{"id":3004,"date":"2021-10-12T01:47:44","date_gmt":"2021-10-12T01:47:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/roccbuffalo.org\/?p=3004"},"modified":"2021-10-12T02:25:29","modified_gmt":"2021-10-12T02:25:29","slug":"tied-together-and-torn-apart-by-parkways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/roccbuffalo.org\/?p=3004","title":{"rendered":"Tied Together \u2014 and Torn Apart \u2014 By Parkways"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"fusion-fullwidth fullwidth-box fusion-builder-row-1 fusion-flex-container hundred-percent-fullwidth non-hundred-percent-height-scrolling\" style=\"background-color: #ffffff;background-position: center center;background-repeat: no-repeat;border-width: 0px 0px 0px 0px;border-color:#e7e4e2;border-style:solid;\" ><div class=\"fusion-builder-row fusion-row fusion-flex-align-items-flex-start\" style=\"width:104% !important;max-width:104% !important;margin-left: calc(-4% \/ 2 );margin-right: calc(-4% \/ 2 );\"><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-0 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-flex-column\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-flex-justify-content-flex-start fusion-content-layout-column\" style=\"background-position:left top;background-repeat:no-repeat;-webkit-background-size:cover;-moz-background-size:cover;-o-background-size:cover;background-size:cover;background-color:#ffffff;padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px;\"><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-1\"><p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal; font-size: 36px; color: #000000;\" data-fusion-font=\"true\">Tied Together \u2014 and Torn Apart \u2014 By Parkways<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"fusion-separator\" style=\"align-self: center;margin-left: auto;margin-right: auto;width:100%;max-width:20PX;\"><\/div><\/div><style type=\"text\/css\">.fusion-body .fusion-builder-column-0{width:100% !important;margin-top : 10px;margin-bottom : 10px;}.fusion-builder-column-0 > .fusion-column-wrapper {padding-top : 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1.92%;}@media only screen and (max-width:1024px) {.fusion-body .fusion-builder-column-1{width:100% !important;order : 0;}.fusion-builder-column-1 > .fusion-column-wrapper {margin-right : 1.92%;margin-left : 1.92%;}}@media only screen and (max-width:640px) {.fusion-body .fusion-builder-column-1{width:100% !important;order : 0;}.fusion-builder-column-1 > .fusion-column-wrapper {margin-right : 1.92%;margin-left : 1.92%;}}<\/style><\/div><\/div><style type=\"text\/css\">.fusion-body .fusion-flex-container.fusion-builder-row-2{ padding-top : 0px;margin-top : 5px;padding-right : 0px;padding-bottom : 0px;margin-bottom : 5px;padding-left : 0px;}<\/style><\/div><div class=\"fusion-fullwidth fullwidth-box fusion-builder-row-3 fusion-flex-container hundred-percent-fullwidth non-hundred-percent-height-scrolling\" style=\"background-color: rgba(255,255,255,0);background-position: center center;background-repeat: no-repeat;border-width: 0px 0 0 0;border-color:#e7e4e2;border-style:solid;\" ><div class=\"fusion-builder-row fusion-row fusion-flex-align-items-flex-start\" style=\"width:100% !important;max-width:100% !important;margin-left: calc(-0% \/ 2 );margin-right: calc(-0% \/ 2 );\"><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-2 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-flex-column\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-flex-justify-content-flex-start fusion-content-layout-column\" style=\"background-position:left top;background-repeat:no-repeat;-webkit-background-size:cover;-moz-background-size:cover;-o-background-size:cover;background-size:cover;padding: 0px 26px 0px 54px;\"><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-2\"><section id=\"module-position-Oe5TynfuRgE\" class=\"storytopbar-bucket story-byline-module\">\n<div class=\"asset-metabar\">\n<p>Posted: September 15, 2015<\/p>\n<p>Source:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/beltmag.com\/tied-together-and-torn-apart-by-parkways\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Belt Magazine<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div><div ><span class=\" fusion-imageframe imageframe-none imageframe-1 hover-type-none\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"360\" title=\"6a11835v-640&#215;300-768&#215;360\" src=\"https:\/\/roccbuffalo.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/6a11835v-640x300-768x360-1.jpg\" data-orig-src=\"http:\/\/roccbuffalo.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/6a11835v-640x300-768x360-1.jpg\" class=\"lazyload img-responsive wp-image-3006\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%27768%27%20height%3D%27360%27%20viewBox%3D%270%200%20768%20360%27%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%27768%27%20height%3D%27360%27%20fill-opacity%3D%220%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/roccbuffalo.