City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you. So,

Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Ed Flynn, District City Councilor. I am the chair of the Boston City Council Committee on City Services. Today is August 31st, 2026. This hearing is being recorded. It is also being livestreamed at boston.gov slash citycouncil-tv broadcast on Xfinity, Channel 8, RCN 82 Fios, Channel 964. Written comments may be sent to the committee email at ccc.csit.gov. at boston.gov and will be made part of the record and available to all city councilors public testimony will be taken at the end of the hearing individuals will be called on in order in which they sign up and will have two minutes to testify if you are interested in testifying in person please add your name to the sign up sheet near the entrance of the chamber when you walk in If you are looking to testify virtually, please email our central staff liaison, Shane Pack at Shane, S-H-A-N-E dot pack at boston.gov for the link, and your name will be added to the list. Before I begin, I do want to say thank you to Shane and Ethan for being here. They're our city council central staff, and I want to thank them for their work and professionalism. Today's hearing is on docket 0335 in order for a hearing to discuss accessibility issues in Boston City Hall. This matter was sponsored by myself and City Councilor Aaron Murphy. He was referred to the committee on February 11th, 2026. Today, I am joined by city councilors in order of arrival, Councilor Fitzgerald. City Council President Braden, City Councillor Louis-Jean. At this time, I do want to acknowledge a letter of absence I did receive from one of my colleagues. I'll read it into the record. Dear Chair Flynn, Mr. Clerk, City Council colleagues, I regret to inform you that I am unable to attend this morning's Committee on City Services on Docket 0335, order for a hearing to discuss accessibility issues in Boston City Hall. I will follow up with additional questions upon reviewing my staff's notes and watching the recording. Please do not hesitate to contact my staff with any questions. Sincerely, Enrique Pepin, Boston City Council at District 5. I have the honor of introducing two exceptionally well-qualified advocates in the disability community and worked with both of them for a number of years on accessibility issues. But before I ask both Cassandra, Xavier, and Bill Taub, before I ask them to give an opening statement, I do want to give an opportunity to my City Council colleagues to provide an opening statement. I do want to give my colleagues as much time as necessary for their opening statement. I'm going to give five minutes. If you go over five minutes, that's okay. Continue going and I will not cut you off. Let me start with Councillor Fitzgerald. Councillor Fitzgerald, you have the floor.

Thank you very much, Chair. I do appreciate it. And I am happy to be here for this important hearing regarding accessibility in and around Boston City Hall, but also just the wider city in general. And I think how we show up for accessibility in and around the property that we manage here at City Hall should certainly be the forefront and the leader of how we provide accessibility to the rest of the city. If we can't do it in our own backyard, It's going to be pretty difficult for people to think we can do it elsewhere in their homes and in their neighbourhoods. So I look forward to learning a lot from both Cassandra and Bill. Thank you for being here today and for educating us on what the problems that persist, what some of the new problems are, and how we can best learn and react. to what we're seeing out there and from you guys who are living it every day, putting us in your shoes and telling us what you need and how best we can support you, I think is very important. So I thank you for taking the time to be here and chair and I look forward to both working with the administration, the advocates and my colleagues

uh to make sure that we can see sure that some of these things are followed through on to make life a little bit easier for our residents thank you thank you council fitzgerald city council president braden council president braden you have the fall thank you uh counselor flynn mr chair good afternoon bill and cassandra so nice to have you here um and this is an important discussion just to evaluate where we're at in terms of accessibility uh in and around boston City Hall. I know we've made incremental improvements over the years and it's an ongoing project. We're not there yet. So I'd love to hear your impressions, your suggestions, and hopefully we can actualize some of your suggestions and make our City Hall and City Hall Plaza and the environs around here in Government Centre more accessible to everyone and across the city. So thank you for being here.

Thank you, Councillor President. Councillor Louis-Jeanne, you have the floor.

