The Bailey Avenue corridor is home to approximately 100,000 City residents, many of whom are people of color, lower-income, new Americans, or from another group that has historically been underrepresented in planning and policy decisions or disproportionately burdened by the negative impacts of those choices. Most of the census tracts along the corridor meet the criteria to be defined as “disadvantaged communities” by either New York Climate Justice Working Group (CJWG) or the federal Justice40 Initiative. Additionally, nearly the entire corridor falls within what the US Department of Transportation considers an Area of Persistent Poverty. These programs are aimed at identifying the places where investment in a cleaner energy future should be focused to deliver more benefits and address historic inequalities.
The corridor includes unique neighborhoods with rich histories and significance to the City of Buffalo, as well as community-based assets upon which residents rely, such as employment, education, and training resources. The Bailey Avenue corridor is home to nearly half of the East Side’s residents, making it one of the most densely populated, low car use household areas in the region. While the corridor is served by public transit (Route 19, plus many connecting routes) and sections are walkable, the quality of the infrastructure and the emphasis on the importance of transit can be greatly improved. This project will work to repair the harms of past disinvestment by providing high-quality, efficient transit, making street safety improvements, enhancing community spaces with new landscaping and amenities, and encouraging economic growth in the area through a historic amount of investment in public infrastructure.