[nagdu] New city TLC cab policy blind to needs of disabled

Sun Dec 5 19:16:18 UTC 2010

lol.
I just had the Juno walk and in home interview from the Seeing Eye. Hope I 
get accepted to a summer class. Parents are still not thrilled about the 
idea, but things will work out.

Mark and his long white cane that doesn't mind the cold
Hopefully I can add a dog's name there soon.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tamara Smith-Kinney" <tamara.8024 at comcast.net>
To: "'NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users'" 
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Sunday, December 05, 2010 12:11 PM
Subject: Re: [nagdu] New city TLC cab policy blind to needs of disabled

> Mark,
>
> Yes, but does your cold-resistant long white cane get extra bouncy and 
> cute
> in the cold?  /grin/
>
> Tami Smith-Kinney
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
> Of Mark J. Cadigan
> Sent: Sunday, December 05, 2010 8:22 AM
> To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
> Subject: Re: [nagdu] New city TLC cab policy blind to needs of disabled
>
> Peter,
>
> Another question is why he doesn't just get a ride from one of the cabs 
> that
>
> are allowed to pick people up near the terminal. Again, we only know 
> what's
> in the article, and therefore should not make judgments.
>
> Mark and his long white cane that doesn't mind the cold.
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Peter Donahue" <pdonahue2 at satx.rr.com>
> To: "NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users"
> <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Sunday, December 05, 2010 11:13 AM
> Subject: Re: [nagdu] New city TLC cab policy blind to needs of disabled
>
>
>> Hello everyone,
>>
>>    There are blind people in their eighties who are as independent as
>> myself that use guide dogs. I don't like the potential harm this kind of
>> dribble can cause us.
>>
>> Peter Donahue
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "Mark J. Cadigan" <kramc11 at gmail.com>
>> To: "NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users"
>> <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
>> Sent: Sunday, December 05, 2010 10:09 AM
>> Subject: Re: [nagdu] New city TLC cab policy blind to needs of disabled
>>
>>
>> Peter,
>>
>> He is a 62 year old retiree. He may have lost his vision recently and
>> therefore not have all the skills you have, or, he could find walking 
>> long
>> distances difficult for some unknown reason. We don't have the entire
>> story,
>> so it's not our position to make judgments.
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "Peter Donahue" <pdonahue2 at satx.rr.com>
>> To: "NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users"
>> <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
>> Sent: Sunday, December 05, 2010 11:02 AM
>> Subject: Re: [nagdu] New city TLC cab policy blind to needs of disabled
>>
>>
>>> Good morning everyone,
>>>
>>>    I thought he got a guide dog to enhance his ability to travel
>>> independently including negotiating his way from the fairy terminal to
>>> the
>>> cab pick-up area. Johnny and I deal with similar situations all the 
>>> time.
>>> It's no big deal. If you have a mobility issue that's one thing but an
>>> able-bodied blind individual including those accompanied by guide dogs
>>> should be able to manage such routes with little or no trouble.
>>>
>>> Peter Donahue
>>>
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>>> From: "Ginger Kutsch" <gingerKutsch at yahoo.com>
>>> To: "NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users"
>>> <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
>>> Sent: Sunday, December 05, 2010 8:24 AM
>>> Subject: [nagdu] New city TLC cab policy blind to needs of disabled
>>>
>>>
>>> New city TLC cab policy blind to needs of disabled
>>> Published: Sunday, December 05, 2010, 5:53 AM     Updated:
>>> Sunday, December 05, 2010, 6:01 AM
>>> Jeff Harrell
>>>
>>> <http://blog.silive.com/around_the_block_column/2010/12/new_city_
>>> tlc_cab_policy_blind_to_needs_of_disabled.html>
>>> http://blog.silive.com/around_the_block_column/2010/12/new_city_t
>>> lc_cab_policy_blind_to_needs_of_disabled.html
>>>
>>> STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- It's tough enough getting to a cab outside
>>> the St. George Ferry Terminal with your health fully intact.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Staten Island Advance/Hilton FloresLivery cabs not under contract
>>> with the city line up on Richmond Terrace, waiting for ferry
>>> commuters.
>>>
>>> Just making your way into and out of the terminal involves
>>> following a convoluted path filled with cones, barrel barriers
>>> and signs telling you to go there, turn here, and oh well ... too
>>> bad if you end up at a dead-end.
>>>
>>> None of the signs wishes you luck if you're disabled and have a
>>> special arrangement with a cab company that isn't one of the
>>> city's Chosen Four allowed to pick up and drop off commuters on
>>> the Ferry Terminal's property anymore.
>>>
>>> Just ask Dana Avant.
>>>
