by Allan Appel
If it’s not in the city’s comprehensive plans from the beginning, it might get done but much later, if at all, for people with disabilities.
That sobering if realistic take on planning from the POV of people with disabilities emerged at the latest regular monthly meeting of the city’s Commission on Disabilities.
The meeting, convened by Zoom on Monday, drew a half-dozen commissioners, some commissioners-in-waiting, and a number of members of the public.
Whether it’s the comprehensive plans for the parks, the upcoming Green renovations, the new Bus Rapid Transit plan, the redo of Long Wharf (will people in wheelchairs be able to get to the re-positioned food trucks?), and all the other long-term visioning under way, without a disabilities perspective in there at the beginning, then the considerable struggle in New Haven to catch up on disability rights and needs will just continue.
Monday night that point of view, based on experience, was expressed most pointedly by Sally Esposito, a former director of offices for disability services both for the city and for Yale.
With that as context, here’s a roundup of the wide range of topics discussed:
Getting to the summit of East Rock: After debating golfcart-type vehicles, dedicated van services, and other ideas, the commission has made formal recommendations to the Parks Department, reported Gretchen Knauff, the Director of the Department of Services for Persons with Disabilities for the City of New Haven, who sits on the commission, which is headed this year by Tricia Palluzzi.
Knauff, Palluzzi, and other disability commissioners attended last month’s parks commission meeting to pitch their plan, which focused on a golf-cart-type vehicle that can carry multiple passengers with easy on/off for people in wheel chairs. The goal is to improve access to the park’s summit for people with mobility limitations on days other than Sunday, which is the only day that vehicles are allowed to use the summit road.
“Max [Webster, the head of the city’s Parks Department] proposed something,” reported Knauff, “but it’s still a barrier. You’re still requiring someone with a disability to do something extra. The most open way to things is to open the road! I’ll catch up with him.”
A distinct parks commission meeting to discuss the issue was recommended, but a date has not been set.
Bus Rapid Transit and Hub Plan: Esposito wondered to what extent people with disabilities were included in surveys the state Department of Transportation (DOT) and other groups took soliciting riders’ irritations and recommendations. Case in point, she said, is the intersection of Ferry and Grand in Fair Haven, which is slated to be one of the mini-hubs.
“It’s so congested, I can’t envision anything working there and I wonder how many people with disabilities were included in the surveys. The commission should revisit this to find a way to contribute to public comment” as the plans evolve.
“That’s right,” added commissioner Beverly Kidder. “And what about all the people not interviewed because they chose not to ride due to disability issues!?”
“Many choose to ride paratransit,” added commissioner Allie Futty, “because it’s just easier than fixed transit with all its problems.”
Safe Streets and Routes for All, Complete Streets, Move New Haven, Vision 2034 — in all these varied plans commissioners expressed concern that disability rights, concerns, and POVs are not sufficiently reflected, and that should change.
“So now it’s time for people with disabilities to speak up,” said Esposito
For example, of the new 72 Church St. DOT ticket-sales office replacing the kiosk adjacent to the Green, no news was reported. The commissioners’ sense was that the storefront was still closed to customers for indoors service as DOT plans an accessibility fix.
The Parks along with everything else: Instead of trying to solve problems one by one –such as the accessible trails now being created in East Rock Park, with the input recently provided by the commission — Esposito urged commissioners to take steps to see to accessibility being a factor throughout the city’s new strategic plan for the parks as well as the whole range of issues in city life being embodied in the city’s ten-year Vision 2034 plan.
Futty, for example, focused on the park in her East Shore neighborhood: “Fort Hale Park is in my backyard and it’s completely inaccessible,” she reported. Another commissioner pointed out that Revolutionary War-era Black Rock Fort/Fort Nathan Hale, which can appear to be part of the park, is not city property but that of a private foundation. Espositio pointed out that there’s yet a third stakeholder in the area, the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve facility.
“There are more public/private questions, and that’s all the more reason to put that in comprehensive strategic plans for the city parks,” Esposito said.
“Yes,” concurred commissioner Jamie Watson, “if it’s not written into the plan and vision in the beginning, it’s hard to get back and that will increase the work for those who come after us.”
Traffic signals, walking, snow removal challenges: Futty praised the Greenways 2030 plan — the city’s proposed comprehensive network of walking, biking, safe-connecting routes throughout the city — but given current conditions, a path to connect neighborhoods today for people with disabilities is “now just impossible.”
“And we need accessible pedestrian signaling,” added Knauff. “They need to have a plan for all the walk signals, and we should be proactive about it, lest there be lawsuits as there are in other cities.”
At one intersection, which she described as impossible, Futty said, “I almost died there a number of times, but my dentist is there, and I had to cross.”
Quotidien but highly stressful issues like these were exacerbated because of the recent heavy snow and stretch of below-freezing weather. Whereas Knauff might get two notices a week forwarded to her — as an issue tagged “disability” is routed to her desk from the SeeClickFix service — during the recent snows, she reported receiving 25.
Donna Golden described one North Frontage Road intersection with berms of snow so high, she watched even as able-bodied people struggled to navigate them. ”It was maddening watching people NOT in wheelchairs. My son’s in a wheelchair. I thought how?!”
“I’m a lifelong resident,” concurred Nkenge Hook, who is waiting to be approved as a full commissioner, “and it’s always an issue. They clear a street and it’s still not safe for a resident to walk.”
Another always-dangerous interlude, she went on, is the snow-filled gap between where a bus pulls up and where you must mount from the curb.
“Shouldn’t the whole city be done and not street by street,” with so much disparity, asked Golden about snow plowing
“Part of the issue this time was the enormous amount of snow,” said Knauff. “But the problem is that if you’re a private home or business, you need to shovel your own sidewalk, and three feet wide. The city for the most part gets it done.”
Esposito said she had to hire someone for $200 to clear her paths and sidewalk. And for a disabled person who can’t come up with such money? The commissioners discussed mutual aid groups of neighbors, some of which have been established and functioned in recent storms in East Rock, among other places, as a make-shift alternative.
Practicing what they preached, the commissioners concluded by planning the next three monthly meetings, each as a forum to invite in top officials from Transportation, Traffic, and Parking, the Parks Department, and Urban Resources Initiative, and others who are working on the comprehensive plans for the city.
Go here, to the Commission on Disabilities site, for specific dates for those meetings to be announced.