Community coalition calls for restoration of Humboldt Parkway
By AVERY SCHNEIDER • AUG 9, 2015
What remains today of Buffalo’s Humboldt Parkway is an ordinary stretch of sidewalks and city streets, divided by the Kensington Expressway. Decades ago, it was a tree-lined parkway connecting major parks of the Olmsted system. On Saturday, a community coalition once again led the charge to restore the parkway design.
The Restore Our Community Coalition organized a march along Humboldt Parkway to the Buffalo Museum of Science to spread awareness of the desire to see the parkway restored. Executive Director Karen Stanley Fleming says their message was that it’s time for a change.
“The group acknowledged that the construction of the Kensington brought economic and environmental devastation to the Hamlin Park and Martin Luther King Park communities,” said Fleming. “But we want to move on from that devastation and move to a place of restoration.”
Fleming says money has been set aside with the department of transportation for half a decade, and within that time two different feasibility studies have been conducted by the University at Buffalo. One illustrates the design of a deck above the Kensington Expressway, turning a stretch of it into a tunnel with the parkway above. The other looks at the economic value.
“We really look at it as an investment, and the return on the investment could be over 900 jobs on such a construction project, and also increasing the property values, and therefore the personal wealth of home owners all along Humboldt Parkway,” said Fleming. “But also spreading and eliminating the blight all the way over to Fillmore on the east and over to Jefferson on the west of Humboldt.”
According to the Coalition, that there are 21 other cities in the U.S. where parks have been built over expressways to reconnect communities and build green gathering spaces.
Restore Our Community Coalition Remembers the Female Advocates of the Movement
by Jennifer J. Parker – PR Consultant
ROCC Remembers the History and Honors the Early Leaders of the Campaign to Protect and Restore Humboldt Parkway
On Saturday, April 18, 2015, the Restore Our Community Coalition (ROCC) will honor the ladies of the early movement to protect and restore the Humboldt Parkway neighborhoods. The decision to destroy one of America’s tree lined Olmsted parkways and replace it with an expressway was introduced over 60 years ago. This planning decision has resulted in decades of decay, an economically disconnected community and decline of a once vibrant, clean, green, and beautiful neighborhood.
Why ROCC Legacy Tea? Women History Month was the inspiration. The Committee reflected on the long journey to seek answers and social justice for the community destruction. The ROCC Committee wanted to begin a tradition of honoring the legacy of the female advocates of the movement during Women History Month.
“These ladies are the connection from our past to our future”, stated Karen Stanley-Fleming, the Executive Director of ROCC.
As spoken word artist Common and musical artist John Legend recited in their award winning song, Glory, “No one can win the war individually. It takes the wisdom of the elders and the young people’s energy.”
ROCC is now seeing this transition. The ROCC Committee includes leaders of the early ROCC movement and emerging leaders that have stepped up to take the baton to assist in building a reconnected community. Realizing that the vision is much larger than one group, ROCC has expanded the mission and reached out to other community environmental and social justice groups. Justin Booth, the Executive Director of GObike, explained the power of collaboration the best, “There is a need to build a coalition of coalitions.”
ROCC would like the dedicated community advocates to know that their work have not been forgotten.
“We remember the passion and work to restore the Olmsted vision of a vibrant, green community space and to remediate the devastation caused by the construction of Route 33. The new Buffalo should include a restored and reconnected community”, stated Stephanie Barber Geter, Chair of ROCC.
The 2015 Honorees include:
Ms. Alice A. Hill (deceased) worked as a residential tax assessor and real estate broker, becoming the first Black female in Buffalo of either trade. Mrs. Hill’s passion for community activism became a model for the present-day Hamlin Park Taxpayers’ Association.
Mrs. Willie Mae Johnson – Mrs. Johnson was born in a Louisiana family of eight children 92 years ago. A registered nurse and alumnus of the University at Buffalo, having earned Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees, she worked at Women and Children’s Hospital and Roswell Park Cancer Institute. Mrs. Johnson has demonstrated true faith in her community by speaking out on such issues as the devastation caused by the construction of the Kensington Expressway.
Mrs. Edna Gayles Kee – Ms. Kee is a Buffalo-born native and long term resident of the Hamlin Park Community. She has had major success as a distinguished professor at ECC, songwriter, composer and producer. She earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the University at Buffalo. Mrs. Kee is a true community servant leader, and brings the beauty of music to the movement.
