City PR:Mayor Creates Disability Affairs Committee

Posted by John B. Kelly

I finally got a copy of the city's press release announcing the formation of a disabilities commission. It still isn't posted at the city of Boston website, is there anything to that?

The creation of a committee is far less important to advocates than the commitment of the $15 million over five years for the curb cuts (as insufficient as that is). Does the city see the "committee" as less controversial with the anti-expenditure crowd?

CITY OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS

Office of the Mayor

Thomas M. Menino

For Immediate Release: For More Information Contact:

July 25, 2008 Press Office, 617 635-4461

Mayor Menino Announces Creation of

Disability Affairs Committee

Enhances existing office to better serve residents

Honoring the 18^th anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Mayor Thomas M. Menino alongside a number of advocates in Boston's disability community, today announced the creation of the City of Boston Disability Advisory Committee. The committee will consist of five to nine members, with a majority being disabled persons, at least one immediate family member of a disabled person, and one person appointed by Mayor Menino and acting as the Commissioner. The City of Boston currently has a Disability Affairs Commissioner; this committee would help advise the Commissioner as well as other departments within the City.

"Boston's strength comes from its residents," Mayor Menino said. "By making our city more accessible, we can make sure that all Bostonians can completely take part in city life. They can participate more fully in Boston's community and their contributions can strengthen our neighborhoods in even more ways."

The new committee will be tasked with working with the local disability community and researching issues; advising and assisting City departments; coordinating programs; reviewing and recommending policies, and general guidance on City department procedures. A state statute makes the creation of such a committee optional.

Mayor Menino also announced the creation of a Liaison to the Disability Community in his Office of Neighborhood Services, which would act as a representative to the community and the Mayor's Office. Mayor Menino called on the Boston City Council to approve the creation of this Committee as soon as possible so that the formation of the Committee could begin.

In the last Capital Budget, Mayor Menino set aside $15 million in a separate line item to specifically address curb cuts and pedestrian ramps that are not up to ADA codes.

The City has recently performed a comprehensive survey of the nearly 20,000 pedestrian ramps in Boston; through that survey, the City has categorized and prioritized ramps to be reconstructed.

Through additional staff training and stronger language in contracts, the City will also make sure that future projects are built appropriately and will not require reconstruction. In addition, the City's Election Department continues to work with representatives from the disability community to increase the accessibility of Boston's polling locations.

GLOBEWATCH: Inaccurate Rewrite of City Press Release Too Funny!!

Posted by John B. Kelly

I've been a reader of the Boston Globe for about 25 years now, and I've watched what was once a smart, liberal paper become a rag. I've been so offended so often by the inaccuracies and built-in biases of the reporting, that I've thought about doing some commentary on selected Globe articles. As disability rights is my thing, I'm going to concentrate on that, but I'm also a left winger, so maybe I'll look at other things eventually.

Leading off is an example of the kind of story that not only has no legs, but because it involves "the disabled," must be almost completely wrong.

As far as I know, staff City Hall writer Donovan Slack's story appeared only on Boston.com, presumably because it wasn't deemed "newsworthy" enough. The headline, written by who knows, emphasizes the appointment of a disabilities commission, over the far more significant commitment to spending $5 million on sidewalk work and "curb cuts" (those little ramps that transition you from street to sidewalk):

Mayor to announce committee on disabled issues

The future tense in the headline is a tip that Donovan is working from a press release released by the mayor's office. It doesn't seem she went to the ceremony later in the day, otherwise she would have filed an actual news story later. The Globe search function shows that Mayor Menino's name wasn't even mentioned in the Saturday, July 26 Globe.

Then comes the cascade of errors.

The announcement comes on the 18th anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The true anniversary is July 26, 2008, the day after the story was filed. Perhaps Donovan changed the word "marked" or "observed" to "comes on," because that's the kind of change that turns a press release into a news story.

Press releases often contain "quotes" that may or may not have ever been actually vocalized in hearing range of another human. So when we learn that

A majority of the five- to nine-member committee will be disabled people, and one will be an immediate family member of someone who is disabled, officials said.

it is unlikely that Donovan Slack is paraphrasing what she literally "heard" those officials vocalize. For one thing, it's hard for people in the plural to say much of anything. This is definitely looking like a reworked press release.

