Fort Greene Park Inaccessible To Wheelchair Users, Advocates Say

FORT GREENE, BROOKLYN — Many disabled people can't visit Fort Greene Park because the city has failed to install a wheelchair accessible curb on the corner of Dekalb Avenue and Washington Park, according to local advocates.

“A park is a nice place to be in the summertime,” said wheelchair user Valerie Joseph, 41, who tried and failed to navigate the curb this week.

“I would like to be there.”

The city was ordered in 2002 to install curb cuts — ramps built into the concrete that allow wheelchairs to travel from street to sidewalk — after it settled a class action lawsuit with United Spinal Association, a nonprofit that advocates for the disabled,

The city had installed 157,161 ramps on about 97 percent of New York’s 162,355 street corners as ordered by 2016, according to Department of Transportation data.

But because many of the ramps had fallen into disrepair by 2016, USA filed another suit to demand the agency include the cost maintenance in their future budgets, court records show.

New York City settled and agreed to spend $87.6 million in 2016 and 2017, as well as $20 million in following years, to maintain the existing ramps and add new ones to the remaining uncut corners, court records show.

But until those ramps are completed, New Yorkers who rely on wheelchairs to move about the city must resort to sometimes dangerous routes to get where they need to go.

“There are a lot of inconveniences,” said Joseph, who is forced to ride her chair next to flowing traffic when she can’t find a curb cut to get to the sidewalk. “I’m riding in the street — it’s not safe, but I do it all the time.”

Joseph, who suffers from spina bifida and relies on a motorized chair to move around the city, said the problem is worse in Queens, where she lives, and Brooklyn, where she works as an advocate for the disabled.

Joseph has to drive her chair in the street for a full city block to enter Fort Greene Park at the Willoughby Street ramp, which was first installed in 2015.

There is no ramp at the corner of Dekalb Avenue and Washington Park because the curb is not made of concrete and located within a landmark district — Fort Greene Park, according to a DOT spokesperson.

The installation of a new ramp would require a specialized design that would also need to be approved by the city Landmarks Preservation Commission, according to the DOT spokesperson.

The spokesperson said the Dekalb Avenue corner would be added to the agency's agenda.

Until then, Joseph is asking Fort Greene residents who are disabled to contact their lawmakers and advocate that Dekalb Avenue curb renovation be expedited.

“Call your legislators and let your voices be heard,” Joseph said. “We have a park that is inaccessible to us and we want to use it.”

Photo courtesy of Daniel Latorre/Flickr.