This is a historic photo of the destruction of Humboldt Parkway's 6 lanes of majestic 40 and 60 foot trees. Such unconscionable actions, on the part of the New York State Department of Transportation, as funded by the U.S. Federal Government, is responsible for the destruction of Humboldt Parkway's (formerly) splendid canopy. It rivaled Bidwell Parkway's, and Chapin Parkway's, and Lincoln Parkway's, and was more expansive than them all.

 

NYS Department of Transportation's proposal to preserve the NY Route 33 Kensington Expressway, is not the will of the majority of City of Buffalo (NY)'s Historically Economically Disadvantaged Minority Residents whose East Side Buffalo Community, and Humboldt Parkway Neighborhood, the racially-motivated 1950s era Federal-Aid highway is damaging, and has damaged for some (nearly) 70 years. 
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From Albany (NY), to Rochester (NY), to Portland (OR), to San Francisco (CA), and at more than 30 urban municipality points in between, and even in Washington, DC, the intent of "Highways To Boulevards", and of "Reconnecting Neighborhoods and Strengthening Communities", is clear. An authentically restorative Environmental Justice agenda is attached to a Highway Removal Movement, which has spread all across these United States. East Side Buffalo Community Activists, Humboldt Parkway Neighborhood ​ Residents, East Side Buffalo Community Residents, and even County of Erie (NY) Individuals, and Buffalo Niagara Region Persons, we are (all) speaking in unison, and loudly, clearly saying: Restore Humboldt Parkway's tree-lined boulevard, remove and fill-in the Kensington Expressway, reconnect Humboldt Parkway Neighborhood and its MLK Park all the way back to their resemblance and "connectivity" to Delaware Park- like these formerly were, prior to New York Route 33 Kensington Expressway's construction.

We also demand an Environmental Impact Statement be furnished, and that an (parallel) investment in the restoration of East Side Buffalo be a component of the U.S. State of New York's approach to our Community, and that the actual physical reconnection of Humboldt Parkway Neighborhood be an integral exercise of to both the "Reconnecting Communities" Grant monies, and of the other Federal Aid and State Aid monies flowing into this generation's Kensington Expressway Project. We demand that this transportation infrastructure megaproject (also) be utilized to pave the way for such desperately needed East Side Buffalo Community redevelopment, and for mitigation of the dreadfully high incidence of Environmental Illnesses plaguing the City of Buffalo's Humboldt Parkway Neighborhood. Instead, the "Reconnecting Communities" Programme is being used to procure the preservation and expansion of what amounts to an unwanted, un-welcomed, unwarranted, and antiquated, Infrastructural Barrier. The latter, is what the NY (Route) 33 Kensington Expressway, actually is.
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Reconnecting and restoring communities and neighborhoods, should mean doing precisely that! We say "no", to NYSDOT's 'Cap and Stitch' Project Scope,"no" to its Project Design, and "no" to the Agency's primary Freeway Preservation objective. We say "no" to Federal Highway Administration's [FHWA]'s Vehicular Level of Service primary motivation. We say "yes", to filling-in NY 33 Kensington Expressway, "yes" to restoration of Humboldt Parkway's historic tree-lined boulevard and canopy, "yes" to reparation of the severed connections of (all) Humboldt Parkway Neighborhoods. It's "yes" to realignment of Humboldt Parkway and Humboldt/MLK Park, back to their historic resemblance and "connectivity" to Frederick Law Olmsted's Delaware Park. Like the latter park, in North Buffalo, Humboldt/MLK Park is also an Olmstedian landscape architecture masterpiece, in East Side Buffalo! We say "no" to the balkanization of Environmental Justice Opportunity!

 

