Berkley Gets Ready to Install New Wheelchair Ramps

Woodward Talk

Jeremy Selweski, C & G Staff Writer
July 21, 2010

BERKLEY - Chris Ruzzin likes to ride his powered wheelchair into downtown Berkley on nice days to go shopping or visit friends in the area. But when the 44-year-old Southfield resident tries to cross the street at 12 Mile and Greenfield roads, he runs into a major problem: The Berkley side does not have any wheelchair ramps at the corners. This forces Ruzzin to ride through the street with cars whizzing by until he reaches a driveway low enough that he can make it up onto the sidewalk.

"It's just not a safe situation for anyone in a wheelchair," Ruzzin said. "Berkley needs to fix those ramps not just for me, but for anyone else with a disability." In 1990, the U. S. government enacted the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability. The law states, among other provisions, that all public facilities must be fully accessible to disabled individuals, including buildings, parks and - as Ruzzin pointed out - streets.

"ADA laws have been in effect for 20 years, and Berkley still has not met the requirements over there (at 12 Mile and Greenfield)," he said. "The city has had more than enough time to comply with these laws. It should not take this much time to fix a few ramps." However, Berkley officials assured residents that a solution would soon be on the way: According to City Manager Jane Bais-DiSessa, the cities of Berkley, Southfield, and Royal Oak, along with the Road Commission for Oakland County, will implement a $79, 000 improvement plan this fall. The project will bring several street corners - including the northeast and southeast corners of 12 Mile and Greenfield - into compliance with ADA standards.

"We're all working together to do what we feel is best for everyone in the community, including people with disabilities," Bais-DiSessa said. "We've been working on this project for a long time, but we wanted to study these areas closely and develop a plan to make sure we do it right.

It's definitely our goal to make all our roads and sidewalks accessible to everyone - it was just a matter of finding the time and the dollars to do it." Public Works Director Bruce Jerome explained that the project should be completed before construction season ends in the late fall and as early as mid-September. In Berkley, this will include improvements along the city's northwest border, at the corners of 12 Mile and Greenfield, 12 Mile and Ellwood Avenue, Greenfield and Webster Road, Greenfield and Morrison Avenue, and Greenfield and Edwards Avenue.

Jerome said that he has been in contact with Ruzzin about the issue at 12 Mile and Greenfield for over a year. But he pointed out that it has taken longer than expected for the project to get off the ground, as the three cities needed to secure funding for all the amenities required by ADA.

"If this was a matter of just dropping a ramp in there, then we could have had it done a year ago," Jerome said. "But we also have to meet all these other federal standards … like having truncated domes, pedestrian signal buttons, and countdown traffic signals." Bais-DiSessa identified another issue that has stood in Berkley's way.

"There have been so many new improvements since ADA went into effect that it's a lot to keep track of," she said. "The requirements keep changing on us. We do our best to stay in line with all the rules and regulations, but the law is always adding new things." Still, Farmington Hills-based attorney Richard Bernstein, who is known for tackling issues involving people with disabilities or special needs, believes that Berkley may have deliberately waited to address the problem until residents started complaining about it.

"What's so frustrating about this," he said, "is that the city is basically saying, 'we’re not going to fix this until we're forced to,’ and that's not right. The bottom line is that they've had 20 years to make these changes, and there's no excuse for that. It's just a gross violation of the law." According to U. S. Census figures, 20 percent of the U. S. population - or more than 60 million people - has a qualified disability as defined by ADA. But Bernstein noted that by fixing street corners such as the one at 12 Mile and Greenfield, Berkley would be helping more than just that segment of the population: The change, he said, will also benefit senior citizens, mothers with strollers, bicyclists and other pedestrians.

"Berkley really needs to remedy this situation quickly," he said.

"Not only is it the legal thing to do, but it's the moral thing to do, too.

It's very dangerous to have people navigating a busy street and putting their physical safety at risk like this." Ruzzin is not the only one who has been having trouble at the 12 Mile and Greenfield intersection.

Paula Grace, 50, of Berkley lives near the corner and goes out walking every morning with her 79-year-old mother. However, ever since her mother became confined to a walker a year and a half ago, this has proven to be a much more difficult task.

"We have no way of crossing the street over there because my mom can't make it across the street fast enough with her walker," Grace explained. "Then, if she does, she really has trouble getting up the steep curb." "A lot of times," she added, "you don't pay attention to things like this until they affect you or people you love." For his part, Ruzzin would just like Berkley to show that it is taking steps in the right direction. "I wish they would have incorporated these other (street) corners into their earlier plans, and then this would not be not be a problem now," he said.

"But I know these things take time.

As long as I see some forward progress by this fall, then I'll be happy." Bais-DiSessa was glad to be moving ahead with the new construction project, but she noted that with the budgeting crisis that most Michigan cities are currently facing, these kinds of improvements are becoming harder and harder to come by. "We definitely do care about people with disabilities in Berkley," she said. "That's why we will be correcting that (12 Mile and Greenfield) area along with a few other spots - it's just the right thing to do. Whenever we are able to obtain or allocate the funds we need to become more compliant with ADA, then we certainly want to do it."