Most Cities Are Removing Expressways, While Buffalo Wants to Install A Toxic Tunnel

By Betty Jean Grant

We Are Women Warriors

Betty Jean Grant

From Seattle, Washington to Washington, D.C, cities in America are correcting the mistakes that urban planners made when they decided to construct massive and expansive highways and expressway in densely population areas, particularly those areas and neighborhoods populated by African Americans.

It is not lost on any of us who are followers of current news as well as historical facts, that the movement to remove Expressways from urban areas had more to do with President Joe Biden and the national movement to Reconnect Communities than anything else. The only difference is that the activists in most of those other cities worked with and carried the WILL of the people in their advocacy of getting resources for their respective neighborhoods. But, here in Buffalo, the WILL of the residents on Humboldt Parkway is not known because they were left out of negotiations and meetings that were deciding which Option or Plan was in the best interest of those homeowners who have severe medical problems and complications from breathing the toxic air and carbon monoxide coming from the 33 Expressway that was forced on them, since the 1960s.

While insensitive and short-visioned politicians are clapping and slapping themselves on the backs for convincing a courageous, but naive group of activists to buy in to the scheme to give quick access to the suburbanites to get downtown faster by driving through a tunnel on an expressway that should be removed as quickly as possible, the residents of Humboldt Parkway have been cast aside and ignored. They and the many health issues they have acquired by living so close to the Expressway did not even get the attention of our current governor, who came to Buffalo to tout the Tunnel.

Here are just a few of the many expressways that have been removed in cities all across this country. In addition to the expressways listed below that have been removed, at least thirty-five additional highways are being slated for removal, as I write this Op-ed.

The Central Artery in Boston, Massachusetts was removed in 2003. It was replaced with an urban development project. The Central Freeway, in San Francisco, was removed in 1993. It was replaced by boulevards. The Harbor Drive Expressway was removed in 1974. It was replaced with a waterfront park. The Inner Belt, in Akron, Ohio was removed in 2017. It was replaced with parkland and urban development. The Inner Loop, in Rochester, NY was removed in 2014. It was replaced with an urban street and parkland. Interstate 3 in Fort Worth, Texas was removed in 2001 and replaced with urban development. Interstate 170 in Baltimore, Maryland was removed in 2010 and was replaced with an expansion of parking lots.

And the list goes on: Interstate 195, Providence, RI removed the Providence’s RI-I, in 2011 and replaced it with urban development projects. In the Bronx. NYC, they removed the Sheridan Expressway in 2017 and replaced it with boulevards. New Haven, Ct removed the Oak Street Connector in 2013 and replaced it with urban development. Milwaukee, WI removed its Park East Freeway in 2002 and replaced it with urban development.

In 2002, Oklahoma City removed the Oklahoma City Expressway and replaced it with boulevard conversions. In Manhattan, NYC, the Westside Elevated Highway was removed in 1977 and replaced with an urban boulevard. The year 2016 marked the end of the South East Freeway in Washington, D.C.

Finally, in New York State, we saw the removal of the Robert Moses or the Niagara Scenic Parkway in 2016. It has been or will be replaced with a converted boulevard. Also, in the Fall of 2023, Syracuse, NY voted to remove the l-81 and to replace it with urban development projects.

The designer of our modern day expressways stated that he never intended for Expressways to be built in cities or densely populated areas. He said they were intended to speed up traffic only in rural areas or country roads where the only inhabitants would be the pigs and cows on those backwoods farms.