Rolling through subways & construction with a wheelchair and determination
By Laura Latzko
Carmelo Gonzalez is not your typical wheelchair user. He rides the subway.
A
skinny businessman who looks minimal in a powered wheelchair and who
speaks in a soft voice that is difficult to understand at times,
Gonzalez, 40, is nonetheless an imposing figure when he wheels his way
from a subway platform onto a crowded train at the City Hall station.
He
powers from the platform to the train, picking up speed as he goes
along. If there is a small gap by the train, Gonzalez is able to jump
it on his wheelchair, his body bumping back and forth for a few seconds
as he moves forward.
Unable to walk because he
contracted cerebral palsy as a young child, Gonzalez doesn’t let his
wheelchair nor his speech impediment slow him down. He ventures out
daily, through construction near his apartment on Fulton St., and into
selected subway stations.
Although he is almost
always accompanied by personal assistants, one of whom is his son
Carlos Sanchez, Gonzalez lives on his own and is able to get onto
subway trains by himself most of the time, unless the gap between the
train and the platform is too far for him to wheel across. If this is
the case, Sanchez, 23, or one of his other personal attendants, will
help him onto the train, tipping him and his wheelchair back and
propping him onto the floor of the subway.
“He’s a roughneck, hard core,” Sanchez said of his dad. “He’s very strong.”
While
rebuilding delays and construction obstructions frustrate many
Downtowners, for Gonzalez they mean adding long periods of time to his
trips.
Gonzalez, who lives at the St. Margaret’s
House on Fulton St., usually starts at the City Hall subway station.
His options are limited because only three stops near him are
accessible — Canal St., Bowling Green, and City Hall — and they only
use the 4,5, and 6 lines.
Gonzalez used to be able
to take the E train from the World Trade Center subway station, but the
elevator at this stop has been closed since April 2008 and will be
closed while there is construction continues on the World Trade Center
transportation hub. The hub was slated to open in 2011, but
construction delays have pushed the date back even further. James
Anyansi, spokesperson for New York City Transit, said he doesn’t know
when the elevator will be able to reopen.
“I get
frustrated because I have to take a detour,” Gonzalez said. “It doesn’t
seem fair for people with disabilities. They should have other
options.”
Gonzalez said that the W.T.C. station’s
closure is especially inconvenient for him because he used to be able
to take the E train to Queens for his physical therapy appointment. Now
he has to change trains, from the 6 to the E train, taking his chances
that the elevator at another station will work and battling crowds of
people, with strollers and luggage, for a space in the lift. Gonzalez
doesn’t complain about waiting, electing to sit quietly in his chair,
but he is passionate about the elevator closure.
“I am very upset about that,” Gonzalez said. “That’s the one I used most of the time.”
Since
the W.T.C. station has become inaccessible, only three of the 28
stations at or below Canal St. are accessible. It is not much better in
the city as a whole, where only 67 of the 468 stations are accessible.
By
2020, the Metropolitan Trans-portation Authority has promised to make
100 key stations accessible, as part of a plan it developed after the
Americans with Disabilities Act was adopted in 1990.
Anyansi
said other stations are inaccessible for a variety of reasons,
including the fact that some subway stations are very old and
electrical outlets need to be moved for elevators.
Funding
issues also contribute to the system’s inaccessibility. Anyansi said
that it costs on average $5 million to $7 million to put an elevator in
a subway and $15 million to $20 million to make a station accessible,
with mezzanine and street elevators.
Gonzalez said
he rides the subways at all hours of the day, never scheduling his
appointments so that he can go earlier or later to avoid rush hours.
“I force myself. I go whenever I need to,” Gonzalez said. “I want people to see me. Equal rights, equal problems.”
Gonzalez
is a rare breed, a wheelchair user who favors the subway system over
other means of transportation. He said that none of his friends in
wheelchairs ride the subway, and he hardly ever sees others like
himself on any of the trains he uses. He likes the subway because it is
faster than other means of transportation.
He said
M.T.A. buses and Access-A-Ride are too slow. The owner of Pursue Your
Dream, a company that helps people start their own businesses, his job
takes him to all parts of Manhattan and into other boroughs.
“I go everywhere,” Gonzalez said with a broad smile.
Gonzalez
said that although he uses Access-A-Ride as a last resort, he likes to
be independent. Gonzalez, like many other wheelchair riders, said that
Access-A-Ride can be slow, unreliable and inconvenient. When he has to
be at an appointment with a client, he can’t afford to be late.
But
the subway also has difficulties. One of the problems that Gonzalez and
many other transit users have is that elevators break down regularly. A
report by Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer in 2006 showed
that in subway stations in Manhattan, elevators were out an average of
11 days in A.D.A. compliant stations. Anyansi said that it takes an
average of three to five days to fix an elevator, but some can take
longer if parts need to be ordered overseas.
A
broken elevator once left Gonzalez stuck in a station in Queens, and
the fire department had to be called to get him out. He also once went
down the escalator at 51st St., as a last resort, because the elevator
was broken and he needed to get to an appointment.
“I love the subway,” Gonzalez said. “It’s faster, it’s easier, but I just hate it when you can’t get out or in.”
Sanchez said he always worries about his father when he is on the subway, especially when he isn’t with him.
One
Sunday in early August, when he went out with his son, the Downtown
elevator at 51st St. was out, which meant he needed to backtrack.
Gonzalez, who regularly calls the hotline that the M.T.A. set up to
inform people about elevator outages, was not aware beforehand that
this elevator was out, and there was no sign posted to warn him that it
wasn’t working.
Gonzalez and Sanchez didn’t complain
when they saw the outage but instead went back to the platform and took
the next 6 train to Grand Central. This station is one that Gonzalez
likes because of the winding ramp that leads to and from the different
platforms. Although he has to contend with crowds of people with
luggage and baby strollers who push past him hurriedly, he still would
like to see more ramps in subway stations.
“What they need to do is make ramps, not elevators,” Gonzalez said. “It’s hard to break a ramp.”
The
stop that is closest to Gonzalez’s home is the Fulton St. subway, but
it is currently not accessible because of the delayed station
renovation project. Anyansi, the Transit spokesperson, said the station
will be made accessible, but he does not know when. The M.T.A. does not
have enough money to complete the center. Gonzalez said the station is
five to 10 minutes closer to his home than the City Hall station, which
is 11 blocks away.
Though Gonzalez uses the subway
to get around Lower Manhattan and other areas for business, he doesn’t
use it to go out socially to places Downtown. Once a resident of
Chelsea, which he found to be more accessible and he liked for its gay
community, he doesn’t go out much around his home. He said that too
many of the shops around that area are inaccessible, and many of the
sidewalks do not have curb cuts, which means that he has to wheel
around in the streets.
But Gonzalez said his biggest
issue is inconsiderate people, especially those who are able-bodied and
still use elevators and ramps.
“Some people, they have no respect,” Gonzalez said. “They see people in wheelchairs, they don’t try to get out of the way.”
