Today marks twelve days since the City Clerk delivered the ordinance amendment passed by Buffalo Common Council in a 6-3 vote to Mayor Byron Brown for his signature or veto. To our knowledge, Mayor Brown has neither signed or vetoed the legislation, which means that per City Charter, the ordinance amendment ending the disastrous school zone speed camera program is now law. We thank Councilmember Rasheed Wyatt for sponsoring this legislation and thank Councilmembers Pridgen, Rivera, Feroleto, Bollman and Nowakowski for voting in favor.
We celebrate this important victory on behalf of the everyday people of Buffalo who will no longer be exploited for profit by the City and the private camera vendor, Sensys Gatso. We mourn the fact that millions of dollars were taken from residents who can least afford it during a global pandemic, and that neighborhoods of color were targeted by the City yet again for these extractive and burdensome enforcement practices. We demand that immediate and significant investment be made into common-sense traffic safety improvements to make school zones safe by design, as is written in the ordinance amendment, and that the City prioritizes traffic-calming measures and street infrastructure investment in all neighborhoods before resorting to any new enforcement measures. These design improvements should be implemented through a ‘Just Streets’ framework that considers not only traffic safety but also racial equity and economic justice. We need better street design, not enforcement.
We know that the City now has more resources than ever before to fund safe streets due to never-before-seen federal and state funds, and that therefore cost is no longer an excuse to ignore our crumbling streets. We call on Mayor Brown, the Common Council, and the Department of Public Works to work with the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Board, the Fair Fines and Fees Coalition, Colored Girls Bike Too, and residents to systematically address the safety needs of school zones, and basic street infrastructure needs that have long been unaddressed. Asking the Common Council to address traffic safety needs in a piecemeal way using $1.3 million in “Neighborhood Initiatives” funding, as Mayor Brown did in the recently approved budget, is not enough. We need a cohesive and dedicated approach to make school zones safe for our children and to make Buffalo streets safer for everyone.
