Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - For the challenger in the Democratic primary election for the 141st State Assembly district, there is only one issue on the ballot - the Kensington Expressway.
Terrence Robinson with the East Side Parkways Coalition and a resident of Humboldt Parkway is challenging Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes on June 25.
Robinson has been fighting the $1 billion project to tunnel a portion of the Kensington Expressway, which is expected to get started later this year.
"This primary election is a referendum," said Robinson on Wednesday in an interview with WBEN.
Many consider the tunnel to be a legacy project for longtime Assemblywoman Peoples-Stokes to reconnect neighborhoods that were divided when the Kensington was constructed in the 1950s. The project was discussed recently during a roundtable segment on WBEN's Hardline program.
"We're highlighting and focusing on this issue and we're going to change the way the state does business," Robinson said.
He says the project is being forced on the people of Buffalo.
"It's being shoved down their throats, and I would use another analogy but I can't right now on the radio. What they decided to do, and the way that they decided to do it, is a callous disregard for the interests of the people of the city and for this disadvantaged community," Robinson added.
The project received federal approval to move forward in East Buffalo this past February.
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Robinson says the state is using every mechanism it can to shut down
legitimate opposition. What's worse, he said is that the state continues to spin that there will be no environmental impact, short- or long-term, during four years of construction.
His greatest fear is if crews remove the retaining walls along the 33, which he claims are full of asbestos materials. He has previously called the project a "toxic tunnel."
Robinson has no ill will toward Assemblywoman Peoples-Stokes.
"Her win to the state assembly was historic. But right now, she is acting against the people she represents," he said.
WBEN reached out to Peoples-Stokes office for comment. That call has not been returned.