WCVB Channel 5 To Do Story on Lack of Access

Posted by John B. Kelly

Producer Lynn Kellerman from Channel 5 called me a few weeks ago after getting my name from reporter Kelly Tuthill, who came out to the Fenway in January to film Alyson Perry and me trying to navigate in the snow. Lynn said that she was interested in doing a story on the lack of access to stores on Newberry Street, what with all the stairs and everything.

Like Kelly Tuthill, who was appalled at how snowy sidewalks stymied her stroller, Kellerman came to our idea through a woman with a stroller struggling with the Newberry Street scene.

She explored where I stood on the access issue, whether I could see both sides or did I think that it should be made completely accessible -- whatever the cost. Answering that kind of hypothetical question -- yeah, like Newberry Street is suddenly going to install 70 mini-elevators and artfully designed elegant ramps -- is so far from disabled people's daily experience, so I said that Newberry Street is the least of our problems.

I told her that our daily concerns involve developments in our own neighborhoods, like the brick on Huntington Avenue that the city refuses to discuss, or Duratherm, the decorative crosswalk from hell which the Transportation Department wants to ram down our throats on behalf of the visual pleasure of Symphony Hall patrons.

So we agreed to take a look at both locations, starting with Newberry Street. We met there one day last week, joined by reporter Sean Kelly and cameraman Steve (last name to be added when I get it), and my helper Rob DuBuske. It was typical that, on our way over there, Rob and I would run into an access dead end. Work on the side of the Virgin music building pushed access out into the street, which was fine until we got to the Newberry Street sidewalk. Rob had to move the cone and tape so I could get up here:



Lynn set the scenes, Sean interviewed me, and Steve looked for good shots. Of course he got some stairs going up, some going down, but also the amazingly dangerous tilt or cross slope of the upper Newberry sidewalk. The sidewalk is such a mess that there is a curb ramp right there in the middle of the sidewalk, but its cross slope was almost 12% -- quite a bit higher than the limit of 2%!

I said the usual things about the lack of access in Boston, and pointed out how even the new sidewalks were terrible because the "cracks" between the panels were so wide and deep. After Sean had to depart for another interview, and we had no time to get over to Huntington Avenue, I showed Steve and Lynn how I use the middle of Exeter Street as one of my main routes on the way to the bricks in front of the Boston public Library.



Steve, who had seen "Murderball", was dissatisfied with his ability to capture by long shot how bumpy the sidewalks were for me, and wanted to strap a camera to my wheelchair for a more visceral effect. That led to our second appointment, which after thunderstorms rained us out last week, took place yesterday.