Good afternoon, everyone. I'm happy to be here. Thank you to my colleague, Councillor Flynn, for hosting this hearing. And I want to thank Cassandra and Bill for being here. We need to make sure, yes, Cassandra, our policy queen, thank you for being here and our advocacy queen. It's important that we make sure that the doors of City Hall are open to everyone and that it's accessible. We don't have a city for everyone if we're not remembering to bring the margins and making sure that those who have been historically excluded from our spaces and places, that they are and so I want to continue to learn from all of you to think about what we can do better here in the City of Boston and work alongside the administration and my colleagues to make that possible. I think that was only 40 seconds, so I'll yield all my time back. Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor Luishan. I believe the Americans with Disability Act is arguably one of the most important pieces of federal legislation on the books. I filed this hearing order because it is critical that we make accessibility a top priority for all in our city, especially our seniors, persons with disabilities. We know that over the years, Boston City Hall has made improvements to ensure compliance with the ADA, American Disability Act, and improve accessibility for persons with disabilities. Some of these examples include a new accessible entrance on the second floor and a sloping promenade in the City Hall Plaza renovation in 2022, which began under the leadership of Mayor Marty Walsh throughout Mayor Janey's time and completed under Mayor Wu. There was also the installation of a vertical lift at City Hall's third floor entrance to the mezzanine area. However, there is more work to be done to improve accessibility inside the building. Aging infrastructure continues to limit accessibility in certain areas, such as the broken escalators connecting the second and third floor, as well as the half floor between the second and third floor in City Hall labeled the third floor on the north elevator. As we all know, these elevators have been down for quite some time. and it is important to review access within other parts of the building to ensure those with disabilities can fully access all floors, departments, meeting rooms when they are in City Hall. Residents and neighbors tell me it may be difficult and confusing for them sometimes to navigate City Hall when they are trying to obtain city services, especially when they have to reach multiple departments. They may come in from the City Hall Plaza or Congress Street from the garage area. They may use the south elevators to go and pay a ticket or get a birth certificate on the second floor or visiting assessing on third floor. But with the escalator down, they have to take the stairs to navigate their way to find the north elevator to get up to the tax collection division or taxpayer assistance center in that kind of half floor between the mezzanine area on the third floor and second floor. It does sound confusing. if you're not familiar with the building. Last November, I reached out to Commissioner Shelton, who mentioned that the existing escalators have been fully decommissioned as they are beyond repair, not code compliant, and no longer considered to meet accessibility standards. He also mentioned that the city is working to replace these escalators with new stairs in a fully accessible four-stop elevator. And while the design phase is ongoing, but the timeline for construction and completion remains unclear. I also highlighted the safety of the main staircase on the third floor in my hearing order. The short length of the bricks and the reflective shine make it difficult to see, especially when you are walking down from the fifth floor to the third floor. And while the current guardrails help, I believe the safety of these stairs need to be enhanced. to prevent people from tripping and getting seriously hurt. Many people know exactly where I'm talking about where they have the podium for speakers at the mezzanine level. But right next to it is the lift for people in a wheelchair so that they can get up. But I believe those stairs are pretty dangerous if you fall. You'll literally fall the whole flight off the stairs. I look forward to this hearing to discuss these issues. Improving accessibility on the second and third floor must be a top priority. And for nine years, this has probably been my number one issue, is how we ensure persons with disabilities are treated with respect and dignity. And that's something I'm going to continue to work on. We're honored to have Cassandra and Bill. And I do want to give Cassandra and Bill an opportunity to introduce themselves, give an opening statement. And after that, we will go to questions from my colleagues. But I don't want to rush you, so I'm going to probably give each person maybe 12 minutes. And then after that, we'll go to questions. So Bill or Cassandra, who would like to go first? Okay, Bill, you're going first. Just give me an opportunity to set the timer. So Bill, you have 12 minutes. Introduce yourself, give us your background, what's important to you in terms of a person with disability, any recommendations that you might have, and I want to say thank you to you, Bill, for your commitment to civil rights. Bill, you have the floor.

Good afternoon. Thank you for inviting me to this hearing. I have a long journey becoming blind. I was declared blind April 22nd, 2025. I used to live in Boston and I recently moved to Cambridge. because it's a brand new building and an accessible apartment. And I want to thank the Mass Commission for the Blind for helping me have this wonderful place to live. There are many issues facing the City of Boston. They go beyond City Hall. I'm going to talk about one of them that has become Quite frankly, one of the most important issues for me as a person who's blind with low vision and a senior citizen. The lack of public bathrooms in the city of Boston, the city should be ashamed of itself. The city thinks that bathrooms in fire departments and police stations are public bathrooms. Firemen have told me they're concerned because they don't want people ODing in their bathrooms when they have to respond to a 911 call. I spend most of my time in the city now between City Hall and Back Bay. The bathroom at the Souvenir Concession Store at the Park Street closes at 4.45 p.m. If you don't know where the other bathrooms are, good luck. There is a temporary bathroom just before you cross the street to go to the public gardens. I attended Jaylen Brown's magnificent event yesterday. Those bathrooms were closed for regular maintenance per a Boston police officer. Fortunately, there were water bodies there. What happens if it's not? bathrooms closed, walk down the hill, use your scooter, but you wanna go to the red line, gotta go back up the hill. The city says that hotels are considered public bathrooms. Do all the hotels in the city know that? I also received information that the city has a website The bathrooms, great. But what if you are one of the more two million international visitors that come to this city and you have a five-year-old child that needs a bathroom? You're really going to look for that website? No. This is a big concern. Additionally, there are many resources available. I will briefly talk about a couple of them. One is the Carroll Center for the Blind in Newton. I'm an alumnus. That school transforms people's lives. The other one is Achilles International. It's for athletes with disabilities. Offices are on Newbury Street. You can find out more information on the website. Sighted Guides. There are many resources available to people who, any citizen, anybody with sight, any other disability. But there's a huge problem in the city of Boston. There is no way for any person to find out all the magnificent resources the city has because every department, every commission has its own silo. The question is, what's the city gonna do about it? A little background about me. I am serving now my sixth year on the city's eight strong commission senior advisory council. As I said, I'm an alumnus of the Carroll Center for the Blind. Thank you to the school. I am also a community accessible monitor certified by the state's office on disability. I don't have legal power, but I can tell you about things you need to improve. Cassandra's gonna talk about City Hall and the infrastructure of the city. We both know it's Yeoman's work. Last thing, couple last things. Anybody want, any city councilors, staff wants to come to the Carroll Center for the Blind? you can reach me through Councillor Flynn's office. Happy to take you on a tour of this incredible place. The second thing and the last thing is I've made this offer and no city council has taken me up on it, so I'll repeat it again. You want me to come to your district, walk with you citywide, any place, any time. Happy to be your tour guide. We will both learn from each other. Once again, thank you for the opportunity to speak at this important hearing.

Thank you, Bill. Thank you for your testimony for the important work you are doing. We're also joined by City Councilor Brian Worrell, City Councilor Ben Weber as well. Cassandra, same with you. I'm going to give you I'm going to give you 12 minutes, but if you feel like you need more time, please take it. I will not cut you off, but you have the floor.

