I never thought I would have to explain city politics to my daughter at the age of six. But there we were
in the car, coming back to campus up Richmond Avenue when a severely disabled adult in a wheel
chair veered into traffic. My daughter Zuli screamed, and I slammed on the brakes. Luckily there was
no one behind us.
As it turns out, the person in the wheel chair knew exactly what she was doing, and she was never
actually in danger of being in the path of my car. She had done this many times before. The side walk
she had been riding on with ease had turned into a mess of broken and uneven sandstone so sharp it
could pop a tire. For this person it seemed to be a trade-off between death by sandstone or death by car.
Buffalo, how have we come to this? We should be ashamed of ourselves. The Americans with
Disabilities Act is over 20 years old! It clearly states that accessible sidewalks take priority over
any other city improvement. Besides the uneven sidewalks I see construction companies blocking
sidewalks without any warning, telephone poles right in the middle of wheelchair paths, and most
infuriating, government employees parking their government cars on the sidewalk.
So I explained to my daughter that the city has had over 20 years to fix the sidewalks but they didn’t.
Why? Because politicians are dishonest, I told her. I also explained to her that to walk is a basic human
right. To drive is a privilege. The right thing for the government to do would be to tend to the basic
rights of its citizens – like being able walk, roll or run down every single sidewalk in the city.
I would hope and expect that we here in Buffalo would be a little more advanced than this.
Dan Ruisi