![]() ![]() In the months since Haynes took office and rearranged RIOC in June, 2020, it grew clear that the state agency could no longer be shamed into correcting bad behavior. Haynes passed it when entering his secluded office for six months. In September, the arrow was reversed: The wheelchair access sign, in place since September. If able to plow through the bushes, disabled visitors could find their way through a construction site. ![]() ![]() An arrow first directed wheelchairs toward bushes. Then came the offensive disability access sign. Physically challenged visitors must climb the stairs or stay away. But Haynes seized the second floor, even knowing it was not ADA compliant. The 18th Century farmhouse had been restored, using community funds, to authenticity, and it welcomed visitors. In the summer of 2021, against community opposition, Haynes awarded himself a new office in Blackwell House. Future home of the FDR Hope Memorial, abandoned and lost in weeds in 2020, although the artwork was completed, ready to install, years before.īut RIOC’s disregard did not end there. It opened a year late, slipping off RIOC’s horizon until The Daily helped prod Haynes into moving on it. Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney and State Assembly Member Rebecca Seawright were on hand.īut the back story was largely untold. Disability Association President Wendy Hersh cut the ribbon, opening the FDR Hope Memorial, last summer. Those values held, for the most part, into 2016 with RIOC’s then CEO Susan Rosenthal stepping up, filling a large funding gap for the Hope Memorial in Southpoint Park. Residents needing wheels for getting around did as well here as anywhere else in the world. Roosevelt Island was among the first communities with barrier free sidewalks, now standard across the nation. The Roosevelt Island Daily News Offensive Disability Access Sign Uprooted Blackwell House’s Main Street entrance is free of the offensive disability access sign for the first time since last summer.įor a community that, at its inception, prided itself for its commitment to handicapped access, it was a giant step down. But she had nothing to do with it and, in fact, had allowed the sign to linger since September. The irony? It came on the day that Governor Kathy Hochul appointed the state’s first Chief Disability Officer. The historic location is the working home of RIOC CEO Shelton J. Yesterday, the offensive disability access sign confronting Blackwell House visitors was dug out and removed. ![]()
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