Mrs. Mamie Kirkland, at age 106 is one of the longest-living residents of the Buffalo community. Born in Mississippi, she has experienced many cultural changes throughout the 20th Century. When Mrs. Kirkland was only 6 years old her family escaped from their home in Mississippi fearing that her father would be lynched. Today, Mrs. Kirkland continues to exercise her rights by casting a vote every single year, cherishing the hard-won results of the civil rights movement.
Dr. Lydia T. Wright (deceased) became the first black member of Buffalo’s Board of Education, serving as a major advocate for the public school integration of the time. She was also the first Black female pediatrician, having studied medicine at Meharry College in Nashville, TN. Among her key recognitions was the 2000 renaming of PS #89 as the Dr. Lydia T. Wright School of Excellence.
About Restore our Community Coalition (ROCC)
Restore Our Community Coalition is a group of citizens, organizations, businesses and institutions with a vision to remediate the devastation and civic injustice caused by the construction of the Kensington Expressway (NY Route 33). We envision a beautiful, green parkway that will serve as a gateway connecting the historic Humboldt Parkway community to downtown and the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus. At the same time, a green parkway and promenade will serve as a vibrant community gathering place that is an attraction within a neighborhood. Find out more about ROCC at www.roccbuffalo.org or at https://www.facebook.com/bflorocc.
THE “I REMEMBER” CAMPAIGN: Thousands of Buffalo residents remember Humboldt Parkway when it was beautiful. Like Bidwell or Lincoln Parkway, it was once a tree lined avenue providing a refreshing respite from the busy city life. Designed by Frederick Law Olmsted as a primary component of America’s first Parkway system, Humboldt Parkway is also the only Olmsted masterpiece in America that was destroyed. By supporting the “I Remember” campaign Buffalonians will elevate the issue until the dream of a green Humboldt Parkway is again a reality.
Developing: Bringing back an Olmsted parkway
Posted: April 2015
Source: Buffalo Spree
Picture the Hamlin Park neighborhood in the winter of 1959. As a light snow falls, resident Donnee Hill steps out of his house, feeling the fresh snow crunch under his feet. The mighty elm trees overhead seem to go on forever and create a snow-covered canopy as far as he can see. As he takes a moment to gather himself, he realizes that Humboldt Parkway, where his family has recently bought a house, is one of the most beautiful streets he’s ever seen.
Over fifty years later, when Hill leaves the same home on Humboldt Parkway, he’s now confronted with the Kensington Expressway. Even though he only had a few short years to enjoy the parkway, his memories are vivid. “Walking the parkway was like being in an Ansel Adams photograph,” he says. “When the trucks came in 1962, it was devastating.”
Looking back on that day and so many others like it, Hill remembers the paradise that once was Humboldt Parkway—and he’s not the only one. A movement that has been decades in the making—to restore Olmsted’s vision for his longest and grandest parkway—is gaining traction in Buffalo. Dedicated community members who want Humboldt Parkway returned for future generations to enjoy have organized as the Restore Our Community Coalition (ROCCBuffalo.org).
Tell me about the Restore Our Community Coalition—what are you trying to achieve?
Clarke Eaton (founder/board member): To bring back to the neighborhood what was here before the expressway destroyed Humboldt Parkway. I’ve lived in the community for the past forty-eight years, and, like any person who loves their home, I want to see the best for it. I raised my daughter here and she raised her son here. This is something we want for future generations. It’s time for us to go back and restore the beauty of the parkway. I even remember the days we could pet horses still using the bridle path.
What’s the solution that ROCC has come up with to restore Olmsted’s vision?
CE: We thought we would turn and look at the economics of the situation. A restoration of the parkway would be beneficial on so many levels. It would create jobs and help maintain and improve the community, while, in turn, draw more people to the neighborhood.
SBG: We looked at every possible fix and we believe that covering the expressway is the way to restore the community and fix the residual effects it created, like the loss of business on Fillmore and Jefferson. It’s not our intent to disturb the flow of traffic with our solution. We don’t propose filling it in; we don’t think that makes sense. Capping the expressway allows us to reconnect the community, while still allowing easy access to downtown.