There are very many Community-based Organizations, Groups, Activists, and Block Clubs whom are (all) supportive Interested Persons backing this "Reconnect and Restore Humboldt Parkway Neighborhood and its Humboldt/MLK Park" Petition, and whom are participating in its associated Environmental Justice Movement. We are opposed to the insidious variety of Environmental Racism that the NY (Route) 33 Kensington Expressway, is.
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Please support our effort's. Our motivation is solely Racial, Social, Ecological, as well as Human Rights, and Civil Rights oriented. We are very grateful to advocate for Environmental Justice, and for this current and present generation of East Side Buffalo Community Residents, and Humboldt Parkway Neighborhood Residents. These deserve our support, to regain their rightful place as the stewards of Buffalo's central city East Side Parkway (Humboldt), and Park (Humboldt/MLK), and in recognition and honor and gratitude to our previous generations' ancestors. These invested in Humboldt Parkway Neighborhood, and in it's East Side Buffalo Community. This is not a 'black and white' Issue, it is a green one. New York State Department of Transportation's current version NY 33 Kensington Expressway Project will actually serve to increase Greenhouse Gas Emissions [GHGs]! Five air quality improvement facilities that were initially part of the Kensington (Expressway) Project's proposal, are no longer part of NYSDOT's Plan. Instead, overhead rotary fans are going to be relied upon to move the noxious fumes and air throughout the tunnel. However, these will merely ensure that plumes of gases and fumes will be propelled into the surrounding Humboldt Parkway Neighborhood's, and East Side Buffalo Community's, airspace! 

Furthermore, the U.S. Department of Transportation funding that is fueling the Project, is actually governed by an Environmental Justice mandate, which (itself) is historic, and which is a whole-of-government Initiative. NYSDOT's Project is not (yet) attached to any Community Benefit proposal that aspires to do The Right Thing, in the lives of the East Side Buffalo Community Residents whom reside closest, to the impacted Area of Concern. We, the Community Opposition to NYSDOT's Route 33 Kensington Expressway Project are taking a stand for East Side Buffalo Community Residents' "best interests", and we know that these align with the larger community's, throughout City of Buffalo, and throughout Buffalo Niagara Region. NYSDOT is not furnishing an Environmental Impact Statement, and which study certainly seems warranted by the monumental investment of a $Billion, into the Kensington Expressway, and as concerning a Federal-Aid Highway associated with Numerous Claims of Adverse Health Impact. What is being proposed is not only harmful, it is shameful, it is wrong.

Thank you, for your help! It means a great deal, and you are genuinely appreciated. Visit the Facebook Pages of Covington Associates Consulting | CAC, East Side Parkways Coalition ("ESPCoalition"), and We Are Women Warriors (Groups/WeAreWomenWarriors"), in City of Buffalo (NY), for additional details. At CAC's social media locations, you  can also view "In Our Own Words", an East Side Buffalo Community Resident-led, NY Route 33 Kensington Project Community Opposition documentary, produced in support of this petition, by Covington Associates Consulting's Ms. Sherry Sherrill. The video Project is also posted at the YouTube Channels of both Covington Associates Consulting | CAC, and We Are Women Warriors. 

 

By: Sherry Sherrill, Founder and CEO

COVINGTON ASSOCIATES CONSULTING | CAC

725 Hertel Avenue-Suite 601

Buffalo, New York 14207-7024

Mobile: +1(716) 247-8754

Web: CovingtonAssociatesConsutling.Com

SM: Facebook.Com/CovingtonAssociatesConsulting

 

Note: Facilitated by the East Side Collaborative Partnership ["The Collaborative"]: We Are Women Warriors, East Side Parkways Coalition, Stop The Violence Coalition, Jes' Breathe Cancer Awareness, plus Covington Associates Consulting, Humboldt Parkway Neighborhood Residents, and East Side Buffalo Community Individuals.

 

 

Figure 1. A Humboldt Parkway Neighborhood intersection, c. 1954.

Wherefore, "we" the Residents of Upstate Western New York, Buffalo-Niagara Region, County of Erie, City of Buffalo, and State of New York do hereby affix our names to this Petition demanding the Removal of NY Route 33 Kensington Expressway, and Full Reconnection, Reparation, and Restoration of Humboldt Parkway Neighborhood; and, of their Humboldt/MLK Park, to the former resemblance and historic "connectivity" of these cultural assets, to Frederick Law Olmsted's (original) masterpiece landscape architecture design. We say "no" to NYSDOT's (proposed) Concrete Deck, and to it's (corresponding) 3/4 mile Tunnel, and to the virtual Park (proposed) to be affixed atop such promenade (deck), and incorporating specimen trees with roots that (supposedly) will grow in a horizontal versus a vertical orientation.

Photo Credit: "Humboldt Parkway 1954", D. Cadzow

Other Media Accompanying This Petition: "Sawed Humboldt Parkway Trees" Photo, "In Our Own Words" Oral History/Community Health/Digital Storytelling Video , and "In Our Own Words" Kensington Expressway Project Protest Promotional Video.