The lawmaker who has the governor’s ear on the $1 billion Kensington Expressway project praised “the investment in Black people’s lives” and the community benefits she predicted a reconstructed portion of Humboldt Parkway above a tunnel would bring to the East Side.
“There are a lot of professional Black people who live immediately in that community and off Humboldt Parkway, and they are elated at the fact that, like the people on Bidwell, they will look out their window and see a parkway in front of it,” said Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes, D-Buffalo. “That adds value to their property.”
Peoples-Stokes, in a meeting last week with The Buffalo News Editorial Board, also chastised critics for failing to get involved years ago when the plan for Route 33, which is largely the one now being advanced by the state Department of Transportation, was developed by Restore Our Community Coalition, an East Side organization.
“The community doesn’t get engaged until decisions are made,” Peoples-Stokes said. “When they had an opportunity to be engaged and weigh their opinion, they were not there.”
At the same time, Peoples-Stokes, who has been in the Assembly 20 years and became majority leader five years ago this month, acknowledged that those now criticizing the plan may not have become involved because they thought there wouldn’t be funding for it.
Gov. Kathy Hochul announced up to $1 billion for the project in January 2022.
A lot of the planning Peoples-Stokes referred to occurred five to 10 years ago, but community meetings began last year. A public comment period on the project ended Nov. 10.
The East Side Parkways Coalition, which formed over the summer, and the Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy both expressed during that period that they want the expressway filled in to restore the full parkway designed by Frederick Law Olmsted between Delaware and Martin Luther King Jr. parks.
Both groups…
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