Why not just fill it in and be done with it? It seems like an opportunity to fix systemic problems of sprawl in our region.
SBG: For months, our meetings were just focused on how big this could possibly be, but we decided to have a more specific focus with the ultimate goal of restoring the parkway in the most feasible and least disruptive way. There was a big concern that removing the expressway would result in significant traffic on our streets and many folks along Humboldt Parkway wanted us to avoid that. We believe that filling it in places us too much at a disadvantage for even getting it started.
KSF (Karen Stanley Fleming, ROCC executive director): The design report that was produced by Professors Hata and Warren at UB was to first and foremost reconnect the neighborhood, almost like pulling up a zipper. If we fill it, and create heavy traffic at grade, then we’ve not closed the zipper and effectively reconnected the neighborhood.
This would be a pretty big project; what would be the first step?
SBG: Phase one would see the expressway capped from just south of the science museum all the way up to East Ferry. It would actually extend the parkway beyond where it was originally supposed to stop, but it’s an expansion on Olmsted’s original vision.
What about the rest of the parkway, since it went all the way to Delaware Park?
SBG: Phase two is more ambitious, and the groups we’ve had look at this have told us we can do some very interesting things with it. Because the expressway eventually becomes grade level past East Ferry, it would require some excavation. A part of that idea could include an extension of light rail that would allow people to get between downtown and the airport. That change in grade is due to the Scajaquada Creek being buried, which presents a challenge. There are a couple of thoughts about how to deal with it, and other projects have run into the same problem, like the big dig in Boston.
Speaking about the big dig, how much is this going to cost and where is the money coming from?
SBG: We’ve been working with a number around $500 million. It’s a lot of money, but we believe the money is out there within the state and federal governments.
Who are your political and community partners in this endeavor?
Do you think this project can have broader implication outside of Buffalo?
SBG: I think in a time when the president and elected officials are looking for infrastructure projects to put people to work, we look pretty good. The shelf life of the current expressway is fast expiring and it has serious issues that will need to be corrected eventually. A project like this is already necessary ,and employs a major number of people in our community for a long time. At this point in Buffalo, the city is coming alive and it should be coming alive for everyone.
KSF: This project could generate over 950 construction jobs for the entire course of work, which would be five to ten years. That number doesn’t include potential additional employment for infill housing, rehab work in the neighborhood, and improving Jefferson and Fillmore businesses. The potential ripple effects of this project are huge.
Calvert Vaux Barn
One of the few existing remnants of the original Parade Park, which would eventually become Martin Luther King Park, has a chance of returning to its original foundation. Seen in The Buffalo News.
Some would like to see Calvert Vaux building returned to MLK Park
The two-story barn, a block and a half south of Martin Luther King Jr. Park, is easy to overlook.
The timbers are worn, the yellow paint faded and its days as a working barn long past.
But despite the neglect, the building at 350 Mills St. – its Stick style architecture still structurally sound despite some rot at the base – has historic value beyond its 19th-century birth.
And some park aficionados say it’s time to move the building to its original home in the park, while restoring it for contemporary use.
“It’s not just a barn, it’s part of the park system’s grand past,” said Tony James, an architect with the Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy. “It’s the earliest park building surviving in the city, and unfortunately it’s not in one of the parks, and we want to get it back in the parks.
“The barn’s also significant architecturally, because it’s the only Calvert Vaux building left in Buffalo,” James said.
Vaux was an English-born architect who teamed with landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted in 1869 to create the Buffalo park system of parkways and traffic circles. The men earlier designed Central Park and Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, and during Vaux’s 40-year career in New York City, he designed two of that metropolis’ most visited attractions – the American Museum of Natural History and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Among the Buffalo park buildings Vaux designed was the decorative Parade House, completed in 1876 in the Parade, MLK Park’s original name, where the Greenhouse and brick Shelter House are today.
The wooden Parade House burned down the following year, but was rebuilt in similar fashion by architect Cyrus Porter.
The barn was part of the complex, and it was moved to Mills Street in 1897, several years before the Parade House was torn down following the park’s redesign. The Parade House was seen at the time as being too expensive and time-consuming to maintain, James said.
