Another NAG education Day: Friday, July 14, 4:30 p.m.

Posted by John B. Kelly

NAG's second "Access Education Day" will take place on Friday, July 14, 4:30 p.m.-6 p.m., in front of the Massachusetts Avenue Orange line T station, which is between St. Botolph St. and Columbus Avenue.. We have decided to try to do an event every week. Although this week it will be Friday, usually we will gather on Wednesdays.

Last week we showed off posters and handed out brochures and fliers at the corner of Massachusetts/Huntington Avenue's.

This week we will continue talking about how the Menino administration keeps taking our civil rights away. It doesn't care about the quality of our sidewalks, the curb cuts or ramps that join the sidewalks with the streets, and it keeps wasting money on really expensive and dangerous brick. We have spent the last two years filing complaints against the city about the horrible brick sidewalk on Huntington Avenue, but it refuses to make it smooth.

The city has now failed to respond to 18 months worth of orders from the Massachusetts Architectural Access Board to make the sidewalk accessible. As a first step towards disciplining a careless city, the board yesterday assessed a fine of $5,000 for failing to provide temporary passageway around the worksite on Huntington Avenue in June. More on this in a future post.

Meanwhile, the city has been granted an undeserved an additional 11 days to bring the sidewalk into compliance. It will not be able to.

As usual, we will hang up "storyboards" about people's personal experience with brick. Below is an example, from Symphony Plaza resident Jack Grieco.