BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — The East Side Parkways Coalition held an open discussion on the Kensington Expressway Project at the Delavan Grider Community Center on Wednesday.
Some say they’ve been pushing for answers from the New York State Department of Transportation.
“It’s not going to reunite the community so we’re spending a billion dollars why?” says Ronald Walker, a resident.
7 News reporter Yoselin Person spoke with a handful of people who had similar concerns about the proposal.
“We know there’s going to be long-term health impacts. We see it all over the room. There are already high rates of asthma and COPD and heart disease,” says India Walton, a resident. “So why are we not forecasting this out and concentrating on the pollution?”
“My mother has COPD. My sister was a low birth weight baby and have asthma, and I think that some of those health elements are the direct results of the toxic fumes on the 33.” - Candance Moppins, co-chair of East side Parkways Coalition
Others say the New York State Department of Transportation hasn’t been fully transparent with hundreds of East Side residents.
“They haven’t listened to us about wanting more information about the health effects, about the traffic impacts, about the construction impacts,” says Kevin Ndayishimiye, a 16-year-old resident. “They haven’t talked to us enough.”
The posters below were posted in the meeting room:
A professor at the University at Buffalo gathered the data from the EJ Screen Tool. He tells 7 News reporter Yoselin Person the proposed project will make the health conditions worse.
“Spreading 300 meters of plumes and we’re looking at that,” says Brad Wales, an architect professor at the University at Buffalo. “They don’t say it, but we’re looking at the math and it looks like carbon monoxide increases by 138% at each end again not stated.”
In an interview with 7 New last month, Susan Surdej, regional public information officer of DOT said:
“There is going to be some blasting in certain areas because we’re dealing with rock. But it’s going to be in a very limited area, and it’s only for areas that are deeper than five feet of rock.”
A longtime Buffalonian says Buffalo is being viewed as the great migration because of climate change in the years to come.
He believes the funds should be invested in transportation.
“So for a billion dollars we can connect the city and eventually we can connect Niagara Falls and Toronto,” says Hawk Olejniczak. “That’s the future and this is my proposal.”
A member from the East Side Parkways Coalition is calling on Governor Kathy Hochul to invest in a dialogue with the community.
“Well it’s her legacy. In the next 60 years people are going to look back at this history and going to say, 'Kathy Hochul, you had a good option on the table and you chose the status quo',” says Michael Gianer, member of East Side Parkways Coalition. “You supported a carbon-based culture over a community and over community health.”
“It’s a soft blast and it’s a timeframe so they have to understand the entire project and the DOT is trying to work with the community,” says Gina Davis, a resident. “And again we do not want to lose the funding. We have to make that clear to Gov. Kathy Hochul. We do not want to lose the funding.” - Gina Davis, a resident
Buffalo residents have until November 10th to submit their concerns on the project.
Click here to submit your concerns or thoughts.