“The Parade House was the most elaborate structure Vaux ever designed for any park. It was made of pine, which is why it burned, was elaborately carved and decorated, and painted very bright colors,” said scholar Francis R. Kowsky, author of two books about Vaux.
The Parade House was designed for everyone, reflecting Olmsted’s and Vaux’s view of parks as a place for socializing without regard to social class despite the Gilded Age they were in, Kowsky said. The building, which included a boisterous beer hall with music and dancing, came to be especially popular with the German community, while frowned on by the Anglo-Saxon Protestants on the West Side.
“Returning the barn to the park would be a nice reminder of that great building that was here,” Kowsky said.
The barn was identified by Martin Wachadlo, a local historian who came upon it while working on a historic survey of the Broadway-Fillmore neighborhood about 10 years ago.
“When I saw that building, I thought this doesn’t belong here,” Wachadlo said.
He speculated the barn could have been in the park as part of the Parade House complex, and it was confirmed when a building with the same dimensions was found there using an old map of the city.
The map also showed a horse shed attached to the barn. Wachadlo, upon further inspection, found a post on the barn’s right side where the shed would have been attached.
Researcher Monica Rzepka eventually discovered the city permit that recorded when the barn was moved out of the park in 1897, at a time when the large circular basin – now a splash pad – was installed and the park’s name was changed to Humboldt Park.
Wachadlo said he hopes the chance for the park to reclaim the building won’t be missed.
“We talk about the parks system being so important. Well, this is the only opportunity for the people of Buffalo to have an original parks structure in our parks system. It would be a shame for it to be lost, especially now when there is such a greater appreciation for our architectural heritage,” Wachadlo said.
“This is one of those valuable historic resources we can’t afford to be losing.”
The barn, 25 feet deep and 36 feet long, is being used for storage by a landlord who has agreed to sell it for a reasonable amount, James said. But there are a number of additional costs that make bringing the barn home an expensive proposition.
The Conservancy received an estimate in 2012 of $160,000 to buy and move the barn to the park. The cost rose to $617,000 to also restore the structure and build a replica of the former horse shed, James said. A garage door apparatus installed a few decades ago must also be removed.
The long-term plan would be to use the barn for employee training in the summers, provide office space for the park superintendent that currently doesn’t exist and to rent it to the community, James said.
Tim Tielman, executive director of Campaign for Greater Buffalo, suggests buying the barn and nearby land, and converting it into park use at a fraction of the cost. That would speed up the process of saving the barn and putting it into the Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy’s fold, without precluding the move at a later time.
But Stephanie Crockatt, the Conservancy’s interim executive director, said acquiring the barn is not a priority because of the cost and the many pressing needs the parks system is confronted with. She said the Conservancy could envision working with historical and preservation groups to acquire and move the barn, but someone other than the Conservancy would need to lead the charge.
“It’s a really worthwhile project, but it’s just a bit outside of our reach,” Crockatt said.
email: msommer@buffnews.com
One Buffalo
Chairperson Stephanie Barber Geter reminds us how important it is that each and every Buffalo neighborhood participates in the city’s redevelopment. Seen in The Buffalo News.
Let’s reclaim parkway to create One Buffalo
The “I Remember” campaign by the Restore Our Community Coalition is more than a nostalgic nod to a Frederick Law Olmsted masterpiece landscape connecting Delaware Park and what was then called Parade Park (now Martin Luther King Park). Even as we create a community memory album at roccbuffalo.org, the “I Remember” campaign is a call to action for reclamation of Humboldt Parkway to create One Buffalo. We must reconnect a community left out of Buffalo’s economic renaissance. To restore the parkway would bring almost 1,000 construction jobs and create a fitting gateway to downtown Buffalo and the medical corridor.
This part of Buffalo’s African-American history is painful. As the 1950s turned into the ’60s, the tree-lined parkway was gutted to build the Kensington Expressway, just as the neighborhood was becoming home to some of the city’s most prominent African-American families, such as Robert Coles, an architect who defiantly designed his home with its rear to the expressway, or the Waltons, who both worked at the Chevrolet plant, where Mrs. Walton was the plant nurse, or the Singletons, whose father was a union leader at the Bethlehem Steel plant and a real estate agent. Those residents fought, but lost, the battle when public officials presented a plan to expedite access to downtown for suburbanites.