Hello, everyone. My name is Cassandra Xavier, and I'm a resident of the North End. I'm a disability advocate, and I'm here once again to continue the advocacy efforts for residents of all backgrounds in Boston. The thing I would like to bring forward is the most difficult part, and that is the concurrent street crossings. That is incredibly important that we address the issue of concurrent street crossings. Along with the already concerning infrastructure of a huge portion of the city, the concurrent street crossings are incredibly dangerous. Now, some of you may be wondering what a concurrent street crossing is. And in the most simplest terms, concurrent street crossings is when the vehicle and a pedestrian can cross and drive at the same time. For some strange reason, The overseers of this does not believe it is a concern that needs to be fixed. Now imagine your child or yourself or someone you know who's elderly or with a disability trying to cross the street, and as they have the right to cross, a large vehicle of any kind is also turning in towards them, thus leading to a preventable serious accident or tragic incident. I was on the radio with GBH talking about this not too long ago and how dangerous it is. I really, really believe that needs to be fixed. And along with the concurrent street crossings, which I hope to have some of you come see with me one day, would be the city's infrastructure. There are, there's a lot of street curbs and sidewalks that really need to be addressed. It's a lot of accidents waiting to happen or have already happened to a lot of pedestrians. And I've been talking about this relentlessly over and over every time I come here. Every person I've been interviewed with by news reporters, it's been the same exact concern. Infrastructure of Boston and many other places need to be corrected and addressed. The concurrent street crossings need to be addressed. Intruncated domes need to be corrected. And if you're also wondering what an intruncated dome is, it is the little strips on the ground at the end of the curb that you could cross and there are bumps on the ground. It's not just floor decoration. It's for someone with a wheelchair, someone who uses a white cane, rollators and strollers to know that they're on the edge of the sidewalk so that they are able to stand at the end of the street safely. Some of those intruncated domes are broken and those need to be corrected. Once again, my name is Cassandra Xavier. I am a disability advocate, and I live in the North End. And thank you for your time, and I'll hand the floor back.

Thank you, Cassandra. Thank you for your testimony. Thank you for your leadership in advocating for persons with disabilities here in Boston, but also across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and we have tremendous respect for you. I'm going to start with Councillor Fitzgerald. I'm going to give each city councillor six minutes, and if a city councillor needs more time, I'm not going to cut them off, and they can take the time that they need. But I'll give everyone six minutes. I'm going to start with Councillor Fitzgerald, then Councillor Braden, Councillor Louis-Jean, Councillor Worrell and Councillor Webber. Councillor Fitzgerald, you have the floor.

Thank you very much, Chair. And again, thank you, Cassandra and Bill, for your advocacy and testimony today. So just sort of going over what we just heard. I heard truncated domes, concurrent signals, bathrooms around the city. What else would you add to that list? that we think is, and without having to delve too deep into any of it, I see the look on Bill, but if we really want to know, right, like what are some of the things that persist that affect many with disabilities? Bill, why don't you go ahead, you can just start. You can just rattle some off. I'm just wondering what some of the other ones that are pertinent to what you think are, you know, what you would prioritize.

I would, oh my gosh, I would prioritize the concurrent street crossings, not just for myself, There are many of us with all kinds of backgrounds, invisible disabilities and very visible disabilities. We're outside. We are active people or trying to become more active out and about. And we should not have to be in fear of our safety just across the street. You know, it is the most disconcerting experience to be someone who went through numerous years of mobility training for their white cane and To have the right-of-way to cross the street properly and to still almost get hit by a motorcyclist or a car That takes all of your skills and training and it flushes it right down the drain Concurrent street crossings need to be addressed immediately, please.

Yep understood So the truncated domes, concurrent signals. Yes. And anything else that you would sort of that you come into, you know, on a daily basis where you say this is lacking in terms of accessibility and could be better.

Sidewalk infrastructure.

Yeah.

You get your canes or your mobility aid caught in the crack of a ground or you twist your ankle on a sidewalk where there are missing bricks.

Yeah.

And that's just not cool.

I agree, and this is not something, again, not for anyone, not even an accessibility issue necessarily for those that have any impairments, but this is for everybody.

Yes, it's everybody.

I turn my ankle in a loose brick all the time walking these streets, so I completely get it, and I should see it coming.

Everyone deserves access to a sidewalk without rolling their ankle.

Yes, understood.

It hurts.

Bill, anything to add? Yes.

to follow up on Cassandra's priority. When I lived in West Roxbury, I took a city employee before road diet to walk Center Street. And here's what you face. On one side is the latest equipment to cross the street. Some talk, some don't. On the other side, there's nothing. On one side is a yellow dome pad. On the other side, There's nothing. You also have brown. Well, folks, there's a reason why I wear this yellow cap in city hall. It's a reminder, yellow is a better color than brown or black for those domed paths. Why does the city have sewers at the curb cutouts? Blind people, I know, can lose their cane if they don't have this ball. If they have a regular stick in, it goes into the sewer. Now, what are you gonna do about it? When I was here in March, talking about accessibility and snow removal, question for the city's administration, what are your plans to make sure sidewalks are more accessible to everyone next winter? Storms are coming, are you ready? I offered a suggestion that not one city councilor took me up on. Create what I called the snow brigade. Briefly, pay the kids. The money goes not in an Amazon card, into a bank account. Not one city councilor approached me afterwards. That's embarrassing for the city council because it's gonna happen again. Snow doesn't go away. Cassandra's priority is also my priority. I walk all over Back Bay, Downtown Crossing, City Hall Plaza. The city did a great job with Copley Square Park, much more accessible. I'm usually there every Tuesday and Friday for the farmer's market. It's a great place. It's more accessible and I feel safer. So what's the city going to do about snow removal? It's coming just a few months away. What's the plan? I asked the question. And lastly, Mayor Wu, I've been trying to speak to you for two years in person about this, and your staff has never responded.