Now comes my favorite paragraph (except for the extra $45 million discussed below), in which reporter Slack draws on her memory to put in "the other side" of the issue, drawing the lines of opposition that dramatize so many articles.

The city has been criticized in recent years for not being responsive enough to the needs of the disabled, with one neighborhood group staging repeated protests about the city's bumpy brick sidewalks and a certain stretch of Huntington Avenue that presents problems for people in wheelchairs to navigate.

Too funny! Let's go through it.Okay, we learn that the city has been criticized, but we don't read by whom? Has anyone actually said that the city has not been "responses enough to the needs of the disabled?" No, because no disability rights advocate would be caught dead uttering such a needs assessment, rather than in the language of civil rights or physical injury. These words are Donovan's own.

And then who is "one neighborhood group?" Why, that's Neighborhood Access Group, which has indeed protested Huntington Avenue on Huntington Avenue over and over over the years. Many NAG press releases have been sent to Donovan Slack, although neither she nor any other staff reporter has ever attended any of our events. Maybe she didn't remember our name, or maybe our name wasn't as important as what we were doing: "staging repeated protests." Of course these were staged events, almost all events are these days. The word "repeated" speaks to the boredom such protests elicited from the powerful and influential. The Globe was so bored that it only covered our very first protest, in September 2003.

We learn that the protests were about "a certain stretch of Huntington Avenue," which reminds me of 1930s movies where the butler announces "a certain Mr. so-and-so is here to see you, sir." The actual location of the sidewalk was probably not remembered by Donovan, so a "certain stretch" will do just fine.

As part of today's announcement, scheduled for 2 p.m. at City Hall, the mayor will unveil plans to fix that stretch of Huntington Avenue and dedicate $50 million to fix curb cuts and pedestrian ramps throughout the city that currently do not comply with the ADA, city officials said.

$50 million! We wish. No, we're talking $5 million here. The editors at the Globe are so clueless about disability, that $5 million or $50 million, what's the difference when it comes to "the needs of the disabled?" At the rate of expenditure actually announced by the city, the infinitely long list of curb cuts that are noncompliant would take 30 years or more to repair.

And no, no plan to repair Huntington Avenue was announced on Friday. The city doesn't seem to have a plan yet, except to begin going once again through the public process and let the various advocates tear each other to shreds.

The last sentence points out helpfully that the commission members will work for free.

City flouts the ADA at Symphony Hall

Posted by John B. Kelly


In 2006, Symphony Hall moved its box office down to ground level, thereby creating ground-level access.When the sidewalk dug up during construction was put back down, however, I was able to file a complaint because the repaired sidewalk did not comply with access regulations.

The Massachusetts Architectural Access Board ordered that the entire sidewalk be made accessible by July 1, 2008. But the city, which has been waiting on some federal money first announced in 2005 (one of those notorious ear marks, this one engineered by Joe Moakley on behalf of Symphony Hall) has continually asked for an extension, either to 2010 or 2009.

Each time, aware that this sidewalk is one of the crucial passageways for people with disabilities in the city of Boston, the AAB has denied the city request.

Now the July 1 deadline has passed, and the sidewalk remains untouched, pristine in its dangerousness. We did some leafleting at this spot two years ago, and found that the slant or "cross slope" of the sidewalk in front of the stairs (every disabled person in Boston knows this slanted sidewalk all too well) was 9.2%. The above photograph shows what people feel compelled to do in order to avoid the sidewalk. This wheelchair user is taking up the right lane of a very narrow Massachusetts Avenue directly in front of Symphony Hall. He is risking his life in order to get a smoother ride.

Meanwhile, because of city of Boston negligence, contempt, or incompetence, people with disabilities are being discriminated against. The endangerment of people of disabilities on the sidewalk, despite repeated orders to make it safe, was one of the main reasons I thought NAG should not participate in the ADA anniversary event with the city.

Mayoral Leadership Challenge: Respect the ADA, Obey the AAB.

Posted by John B. Kelly

Following is a press statement released by Neighborhood Access Group to coincide with Mayor Thomas M. Menino's announcement due Friday, July 25 of a curb cut repair program.

