Opinion	Proposed Peace Bridge Plaza Expansion Stinks by Jim Glose

Advocates of the development of a new river crossing and truck plaza feel that it would be a boost to the economy by improving the growth of trade and tourism in the Buffalo area. If a poll taker canvassed residents of the Peace Bridge neighborhood, he or she would find little opposition to the idea in its purest form.

So it’s frustrating to be painted as an obstructionist when I all I want for my family, neighbors, and city is to have the place be made more livable. When Ron Reinas of the Public Bridge Authority claims that the latest version of this project will improve the area, it isn’t so. If the new bridge and truck plaza lands in this densely populated neighborhood it will, without a doubt, make my city less livable. By that I mean increased diesel particulate matter in the air, more truck noise, an unusable Front Park, and historic structures destroyed.

For those of you who aren’t aware, increased diesel particulate matter is by itself reason enough to block the current incarnation of this project.The incidence of childhood asthma is already stunningly high in the area surrounding the bridge.

Historical preservationists are also on solid ground in their stance against destroying historical homes and Olmsted’s Front Park to further this plan. The neighborhood is steeped in the history of our city with examples of that history still standing and in good order. This has been a thriving residential neighborhood much longer than the existence of the Peace Bridge and advent of truck noise and diesel exhaust. If allowed to proceed at the proposed site, continued encroachment and destruction will be justified later on…the idea that the Peace Bridge neighborhood isn’t worth saving will eventually become true, even though it isn’t true today.

To be sure, the neighborhood has evolved into one teeming with the full gamut of humanity, from illegal drug dealers to educated pharmacists, thoughtless punks to teenage scholars, gang members to hard-working high school athletes, good and bad, quiet and loud, intelligent and ignorant, thoughtful and thoughtless, bums and saints. Some people prefer this kind of diversity miles away from where they live, but any knucklehead can tell you that the humanity as it exists on the Lower West Side of Buffalo isn’t as scary or dirty or ugly as advertised. The willful ignorance of the callous lead them to view the people who live in the area surrounding the Peace Bridge as dispensable, but guys like me figure that the neighborhood (my neighborhood) with its cast of thousands is exactly the kind of thing worth saving.

Expanding the truck plaza and increasing the diesel exhaust in a residential

neighborhood is a dumb idea. It is especially dumb when there is an excellent alternative just north of here,at the sight of vast acres of brownfields and “existing right of way” where the International Railroad bridge makes its crossing. No neighborhood to destroy, no humanity to displace.

Come and visit my lovely old neighborhood, preferably during the weekend of the Garden Walk…many of the homes will be dressed to the nines with flowers. Then take a drive to the area that surrounds the International Railroad Bridge. What makes sense to you?

Jim Glose
Columbus Parkway, Buffalo

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