BUFFALO, N.Y. — In recent weeks the number of voices have increased, questioning the wisdom of a plan to spend a billion dollars to convert a three-quarter mile, below-grade stretch of the Kensington Expressway into a tunnel.
On Saturday, about three dozen demonstrators braved the cold to call for the expressway to be removed entirely and filled in.
"There is a nationwide highway removal movement underway. Why not here in Buffalo, New York?" Sherry Sherrill said.
Added Doug Funke, who also wants the expressway removed: "Forty percent of the people who live in this area, don't even own cars, and they get 100 percent of the pollution."
The New York State Department of Transportation has called the idea of eliminating the expressway entirely "impractical," due to the number of motorists who rely on it.
"They funded, they decided, and they are implementing without the people's input, and we think that is not democratic," Betty Jean Grant said.