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/6a11835v-640x300-768x360-1-200x94.jpg 200w, https:\/\/roccbuffalo.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/6a11835v-640x300-768x360-1-400x188.jpg 400w, https:\/\/roccbuffalo.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/6a11835v-640x300-768x360-1-600x281.jpg 600w, https:\/\/roccbuffalo.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/6a11835v-640x300-768x360-1.jpg 768w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-orig-sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/span><\/div><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-3\"><p>(Photo: WGRZ)<\/p>\n<div class=\"asset-double-wide double-wide p402_premium\">\n<div id=\"module-position-Oe5TytS0C90\" class=\"story-asset inline-share-tools-asset\">\n<div class=\"inline-share-tools asset-inline-share-tools asset-inline-share-tools-top\">BUFFALO, N.Y. \u2014 Correcting what one group calls the \u201cKensington mistake\u201d comes with a huge price tag. The group, Restore Our Community Coalition, estimates it would cost around $500 million to create a green parkway over the 33 from Best Street to Ferry Street.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The stretch we\u2019re talking about goes for almost three-quarters of a mile. It was the topic of a town hall meeting Tuesday night.<\/p>\n<p>The Buffalo Common Council approved getting rid of the original parkway back in 1954, and this coalition wants to restore the Kensington back to its original design, a tree-lined parkway, by covering the expressway.<\/p>\n<p>They showed many examples of other cities that have successfully built green parkways over highways including Seattle, Dallas and Phoenix.<\/p>\n<p>The goal of the Restore Our Community Coalition in 2016 is to raise money. Its leaders explained where it could come from.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHopefully, from the federal government and some philanthropists. This has been done across the country and different cities with a combination of both. In some cases, most of the money came from philanthropists, and in other cases most of it came from the government. But no matter what the cost is, we had a study done by UB and it will pay for itself plus create profit to the community\u201d said Richard Cummings from ROCC.<\/p>\n<p>Assemblyman Sean Ryan was at the meeting. His spokesperson tells us that like any major road construction project, this would need a combination of state and federal funding. Ryan is involved now, early on, to help figure out what those funding sources might be.<\/p>\n<p>Nothing has been approved, but this coming year, the Coalition wants to come up with a preliminary design, do an environmental assessment, produce plans, and fundraise.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>http:\/\/www.wgrz.com\/story\/news\/local\/buffalo\/2015\/10\/06\/restoring-humboldt-parkway-could-cost-500-million\/73491016\/<\/p>\n<h1 class=\"entry-title\" style=\"font-size: 36px;\" data-fusion-font=\"true\">Community members ask for support to restore Humboldt Parkway<\/h1>\n<p><span class=\"byline\">By <a class=\"author url fn\" title=\"Posts by Callan Gray, News 4 Reporter\" href=\"http:\/\/wivb.com\/author\/wivbcallangray\/\" rel=\"author\">Callan Gray, News 4 Reporter<\/a> <\/span><span class=\"posted-on\">Published: <time class=\"entry-date published\" datetime=\"2015-10-06T23:38:47+00:00\">October 6, 2015, 11:38 pm<\/time><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"entry-content\">\n<p><strong>BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB)- <\/strong>Community leaders in Buffalo want to restore Humboldt Parkway to its former glory. The ambitious plan is still in the preliminary stages.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSomething of this caliber can be accomplished in the City of Buffalo,\u201d said Bradley Bethel, Jr. with Restore Our Community Coalition (ROCC).<\/p>\n<p>ROCC spoke in front of NYS Department of Transportation representatives and public officials, including Assemblyman Sean Ryan, on Tuesday night. The group has been working on plans to change the road pattern since 2012.<\/p>\n<p>The Kensington Expressway cuts right through East Side neighborhoods.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can\u2019t cross it to get to a store or even see a neighbor,\u201d said Inez Hord, a longtime resident.<\/p>\n<p>Hord has lived a block from Humboldt Parkway since 1962 and remembers what the road was like before that section of NY-33 was built.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBeautiful, with trees, grass and greenery, children playing in the parkway, just beautiful,\u201d said Hord.<\/p>\n<p>A group of community leaders want to restore the parkway.