Mark Your Calendar

© 2015 Luke T. Bush

August 2, 2015.  A turning point for the disabled community in Plattsburgh City?

The Sunday print edition of the Press-Republican featured an article entitled “Access for all, 25 years and counting.” (Page C1).  It talked about the Americans with Disabilities Act and how much work remains locally since 1990 when ADA was passed into law.  (The PR article can be found online here: http://bit.ly/1ILvdOF .)

Activist Debra Buell and North Country Center for Independence (NCCI) Executive Director Robert Poulin discussed the lagging efforts to make the city more accessible for people with disabilities.  (My previous blog post, "ADA: 25 Years Later The Struggle Continues" [ http://bit.ly/1KPtSJ9 ], also covered some of the same issues.)

Plattsburgh City Mayor Jim Calnon was interviewed for the newspaper article.  He said: “We have to be realistic to how quickly we can make up for what appears to be 25 years of inaction.”

He added: “We dropped the ball, but we’re trying to pick it back up.”

But this was in light of a previous statement about the chronic problem/excuse heard over the last 25 years: cost.  As always the city struggles with its budget.

The mayor cited some progress with accessibility issues such as eliminating the hindrance sometimes created by sidewalk seating for downtown restaurants.  He acknowledged that more work had to be done.

So mark the date of the PR article and check back in a couple of years to see if the city finally follows through on its plans for ADA compliance.  Or not.

After two and a half decades the excuses are running thin.