BUFFALO, NY (WKBW) — An East Side advocacy group is fighting for its own change to the Kensington Expressway that cuts through its community.
The East Side Parkways Coalition has asked the Buffalo Common Council to support their plan to remove the Kensington and restore Humboldt Parkway.
The $1 billion project was announced in May 2022 and includes fully covering a portion of the expressway and making it a six-lane tunnel between Dodge and Sidney Streets.
East Side residents brought their voices and some a proposal directly to city lawmakers at a Common Council Development committee meeting Tuesday.
“It's 2025 – if we want to do something, we can do it," said Taj Richardson. "If we want to restore the parkway, we can do it."
Community members spoke both for and against a tunnel the NYSDOT is planning to build over a portion of the 33, creating a park on top.
"Let's get this restoration right," said Candace Moppins. "This will be our only opportunity for the next 60 to 100 years.”
Right now, it's a highway that carries 75,000 cars a day – an expressway that divides the Humboldt Park neighborhood.
“Restoring the Humboldt Parkway, we lessen the burden of pollution and the breathing of those toxic chemicals for community residents along the highway,” said Moppins.
About six speakers, pre-selected to give their views about the project, appeared before the common council members.
It was not a public hearing, but the committee invited members of both the coalition, who wore green t-shirts asking to restore Humboldt Parkway and the Restore Our Community Coalition, known as ROCC, to speak.
“I ask you not to oppose that," said Esterphine Greene, president, Hamlin Park Community & Taxpayers Association. "Please don't because it will be another 40-50 years. Black folks are super suffering from asthma and emphysema, as someone said, but at least with the tunnel, we will have something aesthetic to look at and the fumes, many of them will be below grade."
“But aesthetics won't fix the fact that we're in the top one percentile for COPD, asthma and other, you know, respiratory illnesses," Riohcrdson said. "You know, a tunnel is not going to fix the health issues in the neighborhood.”
The council committee did not make a decision. But Common Council Majority Leader and Ellicott District Council woman Leah Halton-Pope did ask both sides to meet with her to try and find a middle ground.
“To ask me as a Council member, who represents both sides, to choose one or the other, is unfair—it’s not realistic and it's not right,” replied Halton-Pope.
The project is currently on hold until the state completes an environmental impact study.
