We are New York City residents demanding our public streets be accessible for all. We live here and we use these streets to get ourselves and our families to work, to schools, to shop, to go to doctor appointments and everywhere else we need to get to.

 

We are as interested in safe streets, in responsible driving, in climate change impacts as anyone has championed but dismayed by the seizing of a public asset, namely our street thoroughfares, for a narrow lobbying constituency at the expense of the vast majority of New Yorkers.

 

We are a representative slice of all New Yorkers, of all ages, of all ethnicities, of all incomes, and all neighborhoods and yes, all abilities. We are concerned about the imposed Orwellian “Open Street” barricades which impinge on the rights of all. Seniors and the disabled are especially impacted by impeded access and egress as guaranteed by the Federal American Disabilities Act (ADA).

 

We are determined to take back our streets and sidewalks from predatory lobbying interests. Their regulatory capture of our Department of Transportation and neighborhoods is being manipulated by for-profit venture capitalist transportation alternative platforms.

 

We are open government proponents, frustrated by the lack of transparency and business-as-usual backroom influences. When emergency enactments such as those resulting from COVID are imposed as ‘permanent,’ the parallels of autocratic rule come to mind. The “Open Streets” closure process is rendered without any environmental impact review studies. This is unacceptable in a democratic system.

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We are blocked! Block after block, whole swaths have been barricaded. Residents and businesses on these streets are impeded and often harassed merely for entering closed streets. The shut down of NYC streets is fully underway as bikes, e-bikes, e-scooters ride lawlessly through red lights and on sidewalks. Our streets and sidewalks have become a dangerous obstacle course for pedestrians, for cars and for cyclists themselves.

 

Who are we? In short, we are you and we are NYC Access for All!