Powerless to prevent their property values from plummeting, and defenseless against the property damage caused by the blasting and highway construction, a remnant of those residents remain today as owner occupants amongst absentee landlords meeting the demand for student housing. Construction of the Kensington is a shameful part of Buffalo’s history, environmentally, economically and socially; but to rewrite that history, we must first acknowledge the wrong, and then prioritize funding for the restoration. A restored and reconnected community is important to the growth of the One Buffalo, the New Buffalo, which should include vibrant and healthy communities for all.
Stephanie Barber Geter
Committee Chairwoman
Restore Our Community Coalition
‘I Remember’ Campaign Hopes to Restore Humboldt Parkway
The following article was posted on December 14th, 2014 by Time Warner Cable News.
‘I Remember’ Campaign Hopes to Restore Humboldt Parkway
BUFFALO N.Y. — A local group is looking to restore what once was a vibrant neighborhood in Buffalo.
The ‘Restore Our Community Coalition’ or ROCC, kicked off the ‘I Remember’ Campaign with hopes of bringing the park back to Humboldt Parkway.
The plan calls for Humboldt Parkway to be reconnected; turning a section of the 33 expressway into a tunnel. This project would create more green space in the neighborhood and have a major impact in property values and job creation.
Construction is estimated to cost around $500 million, but could generate a $900 million economic boom, with a revival of the Ferry, Utica, Jefferson and Fillmore business districts.
Organizers say that it’s time for this neighborhood to experience a rebirth of its own.
“The neighborhood that we’re building now in Buffalo, Everything’s coming to life, and we’re saying this core, sitting right next to downtown, should happen,” said Stephanie Barber-Geter, President of Hamlin Park Tax Payer Association and Chair of ROCC
The project would be state funded and has been supported by State Senator Tim Kennedy, and State Assemblywoman Crystal Peoples-Stokes.
– See more at: http://buffalo.twcnews.com/content/news/792847/-i-remember–campaign-hopes-to-restore-humboldt-parkway-/#sthash.BaKKktXo.dpuf
Restore Our Community Coalition Launches
“I Remember” Campaign
The following article was posted on December 14th, 2014 by Buffalo Rising.
Restore Our Community Coalition Launches “I Remember” Campaign
Everyone living in Buffalo has one or two ‘lost along the way” items on their wish list that they would like to see brought back and restored. I’m talking about significant historic landmarks that got pummeled at one point or another. Landmarks that made this city great, but are no longer with us at this point.
Today, a group called Restore Our Community Coalition (ROCC) is gathering to launch an “I Remember” campaign that focuses on the tragic loss of the Humboldt Parkway. The parkway was decimated when urban renewal efforts steamrolled the beautiful, tree-lined Olmsted parkway. Now residents living near the parkway are coming together to recreate the memories they still have, pertaining to Humboldt Parkway.
It is the hope of ROCC that by coming together as a community, via an “I Remember” Holiday Reception, a message will be forged that the damage that was unleashed upon the community 60 years ago has not been forgotten. Nor will it ever be forgotten. Not until the parkway is restored will the community be at peace. Humboldt Parkway was never meant to be a freeway for cars. Rather it was created to provide a peaceful, protected boulevard between Delaware park and The Parade (now MLK Park). see the plan.
The bounding neighborhoods will never be as strong as they once were, if Humboldt Parkway is not restored to its original state. That is the message that community leaders from the Hamlin Park Tax Payers Association, Olmsted Parks Conservancy, Buffalo Museum of Science and the Black Chamber of Commerce as well as Humboldt Parkway community residents are spreading this holiday season.
Download a .pdf of this article, here.
Hamlin Park hoping to regain its wholeness
This fantastic article was posted on December 14th, 2014 on Buffalo News.
Hamlin Park hoping to regain its wholeness
Don Hill remembers when his parents bought a home in the Hamlin Park neighborhood in the 1950s – only the third black family on his block of the old Humboldt Parkway.
Hill, now 68, had a newspaper delivery route for two years, and recalls his neighbors and “wonderful” experiences living along one of the Frederick Law Olmsted-designed parkways. When they first moved in, the neighborhood was still somewhat exclusive, with attractive homes lining the wide, grassy median of the beautiful, tree-lined boulevard.
