HEADING INTO LABOR DAY WEEKEND AND NEXT STEPS
This update is for August 14 - September 2. Labor Day is coming up quickly and still, nothing has been done in our crosswalk to make it safer for our kids despite entreaties by our own Councilmember Brewer to NY DOT to do something by the time our kids come back to school and our own petition that now has over 1,150 signatories calling for remedial action before Labor Day.
After Councilmember Brewer wrote DOT Commissioner Rodriguez, I wrote a follow-up letter to him last week asking how much he could get done by Labor Day. No reply.
The next step is to seek a court order to make this crosswalk safer. Our crosswalk certainly falls into the purvey of the Americans With Disabilities Act. The American Council of the Blind of NY recently sued and prevailed in a case against New York City regarding other crosswalks in the city. Our case would differ little from theirs. In my opinion, this is the path of least resistance to getting something done. Here is a link to that case.
It is my plan to file such a suit in the Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York as soon after Labor Day as possible. I will file on my own behalf as a pro se (this means filing on your own behalf with no attorney) disabled person using as much as the original pleadings from the above-mentioned case as make sense. The cost will be minimal, $350 for the court filing fee plus the cost of service on the 6 defendants at about $100 each. The defendants would be NYC, DOT, CPC, NYPD, & NYC PARKS for a total of $850 in fees and service costs. If more people join our suit, we can amend the complaint accordingly. If anyone wants to contribute financially to the cost of the suit, please send me an email at jeromekjerome@gmail.com. Even $500 would help.
Anyone reading this who wants to join us is free to file on your own behalf even if you are not a lawyer. I will guide you through the process. It is not complicated but you will have $850 out-of-pocket expenses. Alternatively, if you are a lawyer licensed to practice in the NY Courts, I am begging you to take this on as a pro-bono case and consolidate it, seeking class-action status.
We may not win but we will make them take notice because they will have to respond.
Here are links to the video clips from Aug 14 - Sep 2, including several 3-hour clips with me calling out the assholes.
Aug 17 Upstream - rain day
Aug 17 Downstream - rain day
Aug 23 Upstream - rain day
Aug 23 Downstream - rain day
Aug 25 Upstream - rain day
Aug 25 Downstream - rain day
Aug 29 Upstream - day off
Aug 29 Downstream - day off
Today's screengrab is a Central Parks Conservancy vehicle running red light with a pedestrian entering the crosswalk. The petition now has 1,157 signatories.