Humboldt Parkway, when designed in the 1870s, was a vital component of a coordinated, citywide park and parkway system connecting The Parade -- now Martin Luther King Park -- with The Park, now called Delaware Park.
The six rows of mature shade trees along the parkway provided a canopy and green space where neighbors could congregate and relax. It was part of Frederick Law Olmsted's wider concept of an "emerald necklace" parkway system that allowed people to venture from one park to another without leaving the serenity of the pastoral atmosphere.
But that dream was shattered when the rows of stately trees were destroyed in the 1960s, and the green space was turned into six high-speed traffic lanes called the Kensington Expressway. Some might even call it the canyon.
Now a coalition of businesses, civic institutions, block clubs and neighbors ranging from the Buffalo Museum of Science and the Wendt Foundation to the Olmsted Parks Conservancy wants to restore the connection between neighborhoods along the parkway -- neighborhoods that were split by the expressway, driving down property values and hurting business.
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They envision putting a cover over 1.2 miles of the expressway from Best Street to East Ferry Street and then planting a promenade of trees, shrubs and greenery. But that would be costly -- $465 million.
Members of the coalition -- Reclaiming Our Community Coalition -- met Thursday to finalize their response to a state Department of Transportation draft design study for the project.
"As a cultural institution, we are very excited about this project because it will rejoin this community that was separated by expressway construction," said Mark Mortenson, president and CEO of the Buffalo Museum of Science and a member of the coalition steering committee.
"The Humboldt Parkway used to come to the front doors of the Science Museum When the parkway was there, there were so many community members who could just walk [here]. The expressway has really disrupted that and has really separated the museum from a large part of the community," he said.
Covering part of the Kensington won't be cheap, but the coalition already has a start.
In 2008, then-State Sen. Antoine Thompson, D-Buffalo, secured $2 million for an environmental impact study and the DOT design study. About $400,000 has been spent so far, said coalition Chairwoman Stephanie Barber Geter, president of the Hamlin Park Community and Taxpayers Association.
>Not a pipe dream
The coalition also has applied for a $63,000 Wendt grant for an economic impact study and expects an answer by June or July. Members point to similar projects in cities ranging from Duluth, Minn., to Seattle over the past four decades to buttress their case.
Barber Geter dismisses any suggestion that the Buffalo project, long talked about, remains just a pipe dream. "We've heard that up to now and managed to get $2 million," she said. "We always hear that when it comes to this part of town."
She said the coalition is eyeing the Federal Highway Administration as a funding source. The group plans to contact Rep. Brian Higgins, D-Buffalo, and already has reached out to Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., who sent a representative to a recent meeting.
One recommendation was that the organization also reach out to a state representative. It did that last month by inviting Assemblywoman Crystal Peoples-Stokes, D-Buffalo, to its February meeting. She agreed to set up another meeting that will include Schumer and Higgins.
The DOT study outlined five options for that part of the Kensington:
*Doing nothing.
*Enhancing it with new guardrails and a paint job for about $2 million.
*Partly decking it, perhaps at every other block, for about $170 million.
*Filling in the expressway and then building a boulevard at grade level at an estimated cost of $35 million, said Greg Robinson, a landscape artist for Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy. In this way, some of the vehicle traffic could be directed to streets such as Fillmore Avenue or Jefferson Avenue.
*Completely covering the proposed area, creating a walkway above the expressway traffic. This is the group's preferred design.
"We kind of accepted it as the only option to restore the Olmsted look. We concluded it is the best design in terms of bringing back the aesthetics of the area," said coalition board member Richard Cummings.
The preferred option has "tremendous potential," said Ethan Carr, a trustee for the National Association for Olmsted Parks and an associate professor of landscape architecture at the University of Massachusetts.
Carr, who has been talking with local preservationists about the project, called the proposal "exciting" and "unique."
"Restoring the parkway is about restoring the neighborhood. Olmsted's vision was never about just providing trees and grass. It wasn't just about building parks and parkways. It was about building communities, creating vital neighborhoods that were centered around the parks. That's why they were built," he said.
"When Humboldt Parkway was destroyed, it was not just about destroying trees. When you took that heart out, it did damage."
>Other benefits seen
Coalition members said the full promenade option also could improve the environment, health and economic vitality of the community.
Environmentally, the proposal would help beautify the area and provide green space for recreation while reuniting a community divided by the expressway.
The green promenade would help health conditions by reducing pollutants from cars on the expressway.
The project would yield both immediate and ongoing economic benefits.
"No. 1 is the number of jobs created by such a massive project, and then the other benefit is the cover will increase foot traffic and traffic flow to support businesses along Fillmore and Jefferson," Barber Geter said.
"There has been no investment in that area for 50 years. Why invest in a business strip when people are whizzing by [on the expressway] at 50 mph? That's where the economic impact takes place."
Carr, of the University of Massachusetts, agreed. "To have an expressway running through your neighborhood drives down values and makes it undesirable in many ways," he said. "Since it once was lined with vibrant neighborhoods, it could be again. "
In fact, a 1953 feasibility study commissioned by the DOT when the Kensington Expressway was being considered, recommended that it be designed in a manner that would "increase the real values of the immediate neighborhood."
It also proposed that there be a "center mall and side slopes landscaped with lawns and natural plantings of trees, shrubs and vines forming a continuous parklike setting, insulating adjacent public and private properties from the traffic streams."
But the final design and construction excluded the center mall and landscaping. Instead of increasing property values, it had the opposite effect of decreasing them in the immediate neighborhood, coalition members said. Now they want to rectify that.
For more information about the proposal, write ROCC at P.O. Box 972, 1245 Main St., Buffalo, NY 14209.
email: dswilliams@buffnews.com