“If you saw anyone walking along Humboldt Parkway to Main Street, after a snowfall, it was like walking through paradise. It was unbelievable,” Hill said Sunday during a community gathering. “When the trucks came through to cut down the trees in 1962, 1963, it was devastating. My neighborhood changed.”
Now, the professional photographer and others in the neighborhood want to correct what one termed a “travesty” by restoring the trees and grand parkway – over the top of the Kensington Expressway. That would reunite two communities above and restore Olmsted’s vision after 60 years, while still allowing the speedy flow of traffic underneath.
And on Sunday, their group – Restore Our Community Coalition – launched its “I Remember” grass-roots campaign of lawn signs, social media and public pressure, designed to build a groundswell of support for what would be a $560 million construction project.
“It’s a grand idea, a grand vision for Buffalo,” Karen Stanley Fleming, executive director of the coalition, said during a fireside chat-style program in the neighborhood’s historic 1854 stone farmhouse on Hedley Place. “We want to see a beautiful, fitting gateway to our waterfront.”
Ultimately, supporters want to see the parkway restored from downtown to the Scajaquada Expressway, but the initial focus will be on the portion from Ferry to Best streets. And, they stressed that they want to reconnect and strengthen the community – not remove the highway.
“We don’t want to disrupt that traffic. We want suburbanites to come in and leave,” said Richard Cummings, president of the Black Chamber of Commerce, a trustee of the Olmsted Parks Conservancy and a member of the coalition’s steering committee. “But we don’t want it to disrupt our life as much as it has.”
Championed by resident Clarke Eaton since the expressway was built, and now led by a professional executive director and steering committee, Restore Our Community Coalition is focused on restoring the parklike atmosphere of Humboldt Parkway and the Hamlin Park neighborhood.
Organization members lament the Kensington’s impact on the neighborhood – when the state tore down houses, ripped up the boulevard and dug a canyon to construct the expressway through the neighborhood, despite community opposition at four public hearings. Residents were evicted or moved to North Buffalo and the suburbs. Businesses struggled, failed or left. Blight developed and crime grew. And today, instead of owner-occupied homes, many houses in the neighborhood are owned by absentee landlords and rented to college students.
“This is a group of people that has lived with a mistake for 50 years,” said Stephanie Barber Geter, chairwoman of the coalition and president of the Hamlin Park Taxpayers Association. “We can change this, right here.”
Humboldt was one of the only Olmsted-designed parkways in the country to be deliberately destroyed, in stark contrast to Chapin, Lincoln and Bidwell parkways in the city, the group noted.
But all that can change, its leaders say. “If we can restore Humboldt Parkway, we can stop the blight, even stop the crime,” Fleming said.
A $100,000 study by University at Buffalo’s School of Architecture and Planning and the Regional Institute found that the project, despite its high upfront investment, would generate about $1 billion in economic impact. That includes creation of 1,000 construction jobs, with spinoff effects. UB students even created a mock-up of what the neighborhood could look like, now on display in the nearby Buffalo Museum of Science.
Restoration of the neighborhood would also raise property values and create wealth, draw more residents because of the appeal of living on a boulevard or parkway, and lure businesses back to a community that they largely abandoned decades ago, Fleming said.
Environmental remediation – by planting oxygen-producing trees and burying the polluting traffic in a tunnel – would improve air quality, addressing concerns about asthma. And the project would enhance overall quality of life, she added.
Proponents said the project, first unveiled earlier this year, has already gained some support in the community and among political leaders, including Rep. Brian Higgins, D-Buffalo, and Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y. But Fleming noted that “it takes more than a conversation” to loosen the federal or state purse-strings.
“This provides the politicians with the wind beneath their wings,” Fleming said. “We know it’s not an easy task, asking Congress for $560 million. We want to help them.”
The campaign is designed to evoke memories of what the neighborhood was like before the highway, and to energize not only current residents but anyone in the region who used to live there. The group, which presented a slideshow of old photos from the parkway’s glory days, hopes to record video recollections and testimony to bolster its case. And the campaign will culminate in a “Restore the Community” march in late spring along Humboldt, from Ferry Street to Martin Luther King Jr. Park.
“Everyone in this committee is working hard, trying to rectify this wrong,” Fleming said. “We are trying to engage as many professionals as possible.”
Download a PDF of this article, here.
