On Friday at Noon – “Everyone Wins!”

from John Kelly:

I wanted to tell you about the most important event since NAG’s founding (Neighborhood Access Group is almost 7 years old!) , a rally next Friday called “Everyone Wins!”  In a nutshell, the city has implied that it wants to take out the brick sidewalks along Huntington Avenue and replace them with concrete (at an estimated cost of $384,000), but that it might also have to try (due to overwhelming institutional and elite pressure) to make them comply by grinding them down.  The challenge is for people who support public safety, civil rights for people with disabilities, and fiscal responsibility — bricks are a nightmare to maintain, while concrete takes care of itself — to overcome opposition from elitists trying to protect a bad investment in status enhancement (installing the bumpy and dangerous bricks in the first place over a perfectly serviceable concrete sidewalk).

 

So NAG and BCIL are sponsoring a rally next Friday, 12 p.m.-2 p.m., at the corner of Huntington Avenue and Massachusetts Avenue, near 333 Mass Ave. and Utrecht Art Supplies.   We are calling the rally “Everyone Wins!” and will be offering wheelchair rides on the brick, opportunities to write to public officials, sign a petition, and have fun.

there’s more…

 

Here is some background on the issue:

First of all, Huntington Avenue reconstruction project was born out of the federal mandate to make the E line accessible to people with disabilities.  Federal funds were routed through Mass. Highway, and the MBTA took the lead in the actual project, using city designs.  The design came from Northeastern and the Fenway Alliance, who wanted to remove the “blight” there previously (concrete sidewalks) and raise their status with brick sidewalks and trees.  The sidewalks were installed 2003-2004.  People with disabilities haven’t been on the sidewalks ever since.  I have written about this issue a lot at the NAG website.

 

When we saw what was going on — bricks were laid right up against Symphony Plaza with its hundreds of elderly and disabled people — we got really active, held a protest in September 2003, held City Hall hearings, signed petitions and letters to the Mayor, and filed a complaint on one portion of Huntington.  Nothing else worked but the complaint, now over three years old, has resulted in a fine of over $300,000 against the city for not bringing the sidewalk into compliance with state access codes (it’s still tilted).  The city has unsuccessfully gone to court twice now over this issue, and appears ready to throw in the towel.  Most recently Public Works chief Dennis Royer came in to the Architectural Access Board (AAB) and said that the city is trying to decide between ripping out all 14 blocks of bricks (between Mass Ave. and the Museum of Fine Arts) and replacing them with concrete, or “polishing” the brick with grinding machines. 

 

Access advocates are taking up the challenge of helping the city make the right decision.   We are calling upon all three entities — the city of Boston, the MBTA, and the state — to come together and commit to concrete.  As the complainant on the Huntington Ave. sidewalk now being fined , I am writing the AAB that if the city will replace the brick with concrete, I support allowing the use of the fine to defray the cost of restoration.   The MBTA, as the lead agency which failed its responsibility to manage the sidewalk installation correctly, should also contribute.