The decision by the New York State Department of Transportation to not appeal Judge Emilio Colaiacovo’s decision that halted the one-billion-dollar plan to transform the Kensington Expressway into an underground tunnel is causing some community groups to spar at one another. The state will instead elect to do an Environmental Impact Statement which is required for projects of this magnitude.
Restore our Community Coalition, or ROCC, an organization that heavily advocated for the plan to restore Humboldt Parkway while placing the billion-dollar tunnel underneath the parkway to help with traffic, took time Friday to air their grievances. ROCC’s Esterphine Greene claims people involved in Eastside Parkways Coalition have been unnecessarily delaying progress.
“For 30 years, there have been meetings about this Parkway, and I'm here to tell you that this is about a billion dollars. It is not about health care. And three black folks who will remain nameless, have not done anything in the last 30 years to improve health care on East Side Buffalo. Not a thing.”
Sydney Brown a spokesperson for ROCC believes among other factors; a complete parkway restoration that does not involve a tunnel for traffic isn’t practical in the community.
“It is not feasible to put 75,000 cars into a community where the roads are not already properly maintained and kept people talk about pollution and health disparities. I'll say the Humboldt Parkway, where East ferry is I sit at that light more than two or three times because the cars cannot navigate going over the bridges.”
Brown also used the opportunity to air her grievances over the media coverage of the project. Claiming the stories that have been shared have been one sided and not true. She later clarified her comments saying it wasn’t all media but wanted to encourage the media to get both sides of the story.
“When you start covering a story, you should always reach out to both sides. And I will say that East Side Parkways [Coalition] is not really representative of our community. And while, you know, everybody has a right to share their opinion, let's make sure we stick with facts, because all the things that they put out in the media, or the media put out there, were not true. And I want to encourage the media to do fact checking.”
Eastside Parkways Coalition held a press conference later that same day, firing back to comments from ROCC. Beth Elkin Wales a member of the coalition says the anger is misguided.
“It’s really unfortunate that some of the local politicians maybe don't understand, or are really showing great loyalty to your, you know, to a group that worked on this for many years. But I don't think that they understand that their project does not restore Humboldt Parkway.”
Pastor Steven Lane of St. Phillips Episcopal Church hopes the two groups can find consensus in their advocacy.
“The difference is not that our commonalities are strong, our differences are small, and to have politicians try and say it's an us versus them and we're troublemakers and their consensus builders is disingenuous at best.”
Eastside Parkways Coalition also mentioned their willingness to “come to the table” with ROCC to compromise and discuss the best way forward. They say attempts to connect the two groups have been unsuccessful. It is widely expected that it would take multiple years for the state to complete an Environmental Impact Statement.