<\/p>\n<p>The DOT has come up with options that include lowering parts of Kensington Expressway and running it underneath a parkway. The next step would include scoping and creating preliminary designs, which could cost six million dollars, according to the DOT.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve had about two dozen cities across the country who have accomplished this over the past 40 years,\u201d said Bethel.<\/p>\n<p>ROCC estimates it will cost $570 million to fully restore the mile between East Ferry and Best St. The group is now asking for public support so they can secure grants to reunite the neighborhood.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cImproved property values, less noise and pollution in our neighborhood, and eventually commercial reinvestment in the Fillmore and Jefferson commercial districts,\u201d said Bethel.<\/p>\n<p>They estimate the project would create more than 900 jobs.<\/p>\n<p>Inez Hord said it\u2019s worth paying tax dollars to complete.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt would be a wonderful thing,\u201d said Hord. \u201cI believe it\u2019s possible but I don\u2019t expect to see it in my lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>http:\/\/wivb.com\/2015\/10\/06\/community-members-ask-for-support-to-restore-humboldt-parkway\/<\/p>\n<header class=\"header\">\n<h1 class=\"headline\" style=\"font-size: 36px;\" data-fusion-font=\"true\">Residents want park built over Kensington Expressway<\/h1>\n<div class=\"story__meta\">\n<div class=\"side__media\">\n<div class=\"media__container--1x1\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload media\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" data-orig-src=\"http:\/\/www.wkbw.com\/image\/user_female_portrait?img_id=1244597512&amp;t=1444307766068\" alt=\"\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"side__body\">\n<address class=\"byline\"><a href=\"mailto:rachel.elzufon@wkbw.com\">Rachel Elzufon<\/a><\/address>\n<div class=\"posted\">8:47 AM, Oct 7, 2015<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tags\"><a class=\"tag color--skin\" href=\"http:\/\/www.wkbw.com\/topic\/buffalo\">buffalo<\/a> | <a class=\"tag color--skin\" href=\"http:\/\/www.wkbw.com\/topic\/route+33\">route 33<\/a> | <a class=\"tag color--skin\" href=\"http:\/\/www.wkbw.com\/topic\/expressways\">expressways<\/a> | <a class=\"tag color--skin\" href=\"http:\/\/www.wkbw.com\/topic\/kensington+expressway\">kensington expressway<\/a> | <a class=\"tag color--skin\" href=\"http:\/\/www.wkbw.com\/topic\/parkways\">parkways<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"module__body\">\n<div class=\"story__media js-gallery js-enabled-fullscreen js-has-autoplay-config is-video-clicked is-loading is-video-playing\" data-autoplay=\"true\">\n<div class=\"gallery__overflow\">\n<div class=\"media-slider__viewport js-gallery__viewport js-fullscreen-targets is-single-media\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><div ><span class=\" fusion-imageframe imageframe-none imageframe-2 hover-type-none\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" title=\"Residents_want_cover_built_over_Kensingt_3521510000_24885913_ver1.0_640_480\" src=\"https:\/\/roccbuffalo.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Residents_want_cover_built_over_Kensingt_3521510000_24885913_ver1.0_640_480.jpg\" data-orig-src=\"http:\/\/roccbuffalo.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Residents_want_cover_built_over_Kensingt_3521510000_24885913_ver1.0_640_480.jpg\" class=\"lazyload img-responsive wp-image-3002\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%27640%27%20height%3D%27360%27%20viewBox%3D%270%200%20640%20360%27%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%27640%27%20height%3D%27360%27%20fill-opacity%3D%220%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/roccbuffalo.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Residents_want_cover_built_over_Kensingt_3521510000_24885913_ver1.0_640_480-200x113.jpg 200w, https:\/\/roccbuffalo.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Residents_want_cover_built_over_Kensingt_3521510000_24885913_ver1.0_640_480-400x225.jpg 400w, https:\/\/roccbuffalo.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Residents_want_cover_built_over_Kensingt_3521510000_24885913_ver1.0_640_480-600x338.jpg 600w, https:\/\/roccbuffalo.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Residents_want_cover_built_over_Kensingt_3521510000_24885913_ver1.0_640_480.jpg 640w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-orig-sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/span><\/div><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-4\"><div class=\"module__body\">\n<div class=\"story__media js-gallery js-enabled-fullscreen js-has-autoplay-config is-video-clicked is-loading is-video-playing\" data-autoplay=\"true\">\n<div class=\"media__caption__container js-gallery__caption js-is-closed js-is-video\">\n<div class=\"media__caption__content\">\n<div class=\"media__caption-bottom\">\n<div class=\"caption__author x author\">\n<h3>Buffalo\u2019s historic parkway system may be key to its friendly spirit. But parts of it have been ripped up \u2014 to dismaying result. What can a Rust Belt city do now?