Thank you. thanks bill I'm sure you're not alone there the truncated domes they are going around and repairing them now right there is a federal law suit, I believe that was taking place. And so I know it's a long process, but is it not, uh, they're going around to try and make them even on both sides of the road and taking it piece by piece from what I understand. Uh, and as for the, uh, the, the snow brigade, um, I think as many counselors do here in our own districts, uh, we do have a typical, we try to buy the kids ice cream if they shovel out a neighbor's sidewalk or a hydrant. or an elderly neighbor, things of that nature. So we do what we can with what we've got, Bill, but I agree it could be more organized and substantial. But again, that is my time. Thank you to both of you for your suggestions. Look forward to talking in the future. Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Council Fitzgerald. I do want to acknowledge my City Council colleagues. They did go on record in support of my proposal on to eliminate basically concurrent street lighting several times, I believe. But I do want to acknowledge my colleagues for the important work and leadership they have provided on that issue. Certainly we have more work to do to try to convince the administration that we need to make a complete change. I also want to acknowledge and I think Councillor Fitzgerald mentioned it, but I do know Councillor O'Rourke was active and is active on trying to continue to work with the city administration on the street snow removal. We had a hearing several months ago, but I think Councillor O'Rourke wants to have another one over the next month or two months. Let me go to the city council president. for six minutes. Council President Braden, you have the floor.

Thank you very much. I share your concerns about the concurrent street crossings. I feel that there's a level of lack of enforcement and incredible safety challenges with crosswalks in general. I was talking to someone recently in the last few weeks about just the sheer number of incidents, like we've had fatalities on crosswalks in Alston Brighton. We have had near misses and injuries where drivers don't stop. They stop, they slow down, they stop, and the person's like three quarters of the way across, and they drive on, and then they clip them on the shoulder with the wing mirror and break their arm. That has happened in our district, so I think And the other aspect, just the demography, the demographics of our city is we have an aging population. As we get older, we have more mobility problems. We have vision and hearing and sensory issues that you folks can speak to very well. And it seems to be that our streets are not safe for all road users. I think it's really challenging. In terms of your knowledge, Bill and Cassandra, of other municipalities, maybe either globally, nationally or locally, places where they do things differently that we might learn from, have you any thoughts on that matter?

Yes. The city belongs as a member of the Open Mobility Foundation. It has had staff lead that organization. The question is, and I don't know the answer, what is the city doing to use the technology that's open source to improve monitoring of transportation and vehicles? For example, Minneapolis has been a pilot program with major companies like UPS to make sure the curb cutouts are not blocked for long times. As far as what City Council Fitzgerald said, that class action lawsuit said the city had 23,000 miles, sidewalks to fix those curb cutouts. According to the settlement, the city only has to fix 1600 a year. In 2024, it didn't meet the goal. 2025, the city was proud it fixed over 1,700. Folks, do the math. How long is it going to fix those 23,000? And they'll never all get fixed because it's just going to start over again, a lot changes. I know city government moves slower than turtles. but the city needs to move faster because the world moves faster. Getting feedback, hold on. Okay, feedback went away, sort of. The question is, what are you gonna do about these sidewalks and streets? What are you gonna do about the trees and the roots? Roots don't go down, they go out. Like I said, happy to come any time, any place to a city council's district and citywide. Walk with me. And also Cassandra in March 9th hearing, she saw the very impactful video she made. Anybody looked at it since it was shown March 9th, 2026? There's a lot the city can do, but the problem is it's all in silos. I don't know how well city, Agencies work together. I'm an outsider, not an insider.

Thank you. In terms of the tactile pads, or the truncated domes, as they're called, it seems that some of the yellow ones, which are more visually...

Yes.

Accessible. Very often the material they're made in degrades very quickly, especially if it's been exposed. Is that something that you folks are observing in your travels? The truncated pads deteriorate and basically need replacement in very short order.

Yes. Speaking of in truncated domes that need to be replaced, by the edward brook courthouse um there is a there is an enchanted dome that is completely ripped off and it's missing i don't know if they plan on fixing it anytime soon or if it was taken off intentionally um but that's a concern and i believe that they should all be a standard color like yellow for easy visibility for low vision and for anyone that you know needs to be able to see it at a distance or up close to know where to stand properly um yeah thank you that's my time i have a place to talk two places to talk about the follow-up at the corner of charles and beacon street there's a fire hydrant

right where the curb cutout should be as you cross the street from Charles to go to the public gardens. Next, and I saw this when I had better eyesight, walk out the back bay commuter rail station and turn right to go down Dartmouth Street. At the intersection of Dartmouth and Stewart Street a couple years ago, there was no curb cutout. I saw a mother push a child in a wheelchair and had to go up Stewart Street in the street. I actually got a phone call from some consultant. Couldn't figure out who owns that curb cutout. I was told it was the Mass Turnpike. It still hasn't been fixed as of last Friday. I hope no other mother has to push a child in a wheelchair up Stewart Street. to go wherever she was going. I think it was a doctor's appointment because I asked her. That's just one, two simple examples. A fire hydrant at a curb cutout and a mother having to walk up Stewart Street because there's no curb cutout there.

Thank you. Thank you, Bill. Thank you, Mr.

Chair. Thank you, Council President. Councillor Louis-Jean, you have the floor.

Thank you, and I want to thank you both for your testimony. Bill, I do want to take you up on your offer to walk through the neighborhoods. For me, I live on our street, and I want to thank—Councilor Flynn, they're not here, or they're not coming, right? The Disability Commission?

No.

