Posted: Feb 29 2012 at 2:26am | Views: 19931
Community leaders say they will sue the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for an elevator at the Parkchester Train station.
Bronx resident Nidia Mercado, who uses a wheelchair, would love to be able to just grab a subway into Manhattan. "It would make me feel like a regular person," says Mercado.
But the closest subway stop to her house, Parkchester Station in the Bronx, does not have an elevator. It only has an escalator, which doesn't do Mercado any good, because someone still needs to carry her up and down.
"It's nerve-wracking to feel like they're going to drop you, because I've been dropped before," says Mercado.
On behalf of disabled riders, attorney Luis Sepulveda and State Senator Ruben Diaz Sr. say they are suing the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. They say thousands of riders are unable to use the Parkchester Bronx train station. "To have that many captive in the community is inhumane and is outright discriminatory," says Sepulveda.
The MTA says it is fully committed to accommodating the needs of its customers, but can't install an elevator at Parkchester because of structural constraints.
Sources say the platform is not wide enough to accommodate an elevator and the stairways would be in the way, potentially making it harder to get out of the station in an emergency.
Parkchester was one of five train stations the MTA renovated in 2010 at a cost of $89 million.
Sepulveda says the MTA is required, under the Americans with Disabilities Act, to spend 20 percent of the renovation budget on improvements for the disabled. He says that did not happen. "It should not be happening in a civilization where we put men on the moon," says Sepulveda.
Advocates for the disabled successfully sued for an elevator at Manhattan's Dyckman Street stop in 2010, over the MTA's objection it would cost $12 million to build. The agency settled and sources say the elevator is scheduled to open in 2014.
Parkchester Bronx residents and advocates say they hope something similar can happen at Parkchester.