<\/h3>\n<p>Two months after moving to Buffalo, I found myself spinning my wheels. My car tires whined, getting no traction in the already-packed November snow. A gentleman in a suit charged by, then stopped. \u201cOh, I\u2019m not in any hurry,\u201d he said. Despite his blazer and slick dress shoes, he spent the next 15 minutes steering, directing, and outright pushing my car out.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019d just been living in Austin, Texas, known for its warmth \u2014 both figurative and literal \u2014 and laid-back vibe. But only in Buffalo had I experienced unrushed help from someone clearly heading to work, and even in the freezing cold. The lesson seemed obvious: Bad weather breeds neighborliness.<\/p>\n<p>Yet once warm air floated in, it became clear the feeling ran deeper than snow. When summer hit, Buffalo\u2019s population looked like it had ballooned. Crowds thicken for farmers\u2019 markets, block parties, and concerts. Setting up blankets, couples steal tender moments, and mothers coo at little ones as if they were in their own yard. People read, sunbathe, picnic, and take workout classes right there in public. They play sports as sedate as croquet and as zany as AcroYoga out where everybody can join in.<\/p>\n<p>And there\u2019s communal space for it all. All that activity happens on parkways \u2014 essentially wide, grassy medians shaded by elms. Buffalo has an elaborate historic parkway system that many experts call key to its social connectedness.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nps.gov\/nr\/travel\/massachusetts_conservation\/frederick_law_olmsted.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">History\u2019s original landscape architect, Frederick Law Olmsted<\/a>, drew it up. Fresh from success with Central Park in Manhattan and Prospect Park in Brooklyn, Olmsted created the country\u2019s first parkway system here. It enhanced what he called the \u201cbest planned city in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>These public greens \u2014 along with their front porches and closely spaced houses \u2014 nudge Buffalonians to relax together rather than retreat to separate backyards as in so many newer cities. And that in turn may foster neighborliness \u2014 or at least it does in my part of town, the Elmwood Village, where the old Victorians are dense and the parkways are best-preserved. The American Planning Association has\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.planning.org\/newsreleases\/2007\/oct02-4.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">named it one of the 10 greatest neighborhoods in the country<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Since moving to the city several years ago, young preservationist and creative placemaker Dana Saylor has regularly found Buffalonians to be as open and helpful as I did, one block from an Olmsted parkway, that wintry day. Saylor studies how people use spaces, and she is fascinated by how Buffalo\u2019s parkways get treated like public front yards. \u201cMaybe Buffalo is that way because we have those spaces,\u201d she says. \u201cYou have to ask how much having parks and parkways since 1876 has shaped people and how they\u2019ve related to one another. I do think the parkway system is in all these Buffalonians\u2019 psyches.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But there\u2019s also a darker side. Over the years, Buffalo has in places cut into Olmsted\u2019s vision \u2014 and ripped into the city\u2019s social fabric. The city turned its grandest parkway, Humboldt, into an expressway in the \u201960s, and it cut the Scajaquada Expressway, or 198, through crown-jewel Delaware Park. The value of roadside homes plunged, and surrounding neighborhoods like Parkside and Hamlin Park struggled.<\/p>\n<p>Then in June, a three-year-old boy was killed, and his five-year-old sister injured, when a driver lost control on the 198 and barreled into the park. Pedestrians are all too often hit by cars in the U.S. But in Buffalo, the toddler\u2019s death struck a nerve. Within days, the speed limit on the road was dropped 20 miles per hour, from 50 to 30, by the governor\u2019s order. A guardrail was hastily put up.<\/p>\n<p>Public debate has been escalating ever since. If the parkway system fosters social cohesion in the areas where it\u2019s been preserved \u2014 but actually damages the quality of life in neighborhoods where it\u2019s been ripped up \u2014 what can be done today in a Rust Belt city like Buffalo?