If you keep scrolling down after this entry, you will run into articles about Huntington Avenue, NAG letters to Mayor Menino, and a petition.

Statement For Immediate Release
July 25, 2008

Mayoral Leadership Challenge: Respect the ADA, Obey the AAB.

"Public safety should trump aesthetics every time."

When Mayor Thomas M. Menino observes the 18th anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Friday by announcing a curbcut repair program, not present will be the grassroots group of disabled people who first raised access as a civil rights and public safety issue. Neighborhood Access Group (NAG), which has been featured in a score of news pieces on access over the last five years, says it cannot celebrate the landmark civil rights law for people with disabilities while Boston continues to disregard the orders and fines of the leading enforcer of ADA rights in the Commonwealth, the Massachusetts Architectural Access Board (AAB).

The Access Board, whose access regulations mirror the ADA, ordered the city in 2005 to repair the dangerously noncompliant all-brick sidewalk on Huntington Avenue. After city appeals were twice rejected by Suffolk Superior Court, the city's neglect was met in 2006 with a Board fine of $500 per day, retroactive to November, 2005. Even after the administration received a demand for payment last April, it would not budge. The unpaid fine, imposed for "willful noncompliance," has soared to $490,000.

"The mayor is certainly ignoring the fine," said NAG member Eileen Brewster of Ruggles. "I say: respect the ADA; respect the AAB." Brewster, who moved into the area for its access, has been unable to ride on Huntington Avenue since the bumpy bricks were laid in 2003-2004 over the protests of disabled residents.

"We just cannot in good conscience celebrate the ADA with an administration that has been willfully violating its most basic mandate for years," said NAG founder John Kelly. "The city doesn't even have a plan to make Huntington Avenue safe again."

The two plans that the administration have floated, driving markers into the bricks and grinding them down, have been rejected as discriminatory and unrealistic. Access advocates have been calling on the city for years to restore a concrete path of travel down the avenue. Residents report that the bricks cause injury, pain, muscle spasms, vision problems, incontinence, loss of wheelchair control, and dangerous falls for cane users and elderly alike. Bricks are also extremely slippery when wet and icy, frequently go missing, and cost four times as much to install and much more to maintain than simple concrete. The city now says that it will entirely reconstruct the avenue, but "can make no guarantees" regarding its surface.

"We invite the mayor to come down to Huntington Avenue and see what we experience," said Symphony Plaza resident Pam Beeler. "It was a fall on bricks that put me in this wheelchair."

The city, which has been deluged with hundreds of AAB complaints filed by NAG and the Disability Policy Consortium, continues to miss board deadlines. The dangerously slanted sidewalk in front of Symphony Hall on Massachusetts Avenue was ordered repaired by July 1, but inaction has led to the scheduling of an AAB hearing for October. And despite assertions of improved procedures, curb cut and sidewalk construction continues to be done incorrectly and certified falsely as compliant.

"The city says that it has learned from its mistakes and wants to work together with advocates," Kelly said. "We have told them time and again that we need a concrete solution on Huntington Avenue, with bricks along the curb edge for people who like to look at bricks."

City Councilor Michael Ross has been proposing this compromise for years, but has run into opposition from the institutions along the avenue, which sponsored and helped pay for the brick sidewalk. The Fenway Alliance, the consortium of institutions that line the avenue, have claimed as its greatest achievement what it calls the "beautification" of Huntington Avenue. Northeastern University has been installing the bricks everywhere on its campus.

"We challenge the mayor to show leadership," Kelly said. "It's one thing to allocate extra money for curb cuts, it's another thing to go up against powerful interests like Northeastern University and the Fenway Alliance and declare once and for all that the safety of all is more important than the aesthetic preferences of the well-connected few. Public safety should trump aesthetics every time."



Contact: John Kelly
Neighborhood Access Group
Phone: 617-536-5140
Email: John.B.Kelly@verizon.net

Herald front-page story on Huntington Avenue, August 2007

Posted by John B. Kelly

This front page story in the Boston Herald, by ace reporter Marie Szaniszlo (the only reporter I've ever talked to who gets things correct), ran on August 26, 2007. Excerpts below

Disabled rip Hub’s $320G sidewalk
By Marie Szaniszlo
Sunday, August 26, 2007

Meet the most expensive patch of sidewalk in Boston: $320,000 and counting.

