Walkable City Awards

Walkable City Awards

[This was sent to Prevention Magazine and to the American Podiatric Medical Association.]

Cambridge MA City Government boasts that your magazine designated
Cambridge as the most walkable city in the country. I am perplexed at
what your standards are? Did any of your awards committee visit
Cambridge? Is the award based upon forms filled out by city officials?
They have a habit of getting awards which make me wonder about the
givers. Can these awards be purchased?
Do you have any idea how many miles of sidewalk are of red brick,
with missing bricks and hills and valleys all over the city? Parking
control officers and postmen tell me to speak against bricks because
they often fall and almost break their ankles.
I see women walking with their strollers in the streets due to the
broken sidewalks. I see people with disabilities who use wheelchairs
riding in the streets The Executive Dircetor of the Cambridge
Handicapped Commission does it too. I often walk in the street for
the same reasons and I have no physical disability.
Recently the MA Architectural Access Board a division of the
State office of Public Safety recognized that the city is not in
compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act regarding their
sidewalks. A woman spends a lot of time measuring the sidewalks. The
city fights her and the state on this issue. The newest Mayor prevents
the woman from speaking about this at City Council meetings. I am
suspicious of how many awards Cambridge gets while they violate laws
that mandate that sidewalks be accessible to all not only those who
drive their cars.
Last year the city was designated the most accessible city in the
country by the National Organization on Disability. They had no
explanation for that award either. The City Manager boasts of having a
triple A bond rating while the three rating agencies are being
investigated by the NY State AG for fraud. The city cable access
station was designated best cable access station in the country for
three years while they abused their members. The management took
credit for work of others. It is a very strange situation in this
lawless city. Your reputation contributes to this abomination.

Roy Bercaw - Editor ENOUGH ROOM

[This letter was sent by Marilyn Wellons. Published with permission.]

Just yesterday afternoon as I drove toward Central
Square I passed yet another old woman bent over her
walker, in the roadway. She was walking there because
the brick sidewalks on either side of Franklin Street
(between Pleasant and Soden) are heaving and
irregular, and ADA-non-compliant.

The American Podiatric Medical Association should
check out Kathy Podgers's blog,
http://fromtheport.blogspot.com, for her December,
2007 entries about the city's snow removal. She also
has a photo essay, "Why are these people walking in
the street" that shows the limits of walkability in
the city.

The March, 2008 issue of The Bridge, not yet posted on
the web (www.bridgenews.org) but out in hard copy, has
Kathy's article on p. 1 above the fold: "State board
rules against City, for seniors, disabled." It
reports on the Massachusetts Architectural Access
Board (MAAB) January 7 ruling that Kathy's complaints
about three intersections had merit and "ordered the
City to present a plan for compliance or request
variances."

This would all not be so disturbing if the city were
actually working to comply with the ADA, rather than
systematically avoiding compliance. For example,
rather than stipulating they would correct work at the
three intersections cited before the MAAB, the city
first challenged MAAB jurisdiction and, when it was
affirmed, assigned an attorney to fight compliance.

I assume the APMA does its due diligence, so wonder
what representations the city made to qualify for this
award.

Marilyn Wellons



[City of Cambridge Press Release]

Mar 4, 2008

Cambridge Named Best Walking City in U.S.

Cambridge is the best walking city in America, with more residents walking to work and more parks per square mile than any other city evaluated, according to a just-released study by Prevention magazine in its April issue and the American Podiatric Medical Association. Walking kudos also goes to New York, ranked No. 2, and Ann Arbor, No. 3. The worst walking cities: Oklahoma City, North Las Vegas, and Gadsden, AL. Prevention and the APMA annually team up to measure the walkability of America’s cities as interest in walking for fitness remains strong. Walking is the most popular form of exercise with 87.5 percent of Americans walking for fitness.

New in this year’s survey, more than 500 U.S. cities, including D.C., were evaluated and ranked on 14 walking criteria, including the percentage of adults who walk to work, number of parks per square mile, use of mass transit, and percentage of adults who walk for fitness. Also new this year, a best walking city was named in each of the 50 states from an evaluation of its 10 most populated cities. For more on this topic, visit: http://www.wickedlocal.com/cambridge/homepage/x2052204094

10 Best U.S. Walking Cities of 2008

1. Cambridge
2. New York, N.Y.
3. Ann Arbor, Mich.
4. Chicago, Ill.
5. Washington, D.C.
6. San Francisco
7. Honolulu
8. Trenton, N.J.
9. Boston
10. Cincinnati