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Olmsted\u2019s Vision<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The story started like those of many cities in the region: with great wealth. Buffalo had Gilded Age money and big ambitions in the 1860s. But 40 years after the opening of the Erie Canal, it was growing crowded and industrial. Its waterfront was jammed with huge, stark grain elevators that few but the European modernists found attractive. Civic leaders asked Olmsted, fresh from success in New York City and traveling to Chicago for new projects, to stop in and see what the city might do for beautiful parks here.<\/p>\n<p>Taking in the city by carriage, Olmsted was impressed with the potential that its open space and waterfront promised. Working with Calvert Vaux, he envisioned three great parks: the Parade for military exercises, Front Park for overlooking Lake Erie and the Niagara River, and Delaware Park for a countryside feel. And these parks would all be connected by pleasant routes to reach them. This was an avant-garde idea in 1860s planning \u2014 inspired in part by the grand boulevards of Paris, but never tried in the United States. They called the routes \u201cparkways.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Olmsted described the 200-foot-wide parkways as a new type of public space: \u201ca series of roads and walks adapted exclusively for pleasure travel, occupied by turf, trees, shrubs and flowers. Thus at not great distance from any point in the town, a pleasure ground will be suitable for a short stroll, a playground for children, an airing ground for invalids,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThe way itself would be more parklike than townlike.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In his time, of course, Olmsted could hardly have imagined some of the ways today\u2019s Buffalonians would use these public spaces. The Victorians would have been scandalized by people contorting their bodies into yoga poses while wearing nothing but tights, for instance. Olmsted intended the parkways to be formal and individually \u201cennobling,\u201d local preservationist Tim Tielman notes. Their use in areas like Elmwood Village\u2019s Bidwell Parkway tweaks Olmsted\u2019s original plan for formality and grandeur, he says.<\/p>\n<p>But Olmsted, the experts agree, intended for the parkways to unite people of different backgrounds \u2014 and in that, he would be satisfied with modern uses. \u201cHe was a guy with a lot of social theories,\u201d says Francis Kowsky. A SUNY Distinguished Professor of Fine Arts emeritus, Kowsky wrote\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.sah.org\/conferences-and-programs\/award-programs\/sah-award-for-film-and-video\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the authoritative book on Olmsted, Vaux, and Buffalo\u2019s park system<\/a>. Sitting on a cafe patio overlooking the Elmwood Village\u2019s Bidwell Parkway on a summer morning, Kowsky describes how Olmsted worked in the public interest with his parks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe had a word, communitiveness, which was a kind of community spirit,\u201d Kowsky says. \u201cOne of his concerns about American society was that it was too individualistic, too everybody for himself. His parkways were a physical way of trying to encourage people to come together. He said his parks were neutral ground for every class, rich or poor, as a universal place of recreation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Buffalo\u2019s leaders were convinced as much for financial reasons as egalitarian ideas. Property values would be higher along the parkways, Olmsted promised. That would help the city make up the cost of the land. Housing would be dense. That way the areas could be served by public transportation in the form of trolleys. In 1870, work began.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pastoral Dreams and Traffic Nightmares<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>For half a century, the parkways graced Buffalo, staying mostly as they were even as the city grew. Picnicking in them was especially popular. Neat rows of American elms reached up and toward each other, feeling from underneath like a green cathedral. But the bridle paths down their centers became less used as horses fell out of style.<\/p>\n<p>Cars were chugging ahead, and there were rumblings that the park system should make way. In 1937, an\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.vermontmodern.com\/Home\/architects-designers\/walter-curt-behrendt\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">urban planner named Walter Curt Behrendt<\/a>\u00a0came to the city. He was German, and an advocate of modernism in his home country. But even he urged that the old parkways here be saved forever. In a\u00a0<em>Buffalo News<\/em>\u00a0story, he called for \u201ca strong and never-ceasing vigilance assuring that this most valuable inheritance will never be impaired or destroyed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After World War II, however, people weren\u2019t turning to history. They talked progress. The paths Frederick Law Olmsted had laid out alongside nature would become asphalt tracks for cars. At 200 feet, the parkways were wide enough for four-lane expressways. Dutch elm disease had been claiming many of the parkway trees around the same time. Leaders chopped the grandest parade of them all, Humboldt Parkway, into a highway, and cut another through Delaware Park.