The state Department of Public Safety’s Architectural Access Board has fined the Hub $500 a day since Nov. 30, 2005, for an uneven, sloping stretch of brick on Huntington Avenue, part of what advocates for the disabled denounce as a pattern of violations in the city that puts them at risk.

“The irony is if the city had just made sure the sidewalk was repaired the right way in the beginning, it would have cost taxpayers a fraction of that amount and people like me who use wheelchairs wouldn’t have to risk getting hit by a car by riding in the street,” said John Kelly of the Neighborhood Access Group, which filed the complaint with the board.
...
“The continued dangerousness of this bumpy all-brick sidewalk has these past four years been torturing the hundreds of elderly and disabled people living next door at Symphony Plaza,” the Boston Center for Independent Living, the Disability Policy Consortium and the Neighborhood Access group wrote in a July 26 letter to Public Works and Transportation chief Dennis Royer.

Dennis Royer, whose two plans to fix Huntington Avenue landed quickly in the garbage can because they were discriminatory or ludicrous, has been replaced as the point person for access in the city by Director of Neighborhood Services Jay Walsh.

Boston Globe story on Huntington Avenue, July 2006

Posted by John B. Kelly

The Boston Globe published its only story on the Huntington Avenue debacle on July 26, 2006, when the Architectural Access Board issued a press release announcing its fine of the city for "willful noncompliance."

The state Architectural Access Board said yesterday that it has fined the City of Boston $123,500 for failing to fix sidewalks on Huntington Avenue deemed unsafe for people who use wheelchairs or walkers. The board said it levied the fines after repeatedly asking the city to correct a steep slope toward the street. ``This continued disregard for the regulations is unacceptable," said Thomas P. Hopkins, executive director of the Architectural Access Board, which enforces state rules governing access for people with disabilities. City officials said they had believed the sidewalks had been fixed by the MBTA, which had been doing construction in the area. Michael Galvin, the city's chief of basic services, said he has called a meeting today with MBTA officials to clear up the confusion.

Unfortunately, the city was unable to clear up the confusion in 2006, 2007, or 2008. It now says that it will completely reconstruct the avenue, and try to get the money back from the MBTA later.

NAG letters to Mayor Menino on Huntington Avenue

Posted by John B. Kelly

After there was no response to our petition in 2005, we sent three letters to Mayor Menino about Huntington Avenue. Here are the first two (a third was sent later in the summer of 2006, but I can't find it).

First letter to Mayor Menino:

May 1, 2006
Mayor Thomas M. Menino
1 City Hall Plaza
Boston, MA 02201

Dear Mayor Menino:

Please meet with us. Local residents with disabilities have been trying for three years to get city officials to take our concerns seriously -- but our neighborhood only gets more inaccessible. First, uneven and bumpy bricks were laid along Huntington Avenue for the sake of gentrification, forcing wheelchair users off the sidewalks. Last year, functional crosswalks were replaced with expensive, decorative Duratherm™, which shakes us like rumble strips under a car. And now the Transportation Department plans to install Duratherm™ crosswalks all around Symphony Hall, right next to the twin Symphony Plaza housing complexes for elderly and disabled people.

We turn to you because meetings, City Council hearings, and protests have done no good. The Department of Public Works has contemptuously disregarded our complaint before the Massachusetts Architectural Access Board (AAB) for almost 2 years now. It has ignored hearings, failed to comply with orders, and even went to court to argue that it was not responsible for the sidewalk! DPW has behaved so egregiously that the AAB is holding a "fine hearing" on May 8 to determine whether to levy a fine.

We need to tell you, personally, our nightmare stories. James McGee lives right on Huntington Avenue, but the bumpy bricks make him ride his scooter in the street. Eileen Brewster relocated to the area because of its access, now taken away by the bricks. Billie Tyler, Galeen Jones, and other women who use wheelchairs have to stay off the bricks or risk incontinence. Pam Beeler finds the Duratherm crosswalks almost as bad as the bricks. People with visual impairments or balance concerns are at greater risk for falling.