>>> Dana is blind and totally dependent on his new guide dog to get
>>> around on foot, a black Lab named Aidan he just partnered with
>>> two weeks ago.
>>>
>>> When Dana needs a ride from the ferry to his apartment in Fox
>>> Hills, the 62-year-old retired child welfare social worker calls
>>> ahead to Grant City Car Service to be there waiting when he gets
>>> off the boat.
>>>
>>> "I use Grant City all the time, and they're very nice, very
>>> courteous," Dana says. "They say, 'Call us when you're on the
>>> boat and we'll be waiting for you.'"
>>>
>>> Last Friday when Dana got off the boat, Grant City couldn't make
>>> it.
>>>
>>> "They told me they were no longer allowed to come into the
>>> terminal," Dana recalls.
>>>
>>> Instead, the cab sat out on Richmond Terrace - a hike, several
>>> skips and numerous jumps from the terminal for even the heartiest
>>> of commuters with 20/20 vision.
>>>
>>>
>>> 0
>>> Share  0 Comments
>>> Staten Island Advance/Irving SilversteinDana Avant, ouside his
>>> home in Fox Hills with his service dog. He's blind and having
>>> trouble with taxis not being allowed on ferry termnal property.
>>> (Staten Island Advance/Irving Silverstein)
>>> "How in the hell am I going to know where that is if I can't
>>> see?" Dana asks, still exasperated at the lunacy of the
>>> situation. "I couldn't get out there if I had to ... and I had
>>> to."
>>>
>>> Standing blind in a panic with Aidan by his side, Dana received
>>> assistance from a passerby who helped him flag down a cab.
>>>
>>> The following Monday, Dana phoned the non-emergency 311 number to
>>> complain. What he dialed into was a bureaucratic circle of
>>> goofiness that made the Ferry Terminal's parking lot look like a
>>> straight answer.
>>>
>>> The 311 operator told Dana to call DOT or TLC, the city's Taxi &
>>> Limousine Commission.
>>>
>>> "They gave me the service number at the Ferry Terminal," Dana
>>> says.
>>>
>>> Dana thanked the phone reps for playing pass the buck and called
>>> the Ferry Terminal.
>>>
>>> The man who picked up assured Dana the honchos in charge were
>>> doing everything to make the Terminal accessible for the blind,
>>> including the installation of Braille directional signs
>>> designated by "chirping birds." Dana was told to keep his ears
>>> peeled for the chirping birds.
>>>
>>> "I never heard any chirping birds," Dana says.
>>>
>>> Then, the terminal guy got terminally chirpy with Dana.
>>>
>>> "He said, 'We have nothing to do with this. Try TLC. They're the
>>> ones that made the ruling.'"
>>>
>>> Dana's snicker over going 'round and 'round for a ride home by a
>>> cab company he deals with regularly is worth a thousand chirps.
>>>
>>> "I don't know what bureaucrat thought this up," Dana says.
>>>
>>> This, meaning, the city's contract that only allows taxis from
>>> four companies - Clove Lakes, Island Wide, DeJoy's and Newport -
>>> near the ferry ramp.
>>>
>>> All other car services, including Grant City Car Service,
>>> Access-A-Ride Taxi and others that accommodate the disabled, are
>>> prohibited from driving on the ferry ramp because the city's
>>> contract forbids outside competition from picking up fares on
>>> terminal property.
>>>
>>> "It's a public place," insists a lone United Cabs cabbie parked
>>> on Richmond Terrace Tuesday afternoon waiting in vain for anybody
>>> to hoof it out to the street through a drizzling rain looking for
>>> a ride. "Why do you have a private contract that keeps us out?"
>>>
>>> Allan J. Fromberg, TLC's deputy commissioner of public
>>> information, says the contract keeps "gypsy cabs" from converging
>>> on people during the terminal's rush hours and transporting them
>>> in vehicles that are unlicensed, uninsured, uninspected and
>>> driven by cabbies who have not been drug-tested.
>>>
>>> "It was like the wild, wild west," Fromberg says of the taxi
>>> free-for-all at the terminal prior to the contract.
>>>
>>> Since prohibiting cab companies from picking up pre-arranged
>>> disabled passengers at a convenient spot outside the terminal
>>> borders on the absurd, Fromberg says MTA is compiling a list of
>>> "black car services" not stipulated in the contract that would be
>>> allowed to pick up and drop off on the property.
>>>
>>> A DOT spokeswoman says those cabs, which would be marked to let
>>> the terminal's enforcement personnel know they are "legit," will
>>> be able to pick up and drop off passengers at a designated area
>>> "at the former taxi drop-off/pickup ramp."
>>>
>>> "We're going to make sure there's a place they can do it,"
>>> Fromberg says. "We just have to dot the I's and cross the T's. We
>>> have an obligation to make sure that the car they hop into is
>>> insured, inspected and safe."
>>>
>>> That's fine with Dana, as long as he and his guide dog don't have
>>> to feel their way out to Richmond Terrace to hunt down a ride
>>> home.
>>>
>>> "Suppose somebody has orthopedic or mobility problems," Dana
>>> asks. "This could disenfranchise the disabled community."
>>>
>>> Even a blind man can see that.
>>>
>>>
>>>
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