[nfbwatlk] Article regarding NY streets

[debby phillips]

Hi Ben, the situation with the sidewalk and street just blending 
together is dangerous, in my opinion.  It also can really mess up 
your orientation.  Back when I lived in Eugene, Oregon the city 
put in these lovely little island things called woonerfs.  (I'm 
spebbling that wrong).  But basically they're little islands with 
flowers and stuff that are wonderful to look at.  But the problem 
with them is that there was no way to distinguish between street 
and sidewalk.  No one in the blind community knew that these 
things were being put in.  One day my friend GWENETH and I were 
walking to a particular destination and suddenly we realized that 
we had walked several blocks too far.  We did ask directions and 
got back on track.  It turned out that the city had put an ad in 
the newspaper asking for public comment.  What they forgot was 
that none of us, as blind folks could read the newspaper.  (This 
was back before Newsline, and I don't think there was a Radio 
Reading Service in the Eugene area.  So they had already 
installed these "cool things".  They were quite upset with us 
"blind people" because we had not expressed any concern.  We 
asked them when they had asked for our feedback.  They were 
appalled when they realized that well, duh, none of the blind 
folks read the newspaper.  They had to go back and put a tactile 
warning at the street so people would know that they were 
crossing an intersection.  It actually turned out for the good, 
because they actually decided that it would be a good thing to 
have some blind folks on the Human Rights Council for the city.  
Gweneth was one of the best cane travelers I knew, so no matter 
how skillful one was with a cane, they'd have missed those street 
crossings.  It was also summer and the university was not in full 
session, so traffic was pretty quiet.  It was like walking along 
a big cement desert with seemingly no end.  It's true that the 
world cannot totally accommodate us as blind people, but there 
are some things that I think are important.  One of those things 
is knowing when you are at a curb to cross a street.  There needs 
to be some kind of slope, tactile something, or an actual ramp 
(but you don't want to ever use those to line up with or you'll 
end up doing a diagonal.  Yikes!  But I'm not telling you guys 
anything you don't know, just saying that I think it's a bad 
policy to make flat intersections so you can't figure out when 
you're actually crossing a street.

Well, enough of my ramblings.  Peace,    Debby