If the crowds who attended in the first New York State Department of Transportation "Queen City Forward" public input session that centers on the fate of portions of the Kensington Expressway have their say then the busy highway will be replaced by the original Frederick Law Olmsted/Calvert Vaux-designed Humboldt Park.
But, remember, says DOT Commissioner Marie Therese Dominguez, no one design is cast in stone, or even, on the table at this point.
"I know people are frustrated," Dominguez said. "The passion of the people who live here are part of Buffalo's core."
Dominguez said the DOT will host a series of community input sessions, like the one held Tuesday (Dec. 2) at the Schiller Park Community Center, during the next year.
Comments received will be part of a more complex environmental impact statement, which itself is probably three years away from completion.
In other words, it will be - maybe five years, or longer, until a new Kensington Expressway plan is advanced.
"The DOT is listening," Dominguez said. "That is maybe the biggest lesson we have learned."
What to do with the Kensington Expressway is not a new, local talking point. Debates about the expressway, that cuts through the center of many East Side neighborhoods, goes back to the 1970s.
The focus is from the I-198 interchange into downtown Buffalo.
The most recent solution centered on a mile-long tunnel with the land above it turned into green space to help connect the East Side neighborhoods.
That proposal has raised the wrath and ire of many Buffalo residents.
"Give the City of Buffalo its park back," said former Erie County Legislature and East Side civic leader Betty Jean Grant.
Residents rallied against the tunnel proposal and a State Supreme Court justice ruled the initial EIS was incomplete and rushed. The issue is still in a legal debate with a hearing before the state Appellate Court scheduled for Jan. 13, according to Alan Bozer, East Side Parkways Coalition attorney.
"The expressway just gashed through the East Side," Bozer said. "It's time to restore the park the way it was originally intended."
Designed by Olmsted and Vaux, the original Humboldt Park was a tree-lined boulevard much like Bidwell Parkway.
The park was torn up in the 1950s and early 1960s to make way for the Kensington Expressway - a six-lane highway that runs from downtown Buffalo to the Buffalo Niagara International Airport.
The Kensington Expressway is a major connector between Buffalo and such suburbs as Amherst and Cheektowaga. It handles more than 75,000 vehicles each day.
But, not everyone supports restoring the Olmsted/Vaux park.
The Restore Our City Coalition, an East Side grassroots group, said it prefers the tunnel option citing economic and environmental concerns.
"If you take 75,000 cars off of the Kensington, where are you going to put them?" said Richard Cummings, a member of Restore Our City. "They have to go somewhere."
Dominguez says the DOT has no preference.
"Our job is to listen," Dominguez said.
The next "Queen City Forward" public session is set for 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., Dec. 16 at the Edward Saunders Community Center, 2777 Bailey Ave., Buffalo.