Following is an expanded letter to the NYSDOT, in the form of a final public comment, as the final day to voice sentiments pertaining to the capping of the 33 has been extended to November 10, 2023.
Wednesday, November 1, 2023
To: NYSDOT ([email protected]), Senator Tim Kennedy, Assemblymember Crystal Peoples-Stokes, Senators Schumer and Gillibrand, Congressman Higgins, and Governor Hochul
Cc: NYSDEC ([email protected])
Re: Public Comment on NYS Route 33, Kensington Expressway Project, and the Region Central Project
Dear Senator Tim Kennedy, Assemblymember Crystal Peoples-Stokes, Senators Schumer and Gillibrand, Congressman Higgins, and Governor Hochul
Summary: For too long, New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) has had unchecked power to shape our public spaces in ways that dramatically affect our social, economic, and environmental landscapes with often disastrous effects in both town and country. NYSDOT dogmatically clings to policies enshrined in an era when oil and auto executives like “Engine” Charley Wilson bought their way into our government to write policies that foster the consumption of their goods.
This was also a time when blatantly racist policies like redlining were in place to sow internal division. Despite being released from many of these policies by the Obama Administration’s Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, NYSDOT refuses to acknowledge its freedom to implement a wider range of mobility infrastructure as well as its greater social, economic, and health responsibilities to the taxpayers who fund their work. Instead, NYSDOT pushes on with the outdated and unjust policies of the 1950s. Recent efforts by the community to heal those divisions have met with severe resistance and the unethical subversion of public involvement process, all of which is described in more detail below.
As such, I am writing to you to request:
- The termination of NYS Department of Transportation’s (NYSDOT’s) current efforts to fast-track the extraordinarily expensive capping of a small portion of NYS33 due in part to its failure to comply in good faith with NYS Department of Environmental Conservation’s (NYSDEC) State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQR).
- An investigation of the methods and motives of NYSDOT’s efforts to promote one mode of transportation at the cost of all others. NYSDOT has falsified public comments and attempted to ignore/bury knowledge of changes in federal transportation policy under Transportation Secretary Foxx that released state DOTs from their requirement to prioritize “Level of Service” and allowed them to consider more holistic metrics of community service in evaluation transportation strategies.
- Based on this investigation, a system of checks and balances, or impartial regulatory oversight, must be placed on NYSDOT. They have access to too many of our tax dollars and too much control over the fates of our communities and society to be allowed the continued unfettered design of our economic, social, and environmental landscapes.
1) NYSDOT and the Capping of NYS33. NYSDOT has persistently limited opportunities for the public to be informed and comment on this project. NYSDOT should be forced to cease and desist with its current efforts to cap a small section of NYS Route 33 due to its failure to comply in good faith with New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s (NYSDEC) State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQR). “SEQR requires all local, regional, and state government agencies to equally examine the environmental impacts along with the social and economic considerations for a certain project, or action, during their discretionary review.”
www.dec.ny.gov/permits/357.html
NYSDOT’s consideration of the social and environmental impacts of the proposed project has been insincere at best:
- NYSDOT has admitted the net environmental impacts of capping part of NYS Route 33 will be worse than the status quo for many.
- NYSDOT has mislead the public with claims that the traffic on NYS Route 33 cannot be absorbed by the currently underutilized combination spoke-and-wheel-radial and gridded street network. This can be demonstrated with a simple analysis of the radial street capacities versus the current rates of usage. Further, when Governor Cuomo ordered NYSDOT to lower the speed limit on the Scajaquada Expressway from 50 MPH to 30 MPH following the needless death of Maksym Sugorovskiy in Delaware Park, the “cArmageddon” (their word) NYSDOT claimed its traffic modeling proved would happen, did not. Without any preparation or planning traffic just reorganized and the rates of collisions plummeted.
- NYSDOT has also failed to consider numerous calls for reducing net congestion and pollution through the establishment of affordable at-grade light rail connecting the airport to downtown Buffalo, exemplified by Citizens for Regional Transit’s proposal:
A valid analysis of the environmental, social, and economic impacts must begin with an examination of the social, economic, and environmental conditions prior to the construction of NYS33.
An authentic analysis of the environmental, social, and economic impacts also means examining the role NYSDOT’s construction of this expressway played in promoting racist and classist policies from that era that we still are suffering from today. The construction of this expressway was coupled with racist and classist state, local, and federal policies that included red lining (refusing mortgages to non-whites in specific areas), restrictive deed covenants (disallowing future sales of properties to non-whites), federal programs providing low interest loans to returning WWII soldiers exclusively for new builds (designed to encourage urban sprawl for white people only), and the direct assault on thriving non-white urban communities through the construction of urban expressways through their neighborhoods -exemplified by NYS33.
Since its construction, NYS33 has drained Buffalo’s East Side of its commerce-providing traffic, wealth, and diversity to cultivate highly segregated (white) suburbs. As a result, East side property values declined, businesses disappeared, jobs were lost, schools suffered, crime increased, and neighborhoods withered. In some once-thriving neighborhoods, empty lots are now roughly equal in number to the remaining homes. It also concentrated traffic pollution, congestion, and crashes in the neighborhoods along NYS Route 33. Only when we have a complete environmental impact study that includes the consequences of this urban expressway can we begin to decide collectively whether such infrastructure should be maintained, modified, or completely reimagined.
