While in public office/prior to this campaign, what have you accomplished in regard to advancing disability rights? This can include work towards accessible housing, transportation, employment, health care, education, and including people with disabilities in the political process?

With Council Member Gale Brewer, I drafted and helped to introduce Intro 22, the Local Civil Rights Restoration Act, discussed further below.

We also worked on legislation mandating audible traffic signals. Partly in response to the introduction of our bill, the Department of Transportation recently installed audible traffic signals in the area outside Lighthouse International headquarters, as a pilot. This is a small step towards the goal of a broad citywide distribution of audible signals.

We also used discretionary capital and expense funding to support local projects, like the construction of a completely accessible playground at P.S. 199, and local institutions, like the Mickey Mantle School for emotionally and physically challenged children and the Adaptive Design Association, which works to ensure that children with disabilities get the customized equipment they need to participate fully in home, school, and community life. We also worked with the Parks Department to improve access to Riverside Park.

Finally, through effective constituent services, we were able to improve the quality of life for individual residents of our district by doing the often difficult day-to-day work to get landlords, City agencies, and others to address the needs of people with disabilities.
 

What oversight have you performed regarding implementation of programs/legislation you have passed (in first term or in previous offices)?

At Council Member Brewer’s office, we always worked hard to follow through on the commitments we made: checking to ensure that funding we allocated was actually received by the intended organizations and keeping on top of agencies to ensure that mandated (or promised) steps were taken.
 

What implementation/strategy do you have for your future programs and legislation to help constituents with disabilities?

I will make it a priority to advocate for both public agencies and private parties to improve accessibility in all areas, and I will particularly focus on these issues in my own district. I will advocate for the City Commission on Human Rights, the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities, and the relevant City Council committees to play a more active role in ensuring that people’s rights are respected and needed services and accommodations are in place.
 

Will you commit to only attend or sponsor events that are accessible to people with disabilities? NOTE: This includes providing written materials in alternate formats for people with low vision, providing assistive listening systems for people who are hard-of-hearing, and sign language interpreters for people who are deaf, as well as ensuring that locations are accessible to people who use mobility aids, like wheelchairs and walkers.

I will ensure that any event my office hosts or sponsors will be accessible. While I cannot promise never to attend any event that is not accessible, I will make it a point to inquire about accessibility and I will push event sponsors to guarantee accessibility whenever I can.
 

What personal and professional experience have you had with people with disabilities?

1. ...in your personal life?

2. ...in the workplace?

I have many interactions with people with disabilities in various personal and professional settings.
 

What special accommodations do you believe/think are in use in the workplace?

The workplace needs to be fully accessible and open to all members. Hallways need to be able to accommodate wheelchairs; water fountains, kitchenettes, desks and elevators need to be accessible and available. Bathrooms need to be accessibly designedand as well openly available.
 

How do you propose to implement your active involvement and/or availability to the disability community?

1. Will there be a specific person in your office responsible to this community?

   Yes, I will have a staff member who will serve as a liaison to the disabled community.
    
   

2. Will have regular office agenda items and meetings on disabled community issues?

   Yes, I will have regular office agenda items and meetings on disabled community issues.
    
   

Do you/or will you, have an active Disability Advisory Committee? Explain its duties, responsibilities and powers.

I will have an active Disability Advisory Committee, which I will meet with regularly. The committee will advise me on such matters as: legislation and budget issues before the Council; services and additional resources that would be of assistance to members of the disabled community who live, work, or visit my district; ways of ensuring effective outreach to the disabled community; appointments to community boards and other governmental bodies, etc.
 

How will you work closely with the disability community to assure passage of vitally needed legislation through the City Council? What is your strategy during your first term?

From my experience as Chief of Staff to Council Member Brewer, I know what it takes to work with advocates to turn good ideas into legislative proposals, to obtain broad sponsorship, to work with committee chairs to arrange for hearings, to overcome opposition from the mayorality, and get legislation enacted and implemented. Unlike any other candidate in District 2, I have personally taken items through the process (the Domestic Worker Protection Act and other substantive legislation, the Council’s anti-war resolution, etc.) I would ensure that I am in regular contact with advocates for the disabled community (including 504 Democrats) regarding legislative priorities and I would use my experience to get laws enacted.
 

What is your position on the development of supported apartments/homes and retirement homes for the mentally disabled in your borough? Please also explain same for physically disabled. What strategies will you utilize?

We desperately need more supported housing, both in centralized, high-service settings and in scattered sites that allow for more integration into communities throughout the city. We can use SSI to pay some of the costs, but we need local agencies that can manage housing and services effectively and work through the sometimes complicated funding issues. The State and City need to work jointly on new capital for development, and thus, if elected, I would join the coalition of housing, homeless, and disabled advocates calling for a NY/NY III Agreement to develop more units to meet our current and future needs.
 

