From:
carolynlong@earthlink.net
I am sending this for my neighbor, Lee Coykendall, who told me about
this incident and then forwarded her message to our ANC commissioner,
Cathy Wiss. Cathy has alerted DDOT. Lee has sent the message to Mayor
Fenty and to Councilmember Cheh.
I write to you as a very concerned neighbor. This evening while
sitting outside with neighbors, a quadriplegic woman in a wheelchair
with a guide dog was coming west on Alton Place, N.W. and asked if we
could direct her to the Metro. I asked if I could assist her there and
she said no, that what she needed was directions. I told her to go to
the top of the block, take a right on 39th Street and at the bottom of
the hill at Albemarle, take a left and two blocks away was the Metro.
Approximately ten minutes later, I saw her coming back down our block.
I asked her what was wrong and she told me there were no ramps on the
side walks. She said she was going to head down the block and try to
come up a different way. I then realized, from having young boys on
bikes and before that in strollers, that she would likely not fare
much better. I accompanied her up the block in the street with her
dog, Cooper. As we neared the church, we got up on the side walk on
the left hand side of Alton and made our way south to cross across
Nebraska. I looked around and thought, thank you, this is new
construction, she will be fine.
The light turned and she had 10 seconds to cross—10 seconds. We then
headed north on the sidewalk and as the sidewalk dips down by that
little stretch of green park with the old houses on it, there is no
smooth ramp to go back up but patchy asphalt. It was at such an
incline this woman thought she was going to tip. I held onto her
wheelchair and promised her that she would not tip backwards. At
last, we end at Albemarle where there are nice ramps off the sidewalks
but absolutely no lights to cross—a crazy intersection where just
several years ago I was sideswiped by a Metro bus. I walked her to
the Metro and prayed that the elevator was working. She expressed
concern that having taken so long to get these four blocks, that it
would be dark by the time she reached Shady Grove.
I apologized and told her I was so sorry that this was her experience
in my very own neighborhood and I thanked her for making me more aware.
As a neighbor, I am horrified; horrified that I had never really
noticed and horrified that this young woman left our streets in fear.
Please advise me who else I should write to. I am thinking of
renting a wheelchair and filming what it is like to get from our house
to the Metro.
--- Carolyn Long
---
carolynlong@earthlink.net