10 replies to this topic

[Captain Pike]

Today is my wife's birthday, and we are going to the Big Apple to take in some shows. Hope to have some good coffee, maybe see some art and wheel it up for some good music.

I'll report back in regarding the accessibility issues. Wish us well, The Captain

Edited by Captain Pike, 28 March 2007 - 02:21 PM.

[lynne]

Enjoy your trip. I have never been to the USA (I am from Dublin, Ireland) but I believe New York is great for shopping - loads of my pals have been especially for Christmas - maybe some day I will get there too! Wish Mrs. Captain Pike a very happy birthday - lucky girl.

Lynne

[DarkAgdistis]

I have to admit that NY is quite accessible ( compared to many cities in the world )

BUT ...

forget about the tube, as only busses have ramps and full accessibility ... the drivers are supposed to help you to enter and they will do, the thing is that you can sometimes feel that it annoys them BIG TIME !

Sidewalks are often lowered at street corners but in South Manhattan ( the "old" New-York ), they are also much more narrow and quite steep ...

enjoy the city and save a lot before going there !!

DA

[Captain Pike]

We are back from a great and exhausting trip. In general, I give a "thumbs up" to New York City for her accessibility. This complement really should be more for her people then the 99% curb cuts and absence of any threshold to gain access to buildings. The people are very accommodating and truly wanting to help getting through doors and around obstructions. All the city buses are accessible, having a lift or ramp that extends to the sidewalk. Neither I nor my attending partner were ever charged bus fare! I think the subways are probably not the way to go -- I've heard tales of handicapped folks having to go to the end of the line because the driver was unaware they were trapped! But the buses were great.

All the theaters charged half-price for both my wife and I. Anywhere you want to sit, they just take the seat out. The brakes on my chair weren't good enough to hold me in place in the slanted seating at one theater, so they moved me.

"SUPER SHUTTLE -- to be avoided"
My ability to assist in transfers is negligible. As such, I booked passage on a handicapped shuttle bus from the airport. This was a major snafu! They were four hours late when we arrived, and they NEVER SHOWED AT ALL when we needed to catch our outbound flight. My wife and two guys from the hotel dragged me in the back of a taxi and we made it on time. Do not rely on SuperShuttle.

In the total of 150 city blocks we traversed, two or three had no curb cut. The sidewalks by and large were smooth and easily negotiable. I felt lucky to find this level of accessibility, and have a wife who can transfer me so well. The sad thing is, I saw very few wheelchairs out and about in my travels. Seriously, I did not see 4 wheelchairs in 4 days.

I am inserting some links to photos: hobnobbing with Mike Wallace;



Pushing around Central Park;

(The site wouldn't let me put many photos in one post... so, I'LL POST AGAIN)

Edited by Captain Pike, 03 April 2007 - 08:12 PM.

[Captain Pike]

All of the theaters let us in half-price!!
Any show we wanted to see was accessible:




We met a guy who took us all through the
Law and Order Sound stage
it was great!

Edited by Captain Pike, 03 April 2007 - 08:02 PM.

[Captain Pike]

One more from Law and Order,
you could easily punch through the Styrofoam wall:

It's free at the Museum of modern Art Friday night:

[itsjustme]

What about your hotel? Where did you stay? Was it readily accessible?

It all looks great! I've always wanted to go to New York City.

You should have gone to the Today show and let us know which morning to look for you guys when the camera panned by!

[LuckyinKentucky]

Looks like a lot of fun, surprising to hear of how nice the folks were, I've never been there but heard rudeness was the norm, good to be wrong sometimes. your initial post said 3rd most accesible...whats 1&2? As a state I would say Florida's the best I've seen... due to geriatric migratory routs.

[Texaswheelz]

I think rudeness is something NY got stuck with in the past, but for the last decade or so I've heard nothing but good things about the people there.

[Captain Pike]

We stayed in the Ramada New Yorker on 34th and 8th Ave. We Had a Great View from the 31st Floor. I would recommend it highly. I selected this hotel from the matrix presented to me by Orbitz -- that's right, I tried all of these Internet travel agency sites -- I was very impressed at the prices. I called ahead to request a handicap accessible room. The room had a wide doorway to the bathroom but a conventional tub, with railings around the wall. If one were paraplegic, that would be fine I'm sure.

I'm not sure where I heard that statistic about New York City being the third out of five best places for accessibility. I remember one of the places supposedly better though was San Diego.

And yes, all the New Yorkers I ran into were extremely polite and helpful. I too, had had the experience in the past of being snubbed by these city dwellers. Maybe in the aftermath of 9/11, there has been widespread attitude adjustment, or maybe, my being in a wheelchair explains such courtesy. Either way, go, go and enjoy a great city.

Here's one more picture taken at night from atop the Empire State Building:



And OK, one more from the New Yorker hotel lobby:

[ParaforGod]

Hi Captain Pike,
Glad to hear you and your wife had a great time. Tell her Happy Birthday. My daughter and I live in a small town in GA. My daughter has been to NY twice and loves it. She thought it would be hard to get around with me there because she said she never saw one person in a wheel chair. Now that we know different maybe I will get to visit someday. My daughter wants to live there someday. I would love to visit but I'll stay with my small home town.