Their staff? Okay. But I have been—they have been really gracious, and the administration has come out to my street. to really look at the disability and accessibility issues. And so I think that we do need to do more of that. I wonder, and because they're not here, it's a difficult question to ask, there are so many silos regardless of the issue. especially when it comes to the needs of folks who are too often marginalized. I'm wondering if anyone knows whether the Disability Commission right now has meetings where they try to bring everyone together where the issue is just on accessibility and disability.

I'd like to speak about Commissioner McCosh and her team. They do human's work. They need to be thanked. They got major projects. They have to evaluate 217 city buildings for accessibility, thousands of miles of sidewalks. And you got to figure out, she told me, who owns the sidewalk? Who owns the bridge? That gets really complicated. And when you're looking at road diet, I was told you have federal, state, and city laws. They conflict with each other on many levels. And that was from the project manager who managed the road diet program and project in West Roxbury. I'm happy to speak to you afterwards. Thank you for taking me up on my offer. But the commissioner's team does great work. They need more people and they need better budget, more money.

Thank you, Bill. Either Cassandra or Bill on the issue of general accessibility, on the issue of concurrent street crossings, are there examples of cities who are doing it, who are doing accessibility in ways that we need to copy or model or examples that you've seen in other places? Cassandra, you don't have to raise your hand, the mic's yours.

So accessibility concerns should always be It should be prioritized. Oftentimes, whenever an accessibility need is brought up to the forefront, or is at least attempted to, it is always an afterthought. You know, I always remind everybody, at some point you're going to, many of us will become older and we will develop disabilities by age. So right now, Many of us can avoid those cracks in the road if we're walking in a really fast speed. But sooner or later, maybe 20 to 30 years, you may not have the same agility or quickness that you once did in the past. And or at some point, anyone can become a part of the disability community. No one is exempt from acquiring a disability, not even 20 minutes from now. So whenever these things are being whenever construction and reconstruction of certain places are is happening, accessibility should always be woven into these things. You know, it's a compliance thing. And I'm going to keep repeating it over and over and over until we see it happening. And I'm also open to some further discussion after this hearing as well. with anyone.

Thank you, Cassandra. Are there areas in the city that you think are like the most problematic, the most difficult, the most inaccessible for our residents here? Oh, oh my gosh.

I can list one of the many of them. Along Comm Ave in the area by the area where they have the elephant standing, those streets or those blocks on the Commonwealth area, A lot of them do not have APS buttons and that's shortened for audible pedestrian signals. Those are incredibly dangerous street corners. And I believe that is where someone had unfortunately passed away because of lack of the audible pedestrian signals and the street crossing signals. And that is also where the concurrent street crossing issue is also heavily noticed as well.

Okay. Thank you. I'm not qualified to talk about other cities, but the final one, what Cassandra said, I don't know who said it, but everybody in the world has a disability in waiting. Just kind of don't know when it's going to show up. I did not know until 2015 that I had an eyesight disease called macular degeneration. Have any of the city councils talked to all the doctors at Mass Eye and Ear who are doing research? The doctors who are teaching students at the College of Optometry? You want to meet them? Come and see me. I'll introduce you to Dr. Ross at the New England College of Optometry. Amazing woman, amazing doctor, amazing research she's doing. That's just one example of my journey.

Thank you. I wanted to follow up on something that you stated earlier, Bill, and I want to read just to make sure that I Just to make sure that I got it right. I think when you were talking about the issue of public bathrooms You were stating you stated that Hotels is it in the city of Boston or is it in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that they are by right by law? Public no. Okay.

I just want to clarify what the what you stated, okay I filed a complaint with 3-1-1 about the lack of bathrooms. I I received a form letter from Christa Makasha's office. It stated that the city considers public bathrooms in hotels. What are you gonna do? That's a public bathroom? Yeah, I use the bathrooms at the Copley Fairmont Hotel a lot. Because it's a shorter walk than going to the library. And what happens if the library is closed at 5 o'clock and you've got a five-year-old kid who needs to use the bathroom? They're not going to look at the websites. They're not going to look at Wayfair. That's in the letter, the form letter I received. I recognize that Christian McCosh, the commissioner team, has human work. I can't talk about what other cities do. I only know about Boston. I'm just beginning to learn Cambridge. It's a fascinating journey. Come on. Come and join me. You'll find out what it's like to become blind in the city of Boston. Sometimes it's amazing. Sometimes it's hilarious. And sometimes, as Chrisandra says, it's tightrope dangerous to navigate these streets. And we're in better shape than some other cities. My mobility trainer's husband's from Mexico. She's described as where he lives, oh my God. Good thing she has sight. So, is the city gonna move slow? Or is it gonna move fast and be careful? You've got over 200 million, two million visitors that come here every year from across the world. We got a great example at the World Cup. They're coming back, folks. What are you going to do to make sure they know about accessibility in this wonderful city? That's the question. I don't have the answers.

Well, thank you. Thank you for your time and your testimony. I started my day today at the National Braille Press. And I just know that it's important that we do everything that we can for our uh all of our communities here especially those who are living um and trying to thrive with disabilities so thank you for your testimony bill um and to you cassandra and for everyone at the national pro press for the work that they do to make sure accessibility is a real thing for everyone later i'd like to hear about it by the way if any city other city councilor like ed flynn wants to come and see it talk to me brian the ceo he'll welcome you with open arms

Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor Lee-Janin. Next up is Councillor, we're all just stepped out. One thing I do want to mention, I'll go to Councillor Webber. I visited the Carroll Center for the Blind several years ago, serving all ages in all stages of vision loss, but talking to Bill and Cassandra, I plan to do a visit sometime in October and would like to invite all of my colleagues, if they are able to join us, I'll give people plenty of notice. But I think Cassandra's gonna join me and ride over with me over to Newton. Then we're gonna go to one of those ice cream places after, I think, so. All my colleagues are welcome to join us. Next up is Council Weber. Council Weber, you have the floor.

