It's Everyday, People

Posted by John B. Kelly

It really seems to happen just about every day. I go outside and there is some egregious violation of my basic civil rights -- right there, right before me. Meanwhile, "normal" everyday life just goes on as if nothing is wrong.

Today, I went to the dentist, but my path of travel had already been chosen for me, by Riley Brothers, or the construction workers using a Riley Brothers truck. This is what I saw, looking up Westland Avenue.


All photographs by Rob DuBuske (all formatting clumsiness is mine)

No big deal, just your everyday backhoe completely obstructing a sidewalk. Now it is the law (521 CMR 3.10) that during any construction project, accessible pedestrian travel must be possible. But it is one of those laws, the kind of laws that aren't enforced and no one even notices that maybe they should be. Except, of course, the people whose interests the law is designed to protect.


A wheelchair coming upon this scene would either have to "make a scene" or, more likely, turn around, go back to the corner, cross over, and go up the other side of the street.


I like backhoes, I really do. I think they are very cool machines. It's just that I really do have the civil right to use that sidewalk.
If a bigger backhoe were to sit in the middle of Westland Avenue and simply block all passage by automobiles for say, six hours, a few more people than me and my compatriots might notice.

More able pedestrians, meanwhile, dutifully walk in the street, around the orange cones the workers put out, and back onto the sidewalk.

It does look like the backhoe might just scoop up this young woman, who actually is in quite a bit of danger from passing automobiles. And if one were to hit her, there would be hell to pay.

Riley Brothers has a part in this somewhere, but for all I know the backhoe is owned and operated by another contractor, whose name is nowhere visible at the construction scene.