NYSDOT has falsely claimed to have adequately engaged with the public through a handful of public meetings that were in fact designed to limit public comment or even gathering at meetings. NYSDOT also limited much of the public engagement to a small number of “stakeholders” some of which represent increasingly small portions of the affected communities.
2) NYSDOT and Region Central (NYS 198). These techniques were developed over two decades of failing to convince the residents of North Buffalo to embrace proposed infrastructure along the Scajaquada Corridor that would continue the disruption of local connectivity and multimodal travel while concentrating congestion, pollution, and crashes. First, NYSDOT attempted to wear down the public with numerous meetings spread out over many years spanning decades. When that failed, NYSDOT began to reduce the time residents were allowed to speak at the town hall meetings.
NYSDOT then, without notice, restricted public comments at meetings to hand-written statements on tiny forms they provided. NYSDOT picked which of those statements would be read aloud by them (some in a mocking fashion), and responded to them. To cap the censorship off, NYSDOT began that Q and A session by eliminating roughly half of the comments because they were about the interim traffic calming measures, or the lack thereof “…and that’s just not what this meeting is about.”
The final Scajaquada Corridor redesign meetings excluded public comment altogether, except through casual conversation with NYSDOT representatives next to posters showing proposed alternative road designs – none of which included what most of what the community had been calling for. These methods, adapted to constrain public comment on a project they did not want, are what NYSDOT “engaged” the public with during all the meetings regarding the NYS33 capping project. NYSDOT even went so far as to falsify the public comment section in the Project Scoping Document and Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS).
For example, NYSDOT excluded two Partnership for Public Good (PPG) Policy Briefs from the DEIS. These briefs were drafted in direct response to this project and were submitted as public comments via email and USPS.
- NYSDOT excluded NYS assembly member Sean Ryan’s petition that had over 3,000 signatures.
- NYSDOT excluded Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy’s petition that had over 5,800 signatures.
- NYSDOT excluded Parents for a Safe Delaware Park’s petition that had over 1,500 signatures.
- NYSDOT excluded a petition from 134 residents from just six city blocks of the Parkside Neighborhood.
NYSDOT also deleted an untold number of public comments and even edited some for content. For example, a public comment that informed NYSDOT of changes in federal transportation policy under Transportation Secretary Foxx that released state DOTs from their requirement to prioritize “Level of Service” was deleted from the record. This is an important part of the conversation because it would prove that NYSDOT was aware that state DOTs could use more up-to-date and inclusive metrics for roadway functionality, like Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT). They could consider the impacts their designs have on health and safety as well as economic and social issues, like the division of neighborhoods, public health, the distribution of goods, jobs, and services, the restoration of our world-class park system, and structured segregation of the City of Buffalo. We need to know why NYSDOT buried that comment/information as deep as they could.
Half of a public comment that called for a design that would accommodate public transportation was deleted. NYSDOT kept the half of the comment that stressed the importance of the corridor, but deleted the text that informed them of opportunities for free technical workshops on Transit Oriented Development hosted by the Federal Transit Administration and Smart Growth America. This supports the contention NYSDOT has a biased focus on transportation infrastructure that benefits oil and auto industries and a concomitant disregard for transportation infrastructure that serves and protects the non-automobile-reliant population.
NYSDOT DID NOT EXCLUDE a petition calling for the retention of the Scajaquada Expressway. At the time the DEIS was finalized this petition that was been circulated through social media had acquired 74 signatures. So NYSDOT INCLUDED IT IN ITS ENTIRETY 75 TIMES –once to introduce it and another for each of the 74 people that had signed it.
NYSDOT silenced over 10,000 voices they didn’t like and amplified just 75 who agreed with their vision.
Every time citizens called for more connectivity, less pollution, more multimodal options, or environmental benefits like restoring Scajaquada Creek, the various regional managers NYSDOT cycled through all claimed there was no money on the table for our roughly $100 million project. NYSDOT dragged the project design out over two decades, wasting roughly $4.5 million, and facilitated a host of avoidable crashes and at least one death. The dishonesty and mismanagement of the Scajaquada Corridor redesign led NYS Governor Cuomo to remove NYSDOT as lead agency, replacing it with the Greater Buffalo Niagara Regional Transportation Council (GBNRTC).
GBNRTC rebranded the project Region Central and began a one-year process (expanded to 18 months due to Covid) to examine the transportations infrastructure’s impacts to social, economic, environmental, and health outcomes to all involved, be they renter, homeowner, business owner, commuter, or tourist. They interviewed citizens and stakeholders and determined what they wanted from their tax dollars (e.g., safe parks, connectivity, clean air, multimodal transportation options, jobs, etc.) and then built a transportation design that fostered these desires.
