Is Cambridge Really the Most Walkable City??

The Cambridge Chronicle has a story on their web site, see link below, reporting about the "survey" done by the AARP. However, as yopu can see in my comments, it is not the survey done by the AARP that is relevant, but the survey done by the Mass Architectural Access Board that counts. The City of Cambridge has been maintaining or sidewalks in violation of Mass State Safety Code for years, and we have been paying for this faulty work.

http://www.wickedlocal.com/cambridge/homepage/x1633042978

Here is the comment I left on the Chronicle's blog...

The City of Cambridge has been ignoring both the Mass State Safety Code and the Federal Standards mandated by the Americane With Disabilities Act of 1990 for years now. Even after
I, and others, complained to the City in writing, and in testimony at various hearings, the City continued to reconstruct and maintain the sidewalks in violation of regulations and standards.

Many folks fell and suffered serious injuries during this period of trying to get the City to repair and maintain the sidewalks legally. The City, even with injured folks coming to City Council meetings to testify, continued to defy all laws governing how sidewalks should be reconstructed or maintained. Therefore, last year, March 2006, I began filing a series of Mass Safety Board complaints with the MAAB. In order to review such complaints, the MAAB must determing jurisdiction. To do that they request information from the City, namely, the date and permitting records for the most recent alterations of the sidewalk complained about. When a City allows a sidewalk to be dug up, and concrete or bricks removed, and a new surface to be installed, a permit should be issued. These records, when they are kept by the City of Cambridge, are kept by date and not be location, making it exceedingly hard to "find."

However, it seems that the City of Cambridge never issued permits for the illegally repaired sidewalks, because, as was explained to me, "We paid for it out of the minor repair budget." I was told that because they used the minor repair budget, the alterations didn't trigger compliance with safety board regulations. However, the City is wrong. It is the extent of the work performed, and not the budget that was used to pay the contractor that is at issue. After all, why would the Taxpayers want to pay millions of dollars to fix our sidewalks, and do the work wrong, so pedestrians safety was still a problem?

In spite of the City's failure to issue or "find" permitting information, I was able to supply the Safety Board with enough factual information, including photos, so the Board was able to determing jurisdiction in half the complaints I filed. The City continued avoid the issue, and finally the Safety Board came to Cambridge and surveyed the sidewalks in question. Result? Many outstanding violations. Although the AAPD may be wellmeaning, they may lack the expertise, and the knowledge of safety standards, and access standards required by both State and Federal Law, therefore, it is not the AAPD survey that is important, but the survey conducted by the MAAB that is relavent.

The MAAB ordered the City of Cambridge to fix the bad sidewalks by december 1, 2006, and provide photos, or a plan to prove the violations were corrected, or impossible to correct. To date, the City has not complied with the MAAB's orders. I will update folks on this issue on my blog, at http://fromtheport.blogspot.com, or my All About City Council blog at http://votekathy.blogspot.com.