How Opening Sidewalks to Businesses During the Pandemic Shut Things Down for Disabled Users

obstacle courses. Calls are now being made for many equality impact assessments which notified business owners of reasonable adjustments that can be made to provide better accessibility. John Serrico, contributor to Bloomberg City Lab, joins us for how open streets impacted disabled users. Thanks for joining us, John, Thanks so much for having me. One of the things that happened throughout the pandemic in a lifeline really for a lot of restaurants is that cities allowed them to spill out

into the sidewalks and even in the streets. This happened it was a wants to closing down of indoor dining, so they said, hey, you can move out into these other spaces. We'll let you do that. In a lot of cases. Now that we are kind of reopening from after the pandemic and all that, a lot of cities and states are making some of those changes permanent, allowing those you know, those restaurants to keep those spaces outside. A lot of them invested money in making these little

outdoor dining areas. But one of the things and I enjoyed them very much myself. I I kind of applauded that they were able to extend those. But one of the things that that we're seeing now is that for our disabled Americans, this is actually posing a problem. For those on wheelchairs and others with a mobility impairments. It's, uh, it's hard to navigate those areas, and and reading through your piece, I started thinking even of myself on a

busy street way right there. It is kind of difficult to navigate, even for for a normal person just to walk around. You have to make a left and a right and all this stuff. It can get pretty complicated. So John, tell us a little bit about what we're seeing with this. Sure, So you know, this story kind of came about where you know, I've ever been reporting on streets and accessibility for a couple of years now,

whether it's in public transit or on streets themselves. And you know, I heard from advocates who had spoken to in the past who said, you know, these new parklet you know, outdoor COVID error parklets, outdoor dining, you know, we're seeing them used for retail now, we're seeing them

mused for all sorts of different uses. That they came back out onto the streets because many disabled Americans were shielding during COVID due to underlying vulnerabilities, and when they came out to the streets, they found that they were completely reconfigured for this outdoor dining and they couldn't get by right. There's there's cluttered sidewalks, there's tables and you know chairs kind of going out into the public right

of way. There's outdoor dining structures that you know are inaccessible because the tables are too tied and there's not a ramp to get over the curve. You know, you see all these sorts of problems arising from these issues, and they really just you know, we're calling for kind of a seat at the table and hoping that you know, if we were to make these structures permanent, which, as you mentioned of them, are going to be permanent, that

the temporary problems don't become permanent. I think that's important there, that kind of piece you mentioned in the article that you grew up with a disabled parent, and there's this kind of a ritual that a lot of people go through. Actually when they're deciding, hey, we're actually gonna go out, We're gonna go somewhere. You gotta call ahead, see if

there's a ramp. You gotta kind of uh see if all all the ducks are in a row, to see if the accessibility is there, and you spoke to you know, as as I mentioned, you went through it, you spoke to a lot of people. Just to get out for a normal course of business, you have to kind of take all these steps. Yeah. Absolutely, And I think that's that's really, you know, such a key part of understanding, you know, when you start to really see how cities

are shaped for the abled user, right. And I think this is where this concept of the normative user comes up, which I mentioned the piece where unless you kind of have this experience like I had with a disabled mother, you know, or you have our friend who is disabled or you on yourself temporarily disabled because you you know, broke your leg or something like that. It's hard to kind of realize how inaccessible our streets really are and

how this could affect other users. You know, for me growing up where we had to make those calls to restaurants and you know, like I said in the piece where you know, the list is pretty short for restaurants that can qualify often. But I think with these outdoor dining structures there's they pose both opportunities and pitfalls. And the opportunities being that you can actually add a lot of new space by going into parking spots. You can actually take some seats off the sidewalk and put them

into these kind of designated places. You know. The pitfalls being what I mentioned before, where you have new tripping hazards, cluttered sidewalks, in accessible new spaces. Uh. You know, so they could they could help businesses, but they could also create a whole new set of problems, and I think that's where accessibility advocates wanted to make that very clear. You met with one of those advocates and organizers, if you could describe to me that kind of the walk

you took throughout the streets you mentioned. Towards the end of it, she was panting after having to navigate all of basically like an obstacle course trying to get through the street. Yeah. So when I when I met with the man who's really such a great source on these on these topics, you know, she pointed out a restaurant that in midtown Manhattan where you know, they had both the outdoor dining structure in the parking spot, but also

