Community advocates and some elected officials have argued for years about many urban highways across the state, and how constructing them decades ago severed thriving neighborhoods of color. As Gov. Kathy Hochul expressed her support for reconfiguring such roadways, some sayidit will also go a long way towards addressing health problems in affected neighborhoods.
Hochul addressed such neighborhoods during her State of the State Address, delivered Jan. 5. Last year, it was announced that up to $1 billion of federal infrastructure money would be made available to the New York State Department of Transportation for such neighborhood reconnection projects.
Building the Kensington Expressway, critics have said, ruined Humboldt Parkway. Today, as thousands of cars travel along the highway, Humboldt Parkway still exists, though its northbound and southbound lanes are separated by the Kensington. Homes still line along those roadways.
And the by-products of the thoroughfare, especially auto exhaust, are blamed for a higher level of chronic health problems in neighborhoods along the route.
“They did a study, I want to say was about in 2000, and about 2006, 2008, that found just in children who live within 75 meters, who were 80 to about 82 yards from major roads, they had a 50% greater risk of exhibiting some type of asthma type symptoms. Not just having asthma, but having asthma symptoms,” said Dr. Kenyani Davis, chief medical officer at the Community Health Center of Buffalo. “And when you have asthma symptoms, we treat you just like asthma. And what that means is that relates to hospitalizations, that relates to higher health care costs.”
And Davis says there are noticeably higher instances of chronic health problems among residents living along the Kensington. Within ZIP code 14215, for example, the average annual hospitalizations for asthma or asthma symptoms is 106 people per 10,000 people. By comparison, the countywide average is under 5 people per 10,000 annually.
Diabetes hospitalizations per year in 14215, according to Davis, are 354 people per 10,000. While it’s not the only cause of obesity, having a highway put in and severing the Humboldt neighborhood eliminated an environment more conducive to walking.
“Eighty percent of the totality of somebody's health is made up by the social determinants of health,” Davis said. “That means where we live, where we work, where we play, all of that. That environment contributes to our healthcare, and it's going to contribute to our health. So with that said, if we talk about infrastructure, people don't realize when you talk about highways and freeways, and you talk about urban development or under development, that is the 80% of someone's health.”
Davis says while reconstructing and reconnecting Humboldt Parkway might seem like a big spend up front, it would help spare the public much more spending in healthcare costs later. She recalled a study by the Center for Urban Studies at the University at Buffalo issued 32 years ago, which she says predicted the neighborhood’s current problems.
“We're right where they thought we were going, which is in a negative space,” she said. “So it's a prediction that we knew, we knew that this infrastructure, and this under development of the East Side, was going to impact us in 30 years. But yet, we didn't do anything about it. And we're here living the ramifications of that.”
