The Big Apple’s “Open Streets” program discriminates against people with disabilities who rely on vehicles to travel and must be brought to a screeching halt, a new lawsuit says.
The Brooklyn federal court suit, filed Monday on behalf of a dozen disabled New Yorkers, alleges the three-year-old program is nothing more than “Orwellian Newspeak” and should actually be called “Closed Streets.”
They maintain that city agencies and some nonprofits working with them are violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by regularly barricading streets to car traffic, and thus blocking access for seniors and people with disabilities who rely on vehicles to get around.
“The City flaunts its Open Streets Program as one that ‘transforms streets into open public spaces’ – into blocks of pedestrian plazas – but completely refuses to acknowledge the injurious impact that the program’s barriers, barricades, and other impediments have on individuals living with ambulatory disabilities,” says the suit.
The Open Streets program was created in April 2020 as a temporary measure to help New Yorkers gather safely outdoors during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The City Council made it permanent in 2021 and Mayor Adams this year expanded it to roughly 300 blocks citywide covering 160 sites.
A city Department of Transportation spokesman said the agency would review the suit but insisted the program “enhances safety, accessibility, and equity for a large number of New Yorkers using the roads, including seniors and people with disabilities.”
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Rich Calder