Why Was the Buffalo Zip Code 14208 Left Out Of UB’s Air Quality Study?
By Betty Jean Grant
Betty Jean Grant
Several weeks ago, a local news paper released a report stating that because of the higher than average incidences of Asthma, kidney disease, heart disease, COPD and other respiratory ailments on the eastside, the University of Buffalo was awarding an almost half-million dollars grant to several local, community based, health groups.
The funding would be used to purchase air quality monitors and place them in strategic locations in homes and other businesses or structures on streets with zip-codes east of Main St. The zip codes published included: 14203, 14204, 14206, 14209, 14210, 14211, 14212 and 14215. Those are all Eastside zip codes, and it has been reported that these zip-codes contained a higher percentage than most of all health issues in the city.'
From the Cheektowaga/Buffalo border near the Genesee/Broadway/Walden areas that people have nick named ‘Cancer Alley’, to the toxin and pollutant contaminated land near the old General Motors’ Chevy Plant, on East Delavan, the children and adults on our side of town have been poisoned more than enough by our un healthy environment. And since more than enough information, regarding the infamous 33 Kensington Express way, has been made public, one would think that the western side of Humboldt Parkway, with its zip code of 14208, would be among the first zip codes to be announced and addressed in the study compiled by UB.
When I saw the report with the 14208 zip code not included, I was flabbergasted! How can a zip code that includes Hamlin Park and Cold Spring neighborhoods and the west side of Humboldt Parkway not be included in a study that is being conducted to see why the Eastside has so many sick people in it? Could it be that it is al ready known that neighborhoods near the 33 Express way have a high amount of carbon monoxide and other pollutants coming from the many cars and other vehicles travelling through the Eastside neighborhoods? And, that the report, if it included Hamlin Park and Cold Spring, would probably go completely off the charts regarding safe air quality and it would probably validate what many of us already know: that the 33 Kensington Expressway has made Humboldt Parkway and the Hamlin Park and Cold Spring areas the most dangerous places for Eastside residents to live, go to school or work.
Finally, I am somewhat disappointed that those Eastside neighborhood and community groups did not lobby SUNYAB to include the much needed but totally left out,14208 zip code. When a community group is se lected or appointed resources to aid or benefit an initia tive or a marginalized people or organization, that group must be sure to work in the best interests of the collec tive community and also to ensure that we hold account able those community partners that have been chosen, hired or awarded a contract to make our neighborhoods healthier and safer.