“Expressway Removal is Happening in Syracuse and Rochester. Why not Buffalo?”

On Wednesday, December 6th, the East Side Parkways Coalition (ESP) held a special community presentation on Expressway Removal Projects in New York State, at the Delavan Grider Community Center, 877 East Delavan Avenue in Buffalo.

The East Side Parkways Coalition (ESP) hosted Lanessa Owens-Chaplin, Director of the Environmental Justice Project at the New York Civil Liberties Union. Ms. Owens Chaplin shared her experience with the I-81 viaduct removal in Downtown Syracuse. Joining Ms. Owens-Chaplin was Jason Haremza, a City Planner, who currently works with the City of Brighton. Jason was involved as a Planner during Phase 1 of Rochester’s Inner Loop Highway removal.

ESP invited concerned citizens, neighbors, and city residents with questions and concerns about the DOT’s preferred plan for a tunnel/cap to attend the event.

Mark Kubiniec, a member of the East Side Parkways Coalition commented, “As Phase 2 of the Inner Loop Expressway in Rochester moves forward and Syracuse looks to remove a deteriorating I-81 viaduct, we are hopeful that we can learn from these experiences as we explore the best solution for the Kensington Expressway here in Buffalo.” He continued, “One thing is clear, the current DOT proposed tunnel will not improve our air quality. It seems that the best option moving forward is full removal of the Kensington Expressway and full restoration of the Humboldt Parkway.”

Members of the Eastside Parkways Coalition have been vocally opposed to the DOT’s current proposed tunnel project. They have held recent press conferences advocating for a full EIS statement for the project, based on their analysis of the DOT DDR/EA that was released in September. Since that time they have advocated for full restoration of the Humboldt Parkway, represented as Concept 10 in the DOT’s DDR/EA.

Full restoration of the Humboldt Parkway would remove 70,000 cars from the Trinity, Hamlin Park, Cold Springs and Fruit Belt neighborhoods. Traffic would be redirected to the existing radial street grid originally designed by Joseph Ellicott. With proper design and engineering, the existing radial street grid could bring cars efficiently to the Downtown core, while also spurring economic investment along the existing commercial corridors of Genesee, Walden, Sycamore, William and Broadway.

Bradley Wales, Professor of Architecture at the University of Buffalo stated, “Our preliminary analysis of traffic counts concludes that Buffalo’s existing radials could handle the traffic of the Kensington Expressway today.”

ESP calls on Governor Hochul, NYS Senator Kennedy, and NYS Assemblywoman Crystal Peoples-Stokes to instruct NYSDOT to prepare a complete Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Route 33 Kensington Expressway Project, including full restoration of the Humboldt Parkway.