Mayor Duffy’s Wheel in the Snow
On February 7, 2007, Robert Duffy, the Mayor of Rochester, NY, kept a campaign promise and wheeled in the snow with staff from the Center for Disabilty Rights and the Regional Center for Independent Living in order to learn for himself the plight of folks who use wheelchairs when sidewalks are not cleared of snow.
Here are some links to media coverage of the story:
http://www.13wham.com/mediacenter/local.aspx?videoId=182081@video.wokr13.com&navCatId=5
http://www.10nbc.com/index.asp?template=item&story_id=21476
http://www.wroctv.com/content/fulltext/?cid=9027
The Democrat and Chronicle did a story. Here it is:
Tough going for a big wheel
Mayor takes a rolling, sitdown tour of snowy sidewalks
Brian Sharp
Staff writer
(February 8, 2007) — His gloves were wet, his fingers numb, the tires of his wheelchair caked with snow, and Mayor Robert Duffy was feeling cold and fatigued as he struggled to navigate the snow-packed sidewalk.
Half a block later, the snow got deeper, forcing the mayor and a handful of others onto busy Jay Street.
“This is what I go through every day,” said Anita Cameron, who told the mayor she had been forced onto St. Paul and Main streets because sidewalks were impassable.
“It’s extremely scary. You hope and pray that the motorist behind you sees you.”
Duffy and Paul Holahan, the city’s commissioner for environmental services, came out to the Center for Disability Rights at Jay and State streets to fulfill a campaign promise Duffy made in 2005. Cameron and others at the center took Duffy and Holahan on a brief outing so they might better understand the needs of residents with disabilities.
Coming into the day, the mayor said, he knew people in wheelchairs faced challenges navigating city sidewalks. But Duffy said his conversations, and what he had observed, “does not compare in any way to being in a chair, going down the street.” The city does a solid job clearing sidewalks, he said, but more can be done.
Holahan said the city is looking to other Northeast and Canadian cities to see what they do to keep sidewalks cleared. In the meantime, he said, the city might step up sidewalk plowing on main arterials.
The city’s current policy is to plow sidewalks only after 4 inches of snow has fallen and work on roads is complete.
Residents and business owners also have an obligation to clear the sidewalks in front of their property.
The mayor was told that, while the center and other agencies work to connect people with disabilities to housing and jobs, those efforts fail if the person cannot get from one to the other.
BDSHARP@DemocratandChronicle.com
The Democrat and Chronicle did several editorial pieces about the issue. Here is one:
Misbehaving in winterPeople who should know better aren’t clearing sidewalks
(February 9, 2007) — Attention Rochester-area residents: Granted, until the past month or so, the region had escaped brutally cold and snowy winters the past few years.But now that the weather we’ve become accustomed to at this time of year is back, it’s time to snap back to reality.
That means, for instance, clearing snow-packed sidewalks so that pedestrians and people in wheelchairs can get to where they’re going without being forced into the busy streets.
Anita Cameron took Mayor Duffy on a wheelchair tour of city streets earlier this week to let him see firsthand the snowpack she and other disabled people have to deal with on impassable sidewalks.
Duffy later pledged that the city would do more to clear sidewalks, particularly on main arterials.But the city, alone, can’t ensure safe sidewalks. That’s why there’s a law requiring residents and business owners to clear the sidewalks in front of their property.
Apparently, too many residents have forgotten that obligation. Kimberly J. Peters, district manager of the U.S. Postal Service for Western New York, had to issue a public appeal this week to 3.6 million customers. People who don’t remove snow and ice from around mailboxes, driveways and porches are putting postal workers at risk. Last year’s relatively mild winter resulted in more than 100 postal workers suffering on-the-job injuries.
It’s the dead of winter and it’s Rochester. Snap back. Get back to behaving like pros.
Here is another from the Editorial Blog:
Treacherous terrain
It’s not every evening that my job follows me home. Last Sunday, I ran a Pat on the Back written by Anita Cameron of Rochester, in which she thanked two men who helped her get to work one morning despite the impassable snow-caked sidewalks that make her daily wheelchair travel perilous, to say the least. Two days later, Cameron was on the evening news, along with footage of Mayor Duffy and other city officials who attempted to see Rochester’s winter through a city wheelchair user’s eyes on Wednesday. The next day, we had a news story on 1B covering the event. Yes, by hitting the sidewalks (and streets) for a while on Wednesday, the mayor made good on a 2005 campaign promise and it made for an eye-catching photo op, but what does the future (or even tomorrow) hold for Cameron and others who face similar situations?This is not a new problem and not one exclusive to our city, Cameron says. According to Cameron, the city has told her that clearing the sidewalk before her North Clinton Ave. residence (a few blocks north of Main Street) is not their responsibility because it’s not in the “city core.” On the phone yesterday, she also recounted stories having to wait in city streets in front of bus stops because many curb cuts (ramps that give wheelers access to the sidewalk or street) happen to be the final destinations for mounds of plowed snow. What’s wrong with this picture? No one should have to wheel their way down busy streets, bundled-up so tightly against sub-zero wind chills that they can’t turn around to see if there’s an unaware motorist bearing down on them. No one.
Cameron was impressed and said they mayor deserves a pat on the back for his gesture and is good that the city is looking to other cities for better snow-management tactics, but let’s hope some positive action will follow. And to my fellow city residents, let’s all remember that our property is ultimately our own responsibility. If you’re physically able, clear a path.
“It seems that someone has to get hurt or killed before something gets done,” Cameron said yesterday. This is a pretty glum outlook. But, I can’t say that I blame her.
The photo above shows Mayor Duffy and Anita Cameron, of Rochester, trying to navigate the sidewalks near the Center for Disability Rights on Wednesday.
(Photo by KATHARINE SIDELNIK/staff photographer) posted by Max Anderson at 12:49 PM
Here is a link to our summary and pictures of the event:
http://www.rochestercdr.org/Wheeling…WithDuffy.html