Controversial Information Regarding The Humboldt Parkway Tunnel

By Betty Jean Grant

We Are Women Warriors

Betty Jean Grant

During all the talks regarding the Expressway/Tunnel vs. Full Restoration of Humboldt Parkway over a period of several months, certain important information has been left out or glossed over in printed forms or verbal discussions. Here are a few of them listed below:

There will be no Phase 2 or 3 to reconnect Humboldt Parkway to MLK or Delaware once a tunnel is constructed. The Air Filtration System, needed to disperse the carbon monoxide and other pollutants, has been taken out to the design portion of the Plan. Only ceiling fans and the outside atmospheric winds will be relied on to take the vehicle exhaust emissions away from the Tunnel. The soil and trees planted on top of the Tunnel will have to be removed and replaced in 40-50 years to repair the roof of the Tunnel (maybe sooner if the roots of the trees attempt to grow deeper than the 3ft of soil they will be planted in). There is an annual $5 million dollars cost (2024 estimate) to maintain the Tunnel that no government entity has committed to paying. The portions of the Expressway south of Dodge Street and north of Sidney Street will remain as it is, exposing those homeowners to additional pollutants if the Expressway stays and the Tunnel is put in.

The blasting of the rock formation, especially near Sidney St., has the potential to leach abestoes, radon, lead and other dangerous gases and pollutants into the homes and neighborhoods nearby. The trajectory of water flowing in the underground, buried Scajaquada Creek could be compromised by the blasting and digging near it.

We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to correct this mistake of the past. This is our only opportunity to remove the Expressway and to restore our Humboldt Parkway so that our children and their descendants can enjoy it, for generations to come.

The Governor does not understand the need for the Black community to bring permanent closure to a racist act that was put on us when they built that monstrosity, called an Expressway, in our community, in the first place. Gov. Hochul may not be sensitive to the feelings of family members or friends of those who have lived, suffered and died of respiratory-related illnesses while living so close to the Expressway, but I expect our state representatives in the Assembly and the Senate, Assemblywoman and Majority Leader, Crystal Peoples-Stokes and Senator Tim Kennedy, to advocate what is in the community’s best interest, not the big developers or their special union friends.

Gov Hochul, NYS-DOT and our NYS legislative representatives, please remove the Expressway, get rid of the archaic idea of putting in a toxic tunnel, and let us all work together to restore Frederick Law Olmsted’s Humboldt Parkway. When it was designed, it was deemed the most beautiful of all the Parkways in Buffalo.

The sad fact that there was zero public or private engagement with the Humboldt Parkway homeowners and the fact that no Environmental Impact Statement was conducted makes this situation tragic and insensitive to all of us.