The recommendations were embraced by a solid majority, but in the year that has passed since the findings were released, NYSDOT’s response has been… crickets… Apparently, NYSDOT does not feel beholden to even the Governor’s office. Instead, NYSDOT pivoted to NYS Route 33, claiming they want to fast track an over $1 billion proposal to cap a small section of NYS33. That would make it the most expensive stretch of road ever built.
NYSDOT claims they want to fast track a $1,000,000,000 proposal to cap a small section of NYS33. That would make it the most expensive stretch of road ever built in the United States.
Despite the enormous cost and impacts to the already suffering communities, there is no community benefits agreement, other than an offer to temporarily cease the ongoing deliberate neglect to surrounding area. There will be no east side companies hired. They will maintain the pollution, congestion, crashes, and urban decay. They will just add the extra pollution associated with the replacement of the concrete lined with cancer-causing asbestos, dust from blasting, diesel powered heavy equipment, and other construction related pollution.
That’s because NYSDOT has no interest in remedying the injuries, pollution related illnesses, and social and economic calamity they have inflicted on Buffalo’s East Side. They want to spend over $1 billion on this small section of roadway to make those injuries permanent. Coupled with NYSDOT’s refusal to consider the economic, social, and environmental impacts its construction of NYS Route 33 has had on the city of Buffalo, it makes it hard to conclude that NYSDOT is any less racist and classist than it was in the days of redlining, restrictive deed covenants, and attacking non-white communities with eminent domain and expressway construction to punish them for simply attempting to live well.
3) A way forward for all of Buffalo can begin with implementing Citizen’s for Regional Transit’s well-researched proposal for light rail between Buffalo’s airport and downtown. At the same time, we can begin reactivating the eastern radials with complete streets and modern traffic signals, as called for by Congressman Brian Higgins and others. These actions will allow residents and commuters to explore alternative options to get where they need to go. Just five minutes of exploring trips around Buffalo, NY with Google Maps illustrates how much urban expressways induce driving by as much as 40% in mileage, often just to save one or two minutes of time. Reactivating the radials and reducing congestion though the better implementation of transit means we can even shave time off that miniscule inconvenience.
The upgrading of NYS Route 33 to a parkway-like (commercial vehicles should be allowed) street can begin slowly, allowing people to explore alternative routes or modes of transport. This could happen by removing one lane in each direction at a time, or removing one whole side at a time as is a common practice in expressway maintenance. We won’t need to agitate that cancer-causing asbestos lining on the concrete walls of what the visiting Mayor of Milwaukee called a sewer of traffic if we fill it in to bring the street back to grade.
Those along the restored and expanded Humboldt Parkway will start enjoying the reduced congestion, crashes, and traffic pollution (aka improving health) and resulting increase in connectivity, multimodal transportation, greenspace, and increased property values. At the same time the reactivated streets throughout the East Side will start enjoying the traffic that powers small businesses, cultural attractions, and preservation/restoration of great housing stock. We know this will happen because it has happened many times in many places already:
Increasing property values and investments will renew blighted neighborhoods, while we implement an increasing number of strategies designed to minimize displacement and other harms associated with gentrification. As the city’s tax base increases, we can start rebuilding our infrastructure by mitigating problems like combined sewer overflows and century-old water mains lined with pre-EPA pipe scale containing lead and who knows what other toxins. The City of Buffalo moves into a brighter future together, or not at all.
But first we need to either get NYSDOT out of our way or at least bend it to our will. Aside from Governor Cuomo’s one-time action to kick NYSDOT off the Scajaquada Corridor redesign, there seems to be very little oversight for NYSDOT. That means it falls on our shoulders.
That is why we need an official investigation into why NYSDOT is clinging to regulations removed by Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx in 2016. The investigation needs to address how and why so many public comments, petitions, and policy briefs were manipulated and deleted in the DEIS. It should include a demographic analysis of NYSDOT employees, especially in the upper echelons of the organization. We need to know if the voices of East Side residents, people of color, and women are in those positions at ratios similar with the populations affected by NYSDOTs projects.
Finally, based on the results of the investigation, NYSDOT needs a permanent system of checks and balances or oversight. As it currently stands, NYSDOT has too much unchecked power to shape the health, safety, connectivity (or lack thereof), and transportation modality (or lack thereof) in our communities. This unchecked power has thus far facilitated Buffalo’s 2018 ignominious claim to fame as being the nation’s sixth most segregated city as well as hosting an inequitable distribution of grocery stores, hardware stores, healthcare outlets, green space, jobs, walkable streets, etc., etc. We need to have this oversight because, just as our transportation infrastructure was used to cleave communities apart and structure racism and classism into our landscape, it can be also used to bring us back together. Again, the City of Buffalo will move into a brighter future together, or not at all.
That’s why I am sharing this public comment on NYS Route 33, Kensington Expressway Project. And that‘s why I will make sure it (all of it) is included in the public comments section of future reports. I encourage you to do the same. But you must hurry, because the recently extended closing window for public comment is November 10, 2023. It doesn’t have to be long or elaborate, just share what you want, make sure they include it.
Sincerely,
Dan Cadzow