathered at the Delavan Grider Community Center on Wednesday night to share their growing thoughts and concerns regarding New York State's $1 billion dollar Kensington project, which seeks to cover about a three-quarter mile stretch of Route 33 with a tunnel and greenspace on top.
"The people that are here tonight, this represents what grassroots community organizing is all about. We're doing the work that we would have hoped that the NYSDOT (New York State Department of Transportation) would have been doing all throughout this year," said Michael Gainer, member of East Side Parkways Coalition (ESP).
"Having meetings in the community centers, educating people, answering questions, being human. Not just throwing and pushing a presentation down people's throats and expecting because it's the one that's most politically expedient. It's also the one that maintains the DOT's goals, which is to maintain vehicular capacity, not actually rolling up their sleeves and choosing the option on the table that's best for the community."
A growing number of residents of Buffalo are starting to believe that adding a stretch of tunnel with a "tree-lined greenspace setting" is not restoring the vision of Frederick Law Olmsted and will only continue to give nearby residents more health problems if the New York State Department of Transportation doesn't conduct a proper environmental impact statement (EIS), which were two of the main problems this project set to address, aside from the main goal of connecting East Buffalo.
"We need more time, we need to tap the brakes, we need to explore concept 10 and we need to explore what it would look like if the expressway was no longer part of our lives and then we can do it at a fraction of the cost and still use transportation dollars and other places in the city where they're needed to improve vehicular access to downtown Buffalo. We are not trying to stand in the way of progress, we are ahead of the curve of progress because we're talking about things that people don't want to talk about, which is removing expressways," says Gainer.
"I don't think that this project should move forward because it's going to toxify the neighborhood at either end [of the tunnel] and forever cement in place the two parks can't be connected by a parkway," said Brad Wales, a UB architecture professor. "If you were to fill it in, the cost is 1/10, and that comes from the today's cost estimate numbers out of Rochester. They just did a portion of their expressway. They filled it in. It's an amazing success."
Candace Moppins, Co-founder of the ESP Coalition and Executive Director of the Delavan Grider Community Center (DGCC) said, “As a lifelong resident of this community, I’ve taken a strong interest in this project. I’ve attended the hearings and several community meetings, and there is NO community wide consensus in support of the DOT’s currently proposed option. Our communities have endured the noise and pollution of the 33 Expressway for decades. This is not the best option for our communities! We deserve better!”
Terrence Robinson, a lifelong resident of the Humboldt Parkway and member of ESP, stated "Next Friday is the end of the DOT's comment period for this project. We call on the Governor to mandate a full Environmental Impact Statement to explore all the options, including full restoration/fill-in of the Parkway. This is the only option that has not been fully investigated by the DOT, but it's my opinion this is the best option currently on the table. Expressway removal and full restoration of our Olmsted Parkway deserves a full review and analysis."
Gainer explains that that there needs to be more work done before the state government "fast tracks" a project of this nature.
"At the bare minimum, we need to do an environmental impact statement. This shouldn't be something that takes six months or a year. This should be something that if we have the money to spend, and we have the focus and we want to get this project done, then we can find the the representatives and the company that can deliver this EIS in a timely fashion."