“Update on a Restored Humboldt Parkway: “The Green Parkway””
Below article was published in The Challenger, Aug 3, 2014.
Update on a Restored Humboldt Parkway: “The Green Parkway”
“Because of the persistence of neighbors and institutions around Humboldt Parkway, the dream of a “Green Parkway” to restore the community is coming into clearer vision. A new University at Buffalo report has been released, which documents the economic impact of a restored Humboldt Parkway. In a study commissioned by the New York State Department of Transportation, the UB School of Architecture and Planning in conjunction with its Regional Institute Urban Design Project, a team of experts led by principal investigator, Robert Shibley, has ascertained that such a project would have a minimal regional economic impact exceeding $1 Billion and construction employment of hundreds of jobs. In the best case scenario, the impact would catalyze the complete revitalization of an area from the Fillmore Business District to the Jefferson Street Business District and the residential neighborhoods in between. Such revitalization would spur new mixed-use development, improving property values and household wealth.
The Restore Our Community Coalition (ROCC) shared highlights of the UB report with the general public last Tuesday at the Buffalo Museum of Science. The target audience was residents of Hamlin Park, known as the Hamlin Park Taxpayers Association, and block club advocates from Humboldt Parkway, East Ferry, and Delevan Streets, as well as owners of neighborhood businesses from Fillmore to Jefferson. The meeting was open to the public.
ROCC chairperson Stephanie Geter stated, “We want to update the community on the progress toward reaching our goal to restore the Olmsted vision of a vibrant, green community space, to remediate the devastation caused by the construction of Route 33, and to create a beautiful gateway to Buffalo’s Medical Corridor. ROCC came together in 2007 to bring this issue to the attention of local and state leaders, focusing our coalition power on the New York State Department of Transportation. Much work has been going on behind the scenes, and we have a plan to make this vision a reality.”
Indeed, the vision is not a new one. In the 1870’s, Frederick Law Olmsted articulated a vision of a “city within a park” that became the nation’s first interconnected park system. A major corridor in the system was Humboldt Parkway connecting Delaware Park with the former “Parade,” later renamed Humboldt Park, and now called Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Park. Olmsted Parks Conservancy President Thomas Herrera-Mishler noted that Humboldt Parkway was designed to allow users to travel from one park to another without leaving the serenity of the park-like atmosphere. He said, “six rows of mature shade trees once provided a wonderful canopy not only to connect Olmsted’s Delaware and Parade Parks, but also to provide a valuable green space where everyone was welcome to enjoy nature, enhancing the visual character and quality of life for the whole community. Restoring this green anchor on the East Side of Buffalo is a major priority of the Conservancy.”
Richard Cummings, President of the Black Chamber of Commerce, asserts that “while the Kensington Expressway construction led to community devastation, we are optimistic that some of the damage can be reversed. Even though the introduction of the expressway in the 60’s isolated the East Side from the rest of Buffalo, initiating a period of disinvestment and neighborhood decline, we are working with businesses, residents and city leaders to reverse that decline. We believe that our community can be restored.”
The Humboldt community includes neighbors, business owners, cultural institutions and tourist attractions. “We absolutely embrace the vision to re-create a viable, walkable, green environment on all sides of the Museum”, Says Mark Mortenson of the Buffalo Museum of Science. “That is the environment that the Museum celebrated until it was tragically lost by the construction of the Kensington Expressway.”
The idea to cover a portion of Route 33 may have seemed farfetched to many local residents and even elected officials and transportation leaders, but the reality is that there is a movement across America to remove urban freeway systems in order to create more livable cities. “Highways to Boulevards” is a major initiative of the Congress for New Urbanism (CNU), which came to Buffalo for its 22nd Annual Congress this past June. The 4 day conference was themed “The Resilient Community,” and several sessions addressed issues related to the restoration of the Humboldt Parkway community.
Conference attendee Karen Stanley Fleming, who serves as the Executive Director for ROCC, stated, “ I was elated to meet several leading planners and urbanism experts who affirmed the human, economic and environmental benefits of sustainable planning projects such as our proposal to create a green deck over a portion of Route 33. Projects like this are going on around the country, and at even greater expense that the projected $560 million that a Green Humboldt Deck would cost, because the point is that this in an investment, which will reap returns. It is not just a transportation cost to correct an urban sprawl mistake. An investment to turn part of this highway into a green boulevard will reap dividends in terms of job creation and increased property values. An invest terms of job creation and increased property values. An investment to restore a Green Humboldt Parkway will bring to our Buffalo Renaissance the beautiful gateway that our Downtown Revitalization deserves.””