Okay, thank you very much. Nice to see the panelists. Nice to see you, Bill. But Cassandra, Bill was talking about other cities and he knows what's going on here. Is there another city in the country somewhere else that we should be looking to for how to approach these issues? Is somebody?

Other cities that we should look into for like, I would say Minneapolis. Minneapolis has a very, how do I say? They can be an example of how to make sure a city can be as accessible as possible, especially the Southeast Minneapolis area. Audible pedestrian signals. A lot of infrastructure accessibility in many ways. But it has been a while since I had last visited Minneapolis. But when I went there, I found it to be pretty cool. Well, not cool, but pretty accessible because I was there at a training center for the blind at the time. it was pretty easy to navigate and though every city is not perfect, but I kind of was wishing that Minneapolis and Massachusetts could trade resources in a way. If that answers your question.

Yeah. Yeah. No, that's, that's good. Uh, I have the, I don't know, current or former city councilor for Minneapolis on speed dial. We were in touch during the, so I can give them a call and see what they're doing there.

Yeah, Bill. City Council Weber to interrupt you since you're gonna make that phone call. Minneapolis is one of the cities that runs pilot projects for the Open Mobility Foundation that I mentioned earlier. Might wanna ask him or her what their involvement is with Open Military Foundation. It's a nonprofit. And cities across the world belong to it, and that includes Boston, Massachusetts. Good question to ask them. Sandra, thanks for bringing up Minneapolis.

Oh, yeah. Minneapolis is one of those special cities for me.

Okay, yeah, I've been there. I went to law school in Iowa, so took some trips up to Minneapolis. It was a really interesting city, and yeah, I can't wait to reach out. So I guess, Cassandra, you also mentioned concurrent lighting, and as the chair mentioned, you know, he filed a resolution, I think at least one, that you know, we voted in favor of getting rid of them in the city. The reason why, one of the reasons why I support it is because right in my district on Hyde Park Ave, where I think you made your video this winter, and Tower, Glen Ingram was killed by a bus on a concurrent light, and so he was crossing in a green, it was a couple years ago. I mean, we heard from the chief of streets when we asked him, I think the chair asked him about concurrent lights, and I think the response was, If we did a blanket concurrent light ban across the whole city, it would cause a lot more traffic, some insurmountable issues. I guess my question for you is, is there a way to do it in a targeted way where we create zones where there's no concurrent lights? Or are you just thinking, would you just want the entire city just to ban them from one side to the other?

My thing is, I would ask this person, what do they think is more important, the safety of a person on the street walking around or a car stuck in traffic? The person, they just need a couple of seconds extra to cross the road. The car could always get to their destination a lot faster than a person. So I mean, I've never driven in my life before. I've always been living with blindness and deafness together. So I don't know what the urgency is to be behind the wheel and want to rush through, even with someone trying to cross. I've always been the pedestrian. But maybe some of the most active or highly trafficked spots in the city could have no concurrent street crossings. And as a matter of fact, just get rid of it. Just get rid of it. Just take it out. Take it out. It's okay. They can stand in the traffic light a little bit longer. They have air conditioning in their car. They have a heater in their car. The pedestrians are exposed to the heat and the cold. They'll be fine.

Sounds good.

Just take it off.

Yeah. Bill, you got your hand up.

As a person who used to be able to drive, and I lived in West Foxbury, and now I'm just walking Center Street, I think to myself, I used to drive on that road? What am I, crazy? Okay, and that's before and after the road died. Yeah. So, since you brought it up, how about doing a pilot project in West Roxbury? You've already got road diet, you've still got problems. I know it's still a big issue for you as the city council. You got the bike riders who were here in full force in March. Pick a neighborhood, pick a street. Let that gentleman pick the street he wants to do the pilot project. It's dangerous out there. You know, the question is, how many mothers are gonna get killed with a stroller with a three-year-old in it? And I know I'm being very blunt and very direct. How long is it gonna take for another adult to get killed on the streets of Center Street in West Roxbury that happened a few years ago? I almost got killed crossing Center Street a few years ago when I still had, I was not legally blind. How many deaths is it going to take for that person to wake up and have a pilot project? And I know I'm in your face and I'm being direct, I don't care. I don't want another person to get killed on the streets of Boston because you got concurrent things, you got domes that don't work, you got bad lighting. On one side there's a button, on the other side there's nothing. I've walked Center Street. from Roach Brothers all the way to the Faulkner Hospital. More than once, I lived about a mile away. You want to come on a walk with me to Center Street? Anytime, any place.

Okay, thanks. I see my time is up. I just have one quick follow-up. Bill, this is for you. And I waited until my time was up, so just a short answer.

I'll try not to be long-winded.

Good luck. But just I know you advocated for accessibility at the libraries.

I can't answer that question anymore.

OK.

But what I will tell you is, ask Christian McCosh that question.

OK, so it's something we need to follow up on.

You want to have a conversation with me later?

Absolutely.

Let's go to the West Foxbury Library someday And let's go to the Central Library and read every, all you city councilors, read what's on the library's website today about accessibility. You might be surprised what it says. Good and bad. It's an issue. I will tell you this, the library's trying to improve it. Really working hard at it. But they've had pitfalls. You're gonna spend the money. It always comes down to the money. Is the city going to give the Boston Public Library the money to be the best library in the world? Last suggestion. Take a look at what Seattle does. Seattle has approximately the same size population as the city of Boston. Both cities are under 700,000 in residents.