<\/p>\n<p>Stephanie Barber Geter was eight years old then. She remembers making snowballs and seeing the occasional picnic blanket out in her neighborhood, which was racially integrating at that time. \u201cI think the families and people when they entered the neighborhood changed because it was a place that commanded your attention,\u201d she says. \u201cThere was no standing on the corner, [or] racing down the road, because the park created a peaceful place that demanded your respect. It made you be different. Nature does that to us all, doesn\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Once the trucks and dynamite came in, the atmosphere changed fast. White families mostly left. What had felt to her like one big neighborhood eventually became five very separate ones: Humboldt Park, Hamlin Park, Trinidad Park, Kingsley, and the Fruit Belt. The business districts on nearby Jefferson and Fillmore avenues died out. Drugs were sold on corners. Property values plunged.<\/p>\n<p>Geter became president of the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/buffalorising.com\/2013\/05\/the-hamlin-park-neighborhood-a-strong-community-and-one-you-should-be-seriously-considering\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Hamlin Park Community and Taxpayers Association<\/a>\u00a0and tracked everything she saw in the area, which had become predominately black. That included deadly health consequences \u2014 what struck her as high rates of upper respiratory infections, lupus, asthma, and cancer \u2014 among residents living along the highway. She blamed pollution.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a tale of two cities compared to where the parkways were left intact. Elmwood Village went through its own rough patch when Buffalo\u2019s industries bottomed out in the \u201980s and \u201990s. But laced with porches, trees, and green space, this neighborhood turned around. Its business stretch, Elmwood Avenue, once included a so-called Needle Alley for drug exchanges; now apartments are being built next to a gourmet store on the spot. Homes within 10 blocks of a parkway still sell at higher rates.<\/p>\n<p>Along Elmwood\u2019s parkways, people to this day find friends. Ben Madoff, 34, moved to Buffalo from Ithaca a few years ago. He grew up painfully shy, and still often pauses as he thinks out what to say. But he found his community when he tried\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.inquisitr.com\/2322726\/acro-yoga-new-practice-combines-yoga-and-acrobatics-called-the-new-couples-therapy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">AcroYoga \u2014 an acrobatics-yoga meld<\/a>\u00a0that has people balancing on each other like an everyman\u2019s Cirque du Soleil.<\/p>\n<p>Buffalo\u2019s group practices weekly in Bidwell Parkway and in Delaware Park in summer, or until it gets so cold their toes go numb. Others groups juggle, hula hoop, spin fire, drum, and try slacklining and parkour alongside them. Madoff is an\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/acro-wny.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">AcroYoga organizer<\/a>\u00a0now, and he fields the questions from curious people walking by. He invites them to try it. \u201cBuffalo,\u201d he says, \u201cis the place where I talk to people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Still, Madoff took the parkways for granted until his parents visited from Toledo. \u201cThey were just blown away,\u201d he remembers. \u201cMy dad kept asking me, \u2018Who paid for all this? Who made this happen?\u2019 I confess I don\u2019t know much of the history of the Buffalo Olmsted parks, but I explained a lot about this area and the things we take for granted. We\u2019re really lucky to have all the green space we have.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Buffalonians also call truces along the parkways. Tielman, for example, has gone head-to-head with government officials and developers over the years. But when he used to live near Chapin Parkway, a funny thing would happen. If he would run into an opponent there, they\u2019d both be pleasant. \u201cThere\u2019s an unspoken thing sometimes,\u201d he says. \u201cIf I\u2019m walking on the parkway with my kids, and someone\u2019s walking their dog, you\u2019re exchanging pleasantries and appreciating the vibe.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>One mile away, along what are now expressways, there\u2019s little space for encounters like those to happen. And then this summer, things turned lethal.