BUFFALO, N.Y. — Earlier this week, the city of Buffalo Department of Public Works began restriping Amherst Street near Wegmans.
"This year we've had an increased striping budget, which is good," DPW Commissioner Nate Marton said. "We can fit some of these specialty projects, and this is one of them."
Commissioner Marton says the DPW realigned parts of Amherst Street near the Wegmans to allow traffic to, in theory, turn into the parking lot easier.
"[They're] having an issue with oncoming, they're scooting way over, they're getting close to the yellow line, and sometimes actually going over that yellow line, having a little bit of an opposing traffic problem, trying to allow people to go by and keep parking on both sides," Marton said.
Part of that realignment, however, included the removal of several parking spaces on Amherst Street.
Residents and businesses say the reduced parking could have an impact on the residents and businesses that already struggle to park on a street with a traffic situation that resembles Mick Foley after the Undertaker threw him off the steel cage in 1998.
"They moved the yellow lines over so we cannot park there anymore," Dog Days of Buffalo operations manager Chelsea Rosky said. "Especially coming into the cold weather. It's icy, it's winter, it's going to be dark, the streets already very, very busy to begin with. So it definitely just creates an unsafe environment for our clients and our and the dogs too."
Commissioner Marton told 2 On Your Side that the plans to restripe Amherst Street have been in the works for months.
But news never trickled to the residents or businesses in the neighborhood.
"They just sort of made the decision without letting anybody know," Rosky said.
Mark Kubiniec has lived in the neighborhood for 21 years and has said traffic near Wegmans has been a nightmare for as long as he's lived there. He also believes the city should have communicated the changes with the neighborhood.
"It just seemed that the yellow lines got changed, and then the parking spots are eliminated," Kubiniec said. "There's only 18 parking spots on the street on this block, and this is going to take away 20% of them."
North District Councilmember Joseph Golombek Jr. also told 2 On Your Side that his office wasn't notified of any changes to the street traffic flow, and expressed disappointment in the lack of communication.
Commissioner Marton did say that the DPW should have done a better job communicating with the neighborhood.
"We talk a lot about communication, and we may not have done the best job in this time," Marton said. "We talked about it internally."
Commissioner Marton also understands the years of built up frustration about traffic on Amherst Street, particularly because of Wegmans location, and said it's worth the department looking at a broader traffic study for the area.
"I think that whole quarter is a good topic to look at," Marton said. "I think a traffic study could be something in the future to look at anything."