Please, listen to the petition we gave you last year requesting the installation of a smooth path of travel along Huntington. And please honor the pledge you made last August at the Symphony Streetscape Project announcement. You interrupted your speech to address disabled people: "We understand your issues about bricks and sidewalks, so we're gonna work with you. Don't worry about it." Then you wrote in your weekly column (August 15, 2005) that "Handicap accessibility is a major priority for this project."

We ask you to order the Transportation Department to respect the interests of local residents, and reject the use of Duratherm. Tell them to replace the bricks on Huntington Avenue, not just adjacent to Symphony Hall and Symphony Plaza West, but all the way to Gainsborough St. This would represent a good-faith beginning to undoing the oppressive gentrification of the last three years.

We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Sincerely,

John B. Kelly

Then we tried adding lots of signatures to the bottom of the letter.
Second NAG letter to Mayor Thomas M. Menino:

June 6, 2006

Mayor Thomas M. Menino
1 City Hall Plaza
Boston, MA 02201

Dear Mayor Menino:

Once again, we local residents with disabilities ask to meet with you. Your administration's policies regarding sidewalks and crosswalks continue to rob our neighborhoods of access. We need to remind you that "we live here too" and deserve the same respect due every citizen of Boston.

We have been trying -- and trying -- to get our voices heard about the irregular and dangerous bricks on Huntington Avenue since installation began in 2003. The bricks endanger everyone who uses a wheelchair, scooter, cane, or walker for mobility, as well as visually impaired and elderly people. Yet your administration has ignored our message in meetings, hearings, protests, a petition, and our recent letter of May 1, which also requested a meeting with you.

Two years ago, NAG and the Boston Center for Independent Living filed an access complaint about Huntington Avenue before the Massachusetts Architectural Access Board. Unfortunately, your administration has not taken the AAB's process or rulings seriously: over the last 18 months, the city has missed two compliance deadlines, and is now being fined $500 per day retroactive to last November 30, pending compliance by July 1, 2006. Members of the board expressed their concern that the city's inaction constituted "willful noncompliance."

We do not understand why your Department of Public Works continues to insist on wasting city money to lay and re-lay these terrible bricks, which force us into the street, put us in physical danger, and often prevent us from using Huntington Avenue altogether. Please take this opportunity to do the right thing by installing a smooth concrete path of travel along Huntington Avenue, with bricks serving only as a decorative accent strip.

Last August 10 when you announced the Symphony Area Streetscape Project, you interrupted your speech to address a group of us holding signs against the brick:

"You're gonna be part of this planning process, though, as we move forward. We understand your issues about bricks and sidewalks, so we're gonna work with you. Vineet from the transportation department -- our planner -- is committed to it."

But in spite of our strongest objections, your Transportation Department plans to surround Symphony Hall with Duratherm™ plastic-imprint crosswalks, the same ones installed last summer along Huntington Avenue without consulting the elderly and disabled residents who would be impacted. These Duratherm crosswalks function like turnpike rumble strips in how they vibrate people using wheelchairs and scooters. We are told that many people like how the Duratherm looks, but given your oft-stated commitment to "public safety," we question how some people's expensive tastes can possibly outweigh our physical safety. Are we not part of the "public"?
We repeat our urgent request to meet with you.

Please do not ignore us any more. Let's work together to repair the damage done on Huntington Avenue, and to fashion a Symphony Area Streetscape design that includes access for everyone.

We expect to hear from you within two weeks.

Sincerely,


Pam Beeler, Symphony Plaza


John B. Kelly, Fenway

Eileen Brewster, Ruggles


Tim Kunzier, Brookline

Maureen Cancemi, Symphony Plaza


James Magee, Huntington Avenue

Jeannette Ector, Fenway


Richard Nurt, Symphony Plaza

Jack Grieco, Symphony Plaza


Karen Nurt, Symphony Plaza

John Healy, Fenway


Alyson Perry, Brookline

Galeen Jones, Fenway


Karen Schneiderman, Symphony Plaza

Gary Devino, Fenway



Jamie Simpson, Back Bay Billie Tyler, Symphony Plaza



Janice Ward, South End

No, we never heard back.