Download a pdf of this article, here.
“The beginning of the end for Robert Moses Parkway will restore Olmsted’s vision”
This article was published in Buffalo News November 18, 2014.
A “riverway,” at top, will replace part of the Robert Moses Parkway, bottom.
“The beginning of the end for Robert Moses Parkway will restore Olmsted’s vision
Robert Moses was a complicated man who left a complicated legacy. He was the powerful state development official responsible for some spectacular public achievements, including New York City’s Triborough Bridge and Long Island’s Jones Beach, but also for some long-lasting disasters, prominent of which in these parts is the Niagara County parkway that carries his name. Its damage is about to be undone.
The Robert Moses Parkway begins at the North Grand Island Bridge, then sweeps west along the Niagara River, cutting city residents off from one of the world’s most famous and spectacular waterways. The City of Niagara Falls interrupts its path, but it soon resumes its destructive course, cutting the city’s North Side off from one of the world’s most famous and spectacular waterways. Farther north, the parkway moves inland and is, for the most part, innocuous and useful.
But now, as part of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s Buffalo Billion, much of the parkway will be reconfigured to restore the riverfront to the righteous vision of Frederick Law Olmsted, the 19th century designer of Niagara Falls State Park, the country’s first state park. Once again, it will become a place of beauty, where visitors can appreciate the splendor of the upper river, free from the scar that is the Robert Moses Parkway.
The work has been in the planning for two years, but last week work began. The project will remove a 1-mile stretch of the parkway and replace it with a “riverway” – a stretch that will improve pedestrian access to the river, as Olmsted wanted.
Specifically, a section of the parkway west of John B. Daly Boulevard will be converted from four lanes to two; the two eastbound lanes between the park and Daly Boulevard have sat unused for nearly 25 years.
In addition, the overpass at the interchange between the parkway and Daly Boulevard will be removed and replaced with a roundabout. An embankment that propped up the parkway will be lowered, making the river more easily visible. Nature areas will be added, including a small pond and a more extensive system of trails along the river. There will also be a new path to the water from Buffalo Avenue near the First Street bridge over to Goat Island.
And that’s just what is happening along the upper river. Plans are also in the works to remove the section of the parkway that blocks North Side residents from the Niagara River Gorge, which in its tumultuous, churning current is nearly as spectacular as the falls, themselves.
Moses elevated the automobile above all other concerns. It was the way of the future, he believed, and all resources had to be marshaled to its benefit. No price was too high to pay in disruption or even suffering. But here, more than 50 years after the parkway’s construction, the mistake is being fixed.
The natural resource that Western New York has in abundance is water, and in some of its most breathtaking configurations. Access to that resource was stolen away, and not just in Niagara County. With this project, Western New Yorkers are beginning to get back what is theirs. That counts as a big day.”
Download a .pdf of this article, here.
Renovating homes in the Hamlin Park Neighborhood
Renovating homes in the Hamlin Park Neighborhood will help to RESTORE OUR COMMUNITY. See this local TV segment on $1 homes from Aug 27, 2014.
“BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) – A program called the Urban Homestead Program allows buyers to purchase certain abandoned homes within the City of Buffalo for only $1, plus real estate closing costs.
Mike Puma recently took advantage of the program to purchase a home on Buffalo’s east side. The home is certainly what anyone would call a “fixer upper,” to put it nicely. The home near Canisius College needs several repairs; the paint is chipping, holes in the floor need patching, and the structure is crumbling.
News 4 asked Puma what his friends think of his purchase. “Do they think you’re crazy?” News 4 asked.
“They’re actually kind of jealous,” he answered, citing the cost of the home as one probable reason.
Puma, who works in historical preservation, bought the home for $1 through Buffalo’s Urban Homestead Renewal program. Puma said he wanted to make a difference in the city.
“I wanted to take a blighted eyesore, make it my own and contribute back to the community and greater whole in Buffalo,” he explained.”
Download a .pdf of this article, here.