Okay, yeah, thanks bill.

I'll go forward to seeing you in West Roxbury and I still cruise the streets of Center Street at least once a month.

Yeah, well Send me a text message when you're there. I'll meet you on the street. Okay.

Thanks a lot chair Thank You counsel Webber. I'll also take take six minutes I'll set the clock now for myself as well Thank you Bill and thank you Cassandra for again for being here for the important testimony you are providing but also your incredible leadership on civil rights issues, supporting persons with disabilities, supporting our seniors, ensuring our open spaces, spaces throughout the city, Commonwealth are accessible. Disability rights are civil rights. Cassandra, I know you spoke eloquently at the beginning about concurrent street crossing lighting, and we continue the conversation, and I agree with everything you said. Both the pedestrian and the vehicle can't have the right of way at the same time. It's really, to me, it's really about respect for the pedestrian, respect for the person with disability, respect for our senior citizens or a parent taking their little kid across the street in the crosswalk. So on that note, I was at a location and there was a guy that was driving a car And he had a New York license plate. And he was making the turn at the same time when people were trying to cross. And he almost missed them. He was about one foot or two feet away from the person in the crosswalk. And I said to him, you know, you have to let the people by and cross. He said, He said to me, he didn't know me, I didn't know him, he said, well why do you have, but he had the right of way, which he does have the right of way. He said, I have the right of way. And I said, well you do have the right of way, but so doesn't the pedestrian. And he said, well this is my first time here. How do I know that?

Well now he knows.

But now he knows, that's right. But what about someone else that doesn't know the city that doesn't know that particular intersection, and they're making the right turn at the same time pedestrians are crossing. But it's really not that person's fault because they really don't know the neighborhood, they don't know the lighting. And I'm not here to blame anybody, but why can't we come together acknowledge that it is a public safety problem that we have in the city and if the if they're not going to make change here at city hall i do believe we might have to make change in the court system absolutely because i don't think i don't think the chief of streets is going to make the change for us i've asked them a bunch of times my city council colleagues have asked them as well They're not going to make the change. But do you think we can bring this to court? That's my question.

I would like to ask one question first. Sure, go ahead. Is the Chief of Street even from Boston? Like, do they live in the perimeters of the area to even see this themselves?

I think every department head is required to live in the city.

Okay, good. And then... The other part is yes, it needs to be escalated to a higher level. We've already tried everything we could to reason with them. We've done the best we could to reason to make sure the pedestrians are safe, but they don't want to, you know, make that simple gesture to be like, okay, cool. Pedestrians are important too. And not just the drivers. Yeah. So without, Any further, let's just go to the next level with it.

Yeah, I am concerned the longer we wait, the likelihood that there could be another accident.

We want to stop that before it gets worse.

That's exactly right. You're exactly right. We want to stop it before it gets worse. And what happens if it's a child in the crosswalk? What happens if it's a senior citizen? What happens if it's a person in a wheelchair? What happens if it's anybody?

It's a preventable situation that could have been avoided. And that needs to be addressed immediately, like as soon as possible, hopefully before the end of this year, to take them to court for it, if it's even possible. And if possible, me and Bob can go along as well to the court. Thank you for the name.

Yeah.

Yeah. Let's go to court and make sure. You know, pedestrians' lives matter, too.

Yeah, I agree. I don't, I don't think anyone really wants to go to court. I think that's our last option, but I don't like you, Cassandra. I don't want to wait until an accident happens again. Um, I, I know there have been several deaths in the city of Boston because of this, um, concurrent jurisdiction, street lighting related issue. Um, but my time is almost up. um let me let me just ask one final question i'm gonna i'm gonna shut off the um the clock in one second it's about it's about to run um so one issue that i've i've focused on along for a while is the lift for peop for people in wheelchairs on the on the third floor the entrance to the third floor on city council the plaza area. When you're going in with the bricks and you go through the security and you kind of go around past the elevators and there's the lift that will bring you up to the mezzanine where there's a lot of kind of civic events. I don't believe that area is necessarily accessible to persons with disabilities. Yes, we do have a lift. But it can be challenging. I know many people have not used the lift for various reasons. But I am uncomfortable with that particular area of City Hall. And I love this building. But I am uncomfortable with that part of the building because I feel it is not accessible to persons with disabilities and seniors. seniors also trying to walk up the stairs coming from the third floor center plaza very challenging very very difficult also the hand railings if you notice the hand railings yeah are kind of awkward and they're almost in the center the center of the of of the brick steers they're not laid out properly in my opinion i i do want us to

study on how we can make it more accessible but bill i think you wanted to speak and want to give you the opportunity because i'm i'm out of time but bill you have the floor i actually visited the third floor last friday there's a wonderful volunteer he's only there on fridays his name is jerry he probably knows the building better than all of us according to one of the volunteers that was there today. He did bring me to the lift. He said you just have to have security or a volunteer help you to open it to go up. I didn't do it, so I can't address that. I will talk about the railings across City Hall. I brought that up when we did the walkthrough earlier this year. All the railings are rectangle. Why not have them round like canes? Easier to handle. Now, there is a problem with City Hall, and it looks beautiful. The stairs are nice and shiny. Boy, I think they're dangerous now that I'm legally blind, but to my side. They were dangerous in the beginning, even more so. I walk very slowly up and down those stairs, and I can demonstrate to you folks. how I was taught at the Carroll Center for the Blind by a wonderful mobility trainer named Augustine. Yeah, I'm giving him a plug. He saved my life a number of times recently through his training. And I can demonstrate to you after this how I was taught to navigate crosswalks that don't have these systems. It's very interesting to watch the traffic stop because of what I was taught. All the railings in this building need to be changed. Very expensive, but they'll be safer for the seniors who come to this building. Actually, anybody. Because they're not rectangle. Round. Round. I will, in closing, thank Commissioner McCosh. She addressed a very serious question I had about the new elevator. There are buildings in the city, commercial buildings, They don't have the button panel anymore in the elevator. Everything is video monitor. Thank God for security when I was doing work two years ago in the seaport area. Commissioner McCosh's response was wonderful. She said, I'm not going to quote but paraphrase, there will be no video monitors in the elevators in this building. Thank you, Commissioner McCosh for being that clear.