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Where From Here<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Olmsted\u2019s Delaware Park, now bisected by the Scajaquada Expressway, also called the 198, today hosts a pond on its smaller side and a scrappy golf course on its bigger one. Besides the basketball and tennis courts, the nearly two-mile asphalt road ringing the golf course sees the most action. It\u2019s mostly closed to cars, so cyclists, runners, and walkers take big laps there.<\/p>\n<p>Mary Sugorovskiy was strolling the road with her two children, three-year-old Maksym and five-year-old Stephanie, one bright Saturday morning in June. Stephanie had just finished a soccer game in the park. Mary stopped to let the kids switch places.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.buffalonews.com\/city-region\/family-mourns-death-of-boy-3-in-delaware-park-tragedy-20150531\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Before she could grab their hands and rip them out of the path, a Chevy Malibu plowed off the highway<\/a>\u00a0into the family. Stephanie was rushed to the hospital, seriously injured. Maksym died. The driver knelt in the park and sobbed.<\/p>\n<p>With the speed of a match, the toddler\u2019s death seemed to relight the fire surrounding Buffalo\u2019s park system. Maksym\u2019s parents seemed to understand that his death played into the city\u2019s larger story. \u201cI heard that people petitioned five years ago or so,\u201d his father, Wally Sugorovskiy, told the local news. \u201cPeople have been doing that, and something tragic has to happen before something really gets pushed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"block-text-right\">Changes were near-instant. A guardrail was immediately erected. The speed limit was dropped at the governor\u2019s order. A town hall meeting was called in mid-July by community groups who\u2019d come together as the Scajaquada Corridor Coalition. They were calling for volunteers for various committees to work on changes to the highway. But public upset was evident even there. \u201cIt\u2019s revenge for a dead kid!\u201d one driver shouted.<\/p>\n<p>Pushback continued in the newspaper. Local newspaper columnist Rod Watson\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.buffalonews.com\/columns\/rod-watson\/time-to-talk-sense-about-speed-for-the-198-20150708\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">called for efficiency-minded drivers to overrun \u201cOlmsted groupies\u201d at public meetings<\/a>\u00a0if they wanted to keep moving through the city on its modern-day expressways. Olmsted groupies, he explains by phone from the newsroom later, tend to be people of high socioeconomic status.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey talk about the connections between the parks,\u201d he says. \u201cI suppose it was nice in its day, but times change. Things move on. When people are \u2014 I don\u2019t want to say stuck in the past \u2014 but you have to recognize reality, too. Especially on transportation. Anything that can get you from one place to another quickly I\u2019m in favor of.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nobody has an easy solution. The speed limit on the Scajaquada through Delaware Park has stayed lower, despite grumbling. There is talk about\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/buffalorising.com\/2015\/08\/scajaquada-traffic-calming-efforts-raise-more-questions\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">infusing \u201ctraffic-calming measures,\u201d like speed bumps<\/a>, as well. With\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bfloparks.org\/positions\/198-scajaquada\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">groups like the Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy<\/a>, local politicians, and even hashtags behind what they call \u201cright-sizing\u201d that highway, the movement looks to be edging toward more permanent change, though whether it will take the form of a parkway is uncertain.<\/p>\n<p>Along the other expressway, the Kensington (once Humboldt Parkway, and now also called the 33), solutions would be even more complex \u2014 and costly. Watson likes one local idea: running at least part of the highway underground and planting green space above. \u201cThe thing I like about that is it doesn\u2019t impede the expressway,\u201d he says. \u201cYou\u2019d have the best of both worlds. It\u2019d be expensive, but we\u2019ve done a lot of other expensive things around here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Geter now advocates for that, too, as president of the Restore Our Community Coalition. The<a href=\"http:\/\/news.wbfo.org\/post\/community-coalition-calls-restoration-humboldt-parkway\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">coalition held a march and rally for tunneling the highway<\/a>\u00a0that drew 100 supporters on a Saturday afternoon in August. Citing studies from SUNY-Buffalo and the New York State Department of Transportation, Geter said that \u00a0\u201ccapping\u201d the expressway would cost upwards of $500 million and supply up to 1,000 local jobs. The \u201cBuffalo Billion\u201d that Gov. Andrew Cuomo pledged to regional development has not so far included such a project; the coalition hopes it could tap into federal funds.