Why Are We Building A Tunnel When Dirt Is Enough?

By Betty Jean Grant

Betty Jean Grant

I don’t get it. Really I don’t. We, who are forward thinking and progressive, don’t really understand why certain persons in the community are fighting to do more damage to the 33 Expressway at Humboldt Parkway than was done to it over sixty years ago. These people want to do further blasting of the rock bed that was dug down 20 feet or more to create an Expressway in a Parkway that was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, after he had finished putting in Central Park, in New York City.

There have been many mistakes and missteps, over the years, when it came to Buffalo getting its fair share in resources, projects being placed in the city or even fair and diverse representation of minority state and federal elected officials as it relates to the Black community. For a city in New York State with the 2nd highest number of Black residents, behind New York City, it seems that there will never be a Black man or woman elected to Congress from our ‘City of Good Neighbors’!

And, I don’t need to remind anyone about taking the Buffalo Bills’ home stadium out of Buffalo. I don’t have to remind anyone, that when we had an opportunity to bring the stadium back to Buffalo, where it never should have left, few of our elected leaders, including our mayor, fought with any kind of fight to build the stadium here, in the city Buffalo, I say, Buffalo Bill’s stadium here in the city, not Orchard Park Stadium. Just think about how much economic development we could have generated with the stadium being in the city.

On this subject I will say, the powers that run this city had better be glad that community leaders such as Arthur O. Eve, George K. Arthur, Jim Pitts, Beverly A. Gray and David Collins are not still in office. There is no way they would have allowed us to let them put that stadium back in Orchard Park!

And, I truly believe they would not go along with building an unproven, carbon monoxide secreting, tunnel that the majority of the environmental and preservation groups, eastside residents and even the homeowners on Humboldt Parkway don’t want!

There are just too many concerns and questions that have been asked, but have not been answered. Among them: Who is going to pay the 5 million dollars, annually, it will take to fund the expenses of getting all the dangerous gases out of the tunnel; If there are structural damages to a resident’s house’s foundation during the blasting or removal of the rock bed or walls, who will pay for it? Who will have the responsibilities of watering the live trees that will be planted only 3 feet deep into the soil that will be placed on top of the almost one mile, concrete tunnel?

There have been scare tactics of saying that if we don’t build the Tunnel, Buffalo will lose the money or it will be sent elsewhere. That is not true. It will leave us only if we fail to use it for transportation purposes or if the governor re-assigns it to another DOT project. The billion dollars pot of transportation money can be used to fill in or put back the dirt that was removed when they did the Expressway. Now, we all know that dirt is a lot cheaper than concrete, steel or electricity. We could fill or restore the Parkway and have tons of money left to address other Expressway-related issues such as wear and tear or structural damage. Some of that money could be used to replace rusting infrastructure along the 33, the I 90 or the 198 connectors.

Buffalo has come up last in a lot of initiatives that would have improved our economic condition, especially on Buffalo’s eastside. Building the North Campus of UB in Buffalo, leaving the Bills Stadium in Buffalo and not putting that Expressway through Humboldt Parkway are a few. We can correct a grave injustice by filling in the Parkway and encouraging the motorists to take the key streets of the area to get to their homes and points beyond. And while they are traveling down a revitalized Seneca, South Park, Genesee, Broadway, Clinton, Sycamore, East Delavan or East Ferry Street, they can stop and patronize the many new businesses that will surely open once cars start traveling down those once crowded and vibrant streets.

And, to the elected officials who are trying to use the eastside side streets as being unsafe for suburban drivers to travel, because of crime, shame on you!

We have a lot of real issues that already put city dwellers at odds with folks who gave up on the city and fled to the ‘burbs decades ago. Let us not buy into the misconception that they need a tunnel to shelter them as they try to exit the city, particularly the eastside, as fast as they can. And, to those who are yelling about reconnecting communities, save your breath; that ship sailed decades ago.