Well, thank you, Bill. Thank you, Cassandra. My time is up. I do want to give my colleagues an opportunity if they want to have a closing statement, but I do want to give an opportunity for Cassandra and Bill, give you the opportunity as well, if you'd like to give a closing statement.

You ready? I'll go first this time.

Okay.

Let me ask... Councillor Webber. No, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Councillor Ouijan. I'm going to give my colleagues two minutes for a closing statement. And then I'm going to give both of you an opportunity to give a closing statement as well. So, Councillor Ouijan, you have the floor.

Thank you. I'll be brief. I want to thank you, Bill, for your advocacy and for being here. I want to thank you, of course, Cassandra. for all the work that you do, really appreciate it. And we obviously both made it clear, Cassandra made it clear that the city has a lot more work to do. I look forward to, you know, it would be great to hear from the Disability Commission or from the administration their efforts to see sort of where they, to understand from their perspective sort of why we are lagging behind so much. But I know, like I stated, that even in my neighborhood, on my street, there are major accessibility issues that I want to help solve in the city. So thank you for your work. I want to give another big shout out to the workers at National Bail Press for all that they do for all of our communities and especially those who are blind. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Councilor Ouijan. I want to give Council Weber the opportunity to give a closing statement as well. Two minutes, Council Weber, you have the floor.

Okay, thank you, thank you very much. Cassandra and Bill, it's great to see you here and I hope you realize how much of a difference your advocacy makes for people in this city. It's like you really elevate this issue and when we talk about you know, making this a priority when we look at all other kinds of issues. I know, you know, myself and the Chair, Councillor Luege, and my other colleagues will be thinking about, you know, what you have said today and what you said in many other hearings. So I just, you know, your hard work is, it's very valuable in this city for people who maybe can't even make it here to speak up. So I just want to thank you for being the folks who you know, highlight this and elevate this for us to sort of take and do more with. So I know we have our marching orders, and I just want to thank you for being here. Thanks, Chair.

Thank you, Council Weber. I checked with Shane. We do not have any public testimony, but before I give a closing statement, I do want to say thank you to Shane and to Ethan. for conducting, organizing a very helpful hearing. Well, I'm going to hold off on my closing statement. I want to give Cassandra and Bill the opportunity to you to go first, and then I'll kind of briefly conclude after. So, Bill, who would like to go first?

I want to go first. Okay.

Cassandra, you have the floor.

All right. I would like to say to everyone, thank you for taking the time to invite us into the space to have our voices be heard. I consider these opportunities pretty rare and, you know, great opportunities to be heard, to be a part of the progress and advocacy throughout the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. And it's been a long time coming for a lot of us to speak on really important situations happening. And we hope to continue coming back for more discussions. And I hope that what we talked about today also makes more progress and we get what we are looking for so that everyone can navigate the Commonwealth of Massachusetts safely and comfortably.

Thank you, Cassandra. Excellent testimony. Excellent closing statement. Bill, you have the floor.

Thank you, State Council Flynn, for this opportunity to come before the council again. And the most important thing for me is I hope you listen. I hope all the commission heads, department heads also listen. This is real time. It's not Facebook. It's not Instagram. When I walk out this door and head for the streets, I have no idea what the two of us will be facing. It changes every minute. I thank you for the opportunity. Once again, any time, any place in the city, the district. Lastly, Mayor Wilk, you're also invited. I've been trying for two years. Hopefully one of your staff members will respond this time. Thank you all. Last thing. Advocacy has a little secret. It's a lot of fun. I've met incredible people over the last six years. Very lucky. Wonderful support. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Bill. I'm going to give myself two minutes as well. First, I want to say thank you to my city council colleagues for being here. for their important dialogue and input that they provided. Excellent questions as well. I want to say thank you to Bill and Cassandra for your advocacy and for being here as well. And I think your testimony, and you've testified before this committee many times, but it's important for me, it's important for our colleagues to listen to you. to hear from you to understand what you're going through. And through your life experience, through your testimony, that makes us better city councillors because we can be more effective in advocating for persons with disabilities. We know disability rights are civil rights. There's more work we need to do. as a member of the disability rights community. I'm an active member of the Disabled American Veterans. I do want to say thank you to you because what you're advocating for is helping all persons with disabilities across the Commonwealth, not just yourself. You're making life easier, healthier, and more accessible to so many more people, whether they're older or younger. but you're setting the example for a new generation of persons with disabilities to advocate on their behalf to ensure that they are treated with respect. They, they are treated with dignity because as we all know, disability rights, uh, civil rights.

Absolutely.

And we can't do enough for persons with disabilities in this city. We have a lot more work to do and I'm honored to work with you to call you friends and let's keep up the conversation in advocacy as well.

Absolutely.

Absolutely. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. This, this hearing on Docket 0335, order for hearing to discuss accessibility issues in Boston. And Boston is concluded.