One homeowner argued that it wasn't fair for the city and state to remove them from homes which they've occupied for years, contending it would impose a tremendous hardship on elderly people who didn't follow the younger generation into the suburbs. Still others expressed the fear that the expressway, when completed, would encourage more Buffalonians to move out of the city because it would provide them with a high-speed route to their work in the city. A few contended the expressway would form another "barrier" dividing the Kensington section into two distinct parts.

State Public Works Engineer William Gallancy compared the building of the Expressway to a major surgical procedure: “Painful, but necessary for survival.”

Some questioned that notion. In a letter to the editor signed WHY, a Kensington area resident opines, “Our traffic situation is serious, but surely, with all the top engineers of the country to consult, a better plan could be devised. Why put a speedway through the middle of a heavy populated area? Will there be a 'pedestrian under-pass at each street, or will people have to walk blocks to get across the highway? What's wrong with a subway or an elevated, along one of our wider streets? Let's fix the streets we already have.”