Advocates To Patrick And Menino: Clear Sidewalks

boo friggin hoo

The Fenway area is horrible this year. The City of Boston did a horrible job clearing the streets!! Where the streets were plowed, the plows did not come near the curb, rather they plowed about 3 feet from the curb, streets that should have 2 lanes of traffic now only have 1 lane.

Boston needs to institute opposite side of the street parking and measures such as those imposed in NYC to allow the plows to plow and for street parking to become available. If during a major snowstorm all street parking was banned and residents were required to park in parking garages (for a city mandated reduced rate) the street could actually be cleared!

Its winter and we have had thre bigs storms in a week These people need to get a life.

I bet ac106 and Jowendog have two legs that can easily carry them over the snow and ice. Why don't you try manuvering in a wheelchair or walker in these conditions, then post back later when you know how to take someone else's perspective.

And, no, I am not disabled, I'm perfectly capable of walking in this snow. I simply have developed something called empathy and a respect for other's human rights.

Boston should be ashamed. As should anyone writing "boo hoo" - you are apathetic and disgraceful. We pay lots of tax dollars and the streets absolutely must be cleared - no excuses.

These people have lives, but their options are limited due to the negligence of the city of boston.

It should also be noted that the State Police have not cleared the sidewalk in front of their building on McGrath Highway, as they are required to do BY LAW. Mutliple storms make it difficult, but it doesn't change the fact that some people literally can't get around town until the various paths are clear.

What do you think they are trying to do? They are trying to go to a party and they can't! If I couldn't get to a party I was supposed to go to I'd be ticked off too!!

these people are disabled and use wheelchairs.
it's amazing how caring some people are.
boo hoo indeed

We've had 21 inches of snow in just a couple weeks and the temps have been low. The snow removal should be better, but perfection just can't be expected. This was a major weather event and it inconveniences outside travel, whether you're disabled or not. Having walked the sidewalks, I know there's no way to get around in a wheel chair safely, but I seriously question whether any city could deal with 3 consecutive storms like this and create dry, safe sidewalks and crosswalks across a whole city. I think the city should try harder, and the whiners should suck it up.

I agree with the authors behind this letter. There is no excuse for the Boston area not to have cleared sidewalks, crosswalks and easy accessible freedom of mobility for ALL. For anyone who relies on public transportation or walking, they realize what a pitiful clean up was attempted after the first storm. The later two were inconsequential when access points were still blocked when they arrived.

One should not have to climb over a frozen mound to get from the sidewalk onto a crosswalk, just climb over another mound on the opposite side. It is difficult enough to maneuver the poorly cleared city streets on foot, I can't imagine how impossible it is for the disabled.

For the

Gets back to rules are there for regular folks to follow. Does not surprise me that the City has not yet cleared required areas. And the State Police ... ha! They are cops so that they can break the laws themselves -- think about how many times you have seen a cruiser in traffic, only to then see the lights go on so he can drive around the disturbance, turn the lights off. Then, slide their butts out of the seat and waddle into the local donut shop.

While driving to the airport yesterday afternoon, I saw a quadriplegic man riding against traffic in the right lane of Land Boulevard. He was nearly hit by the car in front of me and caught me off guard as well.

He was forced into the street because the sidewalks between the state police barracks and the Royal Sonesta hadn't been cleared. What a deplorable situation.

Sidewalks that haven't been cleared after a storm are not only a danger to the disabled, but to everyone. If shame is the only motivation that the city, institutions, corporations, or individuals respond to, rather than a sense of civic or legal obligation, than stories like this serve the public well.

Get the welfare list for Boston. Make anyone receiving welfare shovel snow. You'll get rid of either one or the other.

If it's any consolation, this situation is deplorably common, not just in Boston. In Toledo, Ohio, we've had just one 'big' snow, of about six inches last weekend, and there are many homes and businesses where the sidewalks remain foul with snow and ice. The city law requiring property owners to clear their walks generally goes unenforced. The newspaper does a story about it once every two years or so, and the television stations air reports, and nothing changes -- the selfish go along their merry way.

Instead of spending 1 trillion dollars to make every place in the country accessible to a wheelchair, how about we develop wheelchairs that can move over uneven terrain, up stairs etc. It is hopeless to try to make everything in the country flat and smooth, so a small minority of disabled people can access it. Better to make them more mobile through better technology. Give a man a fish, etc.

and school children get to compete with SUV's to get to school since the sidewalks are impassable, and mothers with strollers, forget it. This is not new, has been this way for years. But menino will win again for som reason people vote him in again and again, time for hom to move on

Denise, honey!
I'm from Wisconsin. It's absolutely possible to clear the streets and make walkways accessible even if we've had three storms within a week. This is NOT a major weather event (unless you're from Florida and have never experienced more than ten minutes of rain). Unfortunately, only a few people want to take responsibility and clear their portion of the sidewalk. It's fellow residents who are letting us down.

Even if sidewalks were clear, how does anyone in a wheelchair navigate those huge puddles of slush-water located at the corners? If Menino wanted to actually earn my vote, he'd rope in some of those engineering brainiacs at MIT to give him some solutions for drainage.

Henry,

Your idea of designing wheelchairs that can climb stairs and navigate rough terrain is a good one in theory. And I agree with you totally. But the fact is they already have designed a wheelchair that can climb stairs. It is called the "ibot"...google it if you don't believe me. Snow/beach/rough terrain tires for wheelchairs have also been produced and marketed. The fact is though that insurance companies, like the state run MassHealth, would never in a million years pay for a wheelchair like that or pay for weather appropriate accessories. They consider these things "luxuries" for disabled people and do not cover them. Seeing that wheelchairs and parts can cost more than most cars, there is no way you could afford it on your own. So in turn, the state will have to continue to pay big bucks for modifications to make cities and towns more accessible.

The Boston Globe picked up the story in the Saturday, December 22, edition. City/region page 1. The Herald might cover the story tomorrow, and Fox news was even interested.

Please check out http://www.neighborhoodaccess.org for ongoing coverage, where you will see that the Department of Conservation and Recreation's sidewalks in the Fenway are still impassable as of Saturday afternoon.

Both Eileen Brewster and I, who wrote the letter to Mayor Menino and Governor Patrick, will have to take alternate means to our party this afternoon. She will be getting a ride, I will be going in the street.

I hope that the coverage leads to the city and the state putting in a real, practical plan for snow clearance. It's not just people with disabilities that are impacted, as the emergency rooms of the area hospitals could tell you.

John Kelly
Neighborhood Access Group

It is great to see some serious attention paid to the imprisonment of those of us who use wheelchairs and can't get through the snow. Boo hoo? To all of you critics who think we should be grateful just to exist, and going outside is some glorious privilege, I hope you never have the same experience. Naturally in the winter we expect snow. But the cities and State usually clear a little path so people can walk, but as for the rest of us, we can just enjoy the four walls.

Wow! I hope that "boo hoo" never has to join the ranks of the one "minority" to which any human being, of any age, any race, any religion, and at any time, can join--the millions in our society with physical disabilities. Many of us have lived in the snowy northeast all our lives; the conditions last week were deplorable and not the fault of the individual men and women who were out there in the storms doing their best to remove the snow. It was the city and state officials, to whom non-disabled and disabled residents pay taxes who need to clean up their act.