<\/p>\n<p>The urban planning mistakes of years past have been fixed in metros like\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/gizmodo.com\/6-freeway-demolitions-that-changed-their-cities-forever-1548314937\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">San Francisco, Portland, and Boston, where prominent highways have been made into tunnels topped with parks<\/a>. But those are larger cities with the money to invest, the appetite to grow, and the vision to improve quality of life.<\/p>\n<p>Boston was better for the \u201cBig Dig\u201d that left it with the Rose F. Kennedy Greenway,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.bostonmagazine.com\/news\/article\/2013\/09\/24\/mayor-tom-menino-big-dig-photos\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Boston Magazine<\/em>\u00a0reported<\/a>. Property values more than doubled, crime dropped, and the economy grew. But it became the most expensive highway project in U.S. history, at $22 billion. Can today\u2019s Rust Belt cities manage even a fraction of that?<\/p>\n<p>Social cohesion and quality of life can be hard to quantify. I can only wonder: Would the very first Buffalo driver who came along have been as apt to stop and help me push my car out of the snow along a freeway as he did one block off a parkway? There\u2019s no way to know.<\/p>\n<p>For now, there\u2019s little doubt that Frederick Law Olmsted\u2019s parkways knit some local neighborhoods together. Others, with those parkways torn out, have been left to struggle. In the next few years, Buffalo will decide: accept today\u2019s separations indefinitely, or try to somehow claw back toward its old parkways.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/beltmag.com\/tied-together-and-torn-apart-by-parkways\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read the original.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><style type=\"text\/css\">.fusion-body .fusion-builder-column-2{width:100% !important;margin-top : 10px;margin-bottom : 10px;}.fusion-builder-column-2 > .fusion-column-wrapper {padding-top : 0px !important;padding-right : 26px !important;margin-right : 0%;padding-bottom : 0px !important;padding-left : 54px !important;margin-left : 0%;}@media only screen and (max-width:1024px) {.fusion-body .fusion-builder-column-2{width:100% !important;order : 0;}.fusion-builder-column-2 > .fusion-column-wrapper {margin-right : 0%;margin-left : 0%;}}@media only screen and (max-width:640px) {.fusion-body .fusion-builder-column-2{width:100% !important;order : 0;}.fusion-builder-column-2 > .fusion-column-wrapper {margin-right : 0%;margin-left : 0%;}}<\/style><\/div><\/div><style type=\"text\/css\">.fusion-body .fusion-flex-container.fusion-builder-row-3{ padding-top : 0px;margin-top : 0px;padding-right : 3%;padding-bottom : 0px;margin-bottom : 0px;padding-left : 0%;}<\/style><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tied Together \u2014 and Torn Apart \u2014 By Parkways Posted: September 15, 2015 Source:\u00a0Belt Magazine (Photo: WGRZ) BUFFALO, N.Y. \u2014 Correcting what one group calls the \u201cKensington mistake\u201d comes with a huge price tag. The group, Restore Our Community Coalition, estimates it would cost around $500 million to create a green parkway over the 33 from Best Street to Ferry Street. The stretch we\u2019re talking about goes for almost three-quarters of a mile. It was the topic of a town hall meeting Tuesday night. The Buffalo Common Council approved getting rid of the original parkway back in 1954, and this coalition [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-the-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/roccbuffalo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/roccbuffalo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/roccbuffalo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roccbuffalo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roccbuffalo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3004"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/roccbuffalo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3034,"href":"https:\/\/roccbuffalo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3004\/revisions\/3034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/roccbuffalo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roccbuffalo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roccbuffalo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}