we're adding seats to the sidewalk, and she knows. She made a point that you know, in COVID, kind of all the public realm became this kind of free game um, and that's something that you know, these kind of temporary problems kind of became, you know, kind of this proform of policy in a way. So you know, we were talking about that, and as we kept going along, you saw all these kind of iglues taking up the public sidewalk,

these kind of little cottages that were built. Some of them weren't in the parking spots, they were actually on the sidewalk. And for someone like me who has to to able legs and can get through those kind of tight spaces and can maneuver. It's a bit different for someone for a wheelchair user like you mont or someone using a walker where they can't it's really hard to get at wheelchair through those type spaces. They can't go onto the street just as easily as enabled body person

can just kind of get around these spaces. So by the time we walked about two or three blocks, Yeah, it was quite exhausting for her, and it was something that was so eye opening to see how, you know, just how cluttered the sidewalks have gotten during this phase. You know, even though she admits she's she's a fan of them, she just wants them to be to be better improved. And so what are the next steps for this? Obviously,

raising awareness is one. Uh, I think there was recommendations maybe to say, if you're gonna open these open the streets and the sidewalks of this, you know, make sure, uh you know, you have a little like a mini report or something so that you know that there's accessibility requirements or rank structures based on their accessibility, just just to make sure that we're we're looking out for for

these disabled citizens as well. Yeah, So I would say there was three main kind of takeaways and solutions that came from the piece, uh, And I think a lot of this has to do that we're now entering the second kind of iteration of them. You know, you mentioned you're a fan. I'm a fan of EIDN outdoor dining structures all the time. Now we've got to figure out how we're gonna make these permanent and they are going

to exist on the streets. So we were in this kind of we're beyond the pilot phase, right, And I would say the three solutions that kind of came up, the first being what it mon told me, which is we need to re analyze the streets. If we're on a really busy corridor, you know, maybe we should start thinking about expanding the sidewalk. If we're gonna add all these new things to the streetscape and the future city street you know does include outdoor dining, which I think

it should. Can we start to rethink the sidewalk in the space that we're giving to residents, maybe we should expand a bit. So that's the first one. The second I would say is just education, education. Education. I mean, you know, again, it shouldn't take myself, who had a disabled mom, to just know about these things or think

about them. We really need to get the public to have a change of behavior, as Susan Duha mentioned to me in the in the Peace, where we educate the masses, so when they do act, when restaurant owners do put the space out, they do feel that it's wrong. It's not it's incorrect. And also are aware of the huge economic loss, which was a key point to me that you know in the UK they called the purple pound.

You know, these millions of dollars that are lost by businesses when I disable to use your decide to go somewhere else and not shop at your business because you decided to or you were unable to provide accessibility. I think that's the best way of putting it. So education every step of the way, every time the city talks to a business owner, educating them, here's the proper way to do it. Here's the potential business you could lose,

you know, really having that education piece. And I would say the last one is just including accessibility advocates, which to me is the kind of most implant, the simplest one, right. You know, when you're doing these permits, have accessibility advocates, they're looking them over making sure they do work for everyone, and hiring more accessibility officers in you know, departments of transportation, who are mostly in most cities, they're the departments that

are taking care of this. Uh And and also and I thought this was a great idea, you know, sending those with disabilities out to these outdoor dining structures kind of as like a side evaluation. Not to penalize businesses. I think so key. You know that Alan Bens and some other advocates told me where they're not looking to penalize businesses and giving them another fine. It's how can we work How can we work together collaboratively. If we decide these are going to be permanent, how can we

make them really work for everyone? I think a key part of that is just having these successibility advocates at the table to really decide to really see that vision through. So that's I think going forward with cities will really have to look forward to in the coming months. John Serco, contributor to Bloomberg City Lab. Thank you very much for joining us. Thanks so much for having me. Hi'm Oscar Romiris, and this has been reopening America. Don't forget that. For

today's big news, stories. You can check me out on the Daily Dive podcast every Monday through Fridays, so follow us on I Heart Radio or wherever you get your podcasts.