Duane and advocates say Farley access unequal

Chelsea Now photos by Jefferson Siegel

State Senator Tom Duane (at right, holding paper) addresses the crowd at a press conference on behalf of Norma Hart (to his right) and other disabled persons in front of the James A. Farley Post Office on Monday. Duane and disability advocates are calling for 24-hour disabled access to the facility.

A sign on the Eighth Avenue side of the James A. Farley Post Office, between 31st and 33rd Streets, announces new weekend hours for disabled access.

By Jefferson Siegel

All she wanted to do was mail back an electronic organizer for repairs.

Upper West Sider Norma Hart walks with the help of a cane because of a rod in her leg. That makes climbing steps problematic, at best. And on Sunday Aug. 12, when she faced the front steps of the James A. Farley Post Office on Eighth Avenue, she could just as easily have been looking at Mount Everest.

So Hart, 77, walked to the Ninth Ave. annex entrance, where access for the disabled is available—except, she discovered, on weekends.

“The guard was very nice,” she recalled. “A supervisor said, ‘If she’ll stand at the Eighth Avenue and 33rd Street corner, we’ll send someone down to get her package.’”

“I’m sorry,” Hart interjected, “I don’t want anyone to cut up my food for me either.”

Hart, a retired child psychologist, came face-to face with one of countless obstacles the disabled face daily. From lack of access to public transit, along with businesses and public areas, the disabled often find themselves looking in from the outside. Hart’s particular story, which was picked up by the New York Daily News on Aug. 13, prompted local politicians to act.

At a press conference on Monday in front of an imposing staircase on the 31st Street side of the GPO, State Senator Tom Duane joined disabled advocates from a host of organizations, including Disabled in Action, the Disability Network of New York City and the Disabled Riders Coalition to criticize the issue of unequal access at the city’s main post office.

“This facility is open 24/7, except it’s not accessible 24/7 to people who use wheelchairs or who are otherwise mobility-impaired,” Duane said, adding, “That is an outrage.”

“The Postal Service should provide full weekend access to the building for all of its customers, regardless of their physical abilities, not just for those who are able to climb stairs,” he declared.

The Americans with Disabilities Act, which was signed into law in 1990 and took effect in 1992, requires, in part, that, “Public accommodations must comply with basic nondiscrimination requirements that prohibit exclusion, segregation and unequal treatment.”

Even though the Farley Post Office is “grandfathered” from meeting strict access requirements, disabled access has been provided through an annex entrance on Ninth Avenue. As Hart discovered the hard way, the annex entrance was closed on weekends.

Although the Postal Service offered to have an employee meet Hart at the base of the Eighth Avenue steps, Duane said of such an offer, “There is no privacy. There’s waiting. There’s inconvenience. There is not equal service for persons with disabilities.”

“This is illegal,” said Michael Harris, the executive director of the Disabled Riders Coalition, “but regardless of whether or not it’s illegal, it is certainly immoral and unethical.” Harris also believes the separate disabled entrance an avenue block away is wrong. “If they had a separate post office for people who were black or Hispanic, there would be major outrage.”

“Accessibility is a civil right,” said Paula Wolff, of Disabled in Action and the Center for Independence of the Disabled in New York. “We should have the right as people with disabilities to get into all public buildings.”

“It’s not a privilege to be able to get into an establishment,” said Chelsea resident Carr Massi, President of Disabled in Action. “It’s a right. It’s unfortunate, in this day and age, that we are still fighting for access.”

On August 30, Duane sent a letter to U.S. Postmaster General John E. Potter. The missive, co-signed by Congressperson Jerrold Nadler, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Assemblymembers Richard Gottfried and Micah Kellner, calls for an accessible entrance to be open during all operating hours. If 24-hour weekend access at the Ninth Avenue entrance is not feasible, the letter continues, an accessible ramp should be constructed at the Eighth Avenue entrance.

As a result of a news account of Hart’s travails, the Postal Service instituted limited weekend access for the disabled from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Hart was not completely satisfied with the partial solution.

“If I need something done for me, I’m very glad if someone will provide the help,” she said. “But if I don’t need it done for me, let me do it myself.”