Sunday Herald Covers Court Victory, Icy Sidewalks

Posted by John B. Kelly

All-around Herald reporter Marie Szaniszlo got a breather from covering stories of murder and mayhem with a page 2 article today on sidewalk access. In "Judge Upholds Fines vs Hub," she reports on the recent decision of Suffolk Superior Court Justice Paul E. Troy against the city of Boston, which in its second losing appeal against the Architectural Access Board's order that it repair Huntington Avenue, tossed up a kitchen sink full of arguments that didn't hold water.

I am quoted saying “The court’s decision exposes the city as a two-year-long scofflaw.”

Szaniszlo reports that the $500 per day fine levied by the AAB on the city for not fixing the all-brick sidewalk is now up over $376,000. Herald editors added the nice little touch of a copy of the original, August 26, front-page story.

She then turns to the current iced-over sidewalk situation facing people disabilities:

The sidewalk is part of what Kelly and other advocates for the disabled denounce as a pattern of violations in the city that puts them at risk, particularly at this time of year.

So many sidewalks have gone unshovelled, Kelly said, that he and other wheelchair-users are forced to remain home or take their chances dodging cars in the street.

“To be quarantined because we apparently don’t count is demoralizing,” Kelly said. “What kind of city forces people to resign themselves to that?”

The article is complemented by photographer Lisa Hornak's great photo of cars bearing down on me in the middle of Symphony Road, as I made my way to the NAG holiday party.