What is your position on extending the Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption (SCRIE) to low-income, eligible persons with disabilities under the age of 62 on the same basis and income level (currently the income cap for seniors is $24,000, but for persons with disabilities it has been set at $17,000)?

I support the extension of SCRIE to persons with disabilities under the age of 62 on the same basis and income level as that of non-disabled persons over 62. (I also favor raising the income cap for all recipients). SCRIE protects low income tenants from rent increases they cannot afford, while compensating landlords. The Governor recently signed a bill to extend SCRIE to persons with disabilities, but the cap for SCRIE benefits for persons with disabilities needs to be set reasonably. That means setting the disabled eligibility level at least equal to the senior eligibility level.
 

How will you develop realistic income levels for individuals and couples with disabilities to avail themselves of the SCRIE provisions?

Over the long term, income levels in SCRIE (and many other programs) have not kept up with the cost of living. Levels should be increased in the short run and indexed to ensure that they remain realistic over time. Income levels for SCRIE also need to be adjusted to reflect the higher cost of living in the City as opposed to elsewhere within the State.
 

What alternative programs will you propose to allow persons with disabilities to stay in their own homes/apartments? (i.e. protection from rent increases or undue eviction (harassment) and make funds available to make appropriate accommodations in present living environment). Another example: perhaps a dedicated housing trust fund should be established for making those housing accommodations. If so, how would you fund same?

We need to have a system that offers accessible advocacy and aid on behalf of disabled persons. Preventing rent increases and eviction requires that disabled persons have access to civil counsel that can advocate on their behalf. Even with laws on the books to outlaw these acts, effective protection depends on effective accessible representation and advocacy. The Council secured 4.8 million dollars in this year’s budget for free legal services to prevent eviction, but we need to fight for more funds, and for more outreach to connect people facing harassment or eviction with these resources.

As for funding for making appropriate accommodations, the City and State have been creative in the past in finding ways to secure funding for affordable housing of various kinds. In the Council, I will fight to ensure that housing funds in general are expanded and, in particular, that public subsidies are available for making housing accommodations.
 

New York City is in the process of adopting a new building code. How would you advocate for the strongest possible access provisions?

1. Emergency evacuation for people with disabilities: what would you do to ensure that provisions are put in place to improve survival rates of people with disabilities in the event of fire, attack, blackout, or other emergency situation?

   There are many things we can do to improve survival rates of people with disabilities during disasters. The new building code should require that large buildings submit plans detailing the process for evacuating people with disabilities and special needs. Even absent changes in the Building and Fire Codes, the Fire Department should work with commercial and residential building owners to ensure that evacuation plans are up-to-date and reflect the needs of people with disabilities who may be working in, living in, or visiting buildings when evacuation might be required. We also need to explore innovative ways of getting people out of buildings quickly.
    
   

2. What would you do to ensure that "Visitability" is enacted in New York City? Visitability is the movement towards establishing guidelines providing that newly constructed multi-family dwellings have basic accessible/adaptable features that permit friends and family with disabilities to visit, and for residents to "age in place," without having to move out when age and/or disability set in.

   I would work to make sure that visitability standards (such as no-step entries, doorways with 32-inches of clear passage space, at least one accessible bathroom, etc.) are included in the building Code for new multiple-dwellings and that new and existing accessibility and visitability standards are enforced.
    
   

Will you support, and what strategy will you utilize, to implement an expansion of affordable wheelchair accessible transportation in NYC, including taxis, livery service, express buses, airport shuttle service, more accessible subway stations, etc.?

1. Efforts to secure a 100% accessible fleet of medallion taxis have been hampered by opposition from Mayor Bloomberg and the taxi industry. Wheelchair accessible taxis are present in many cities as a result of strong support from local Mayors and City Councils. What would you do to assure that all New York City residents, commuters and tourists have access to an important form of public transportation, our medallion taxis and community car services?

   The Disabled Accessible Taxi program was allocated $1.3 million to subsidize the cost of converting current yellow taxi medallions to disabled taxicabs by providing cash grants to owners and operators, and to retrofit and place in service accessible vehicles or by reducing medallion cost during auction. If elected, I’d fight to expand funding for the program, and support legislation to phase out non-accessible taxi vehicles. I would push for a realistic cost assessment of a fully accessible taxi fleet and analysis of various options for allocating the cost among public agencies, medallion owners, and the general riding public.
    
   

Access-A-Ride has denied rides to many eligible consumers; cause unnecessarily long trips, causing workers to be late for work and consequently be docked pay and even lose their jobs; routinely leave many consumers stranded at the curb, lying to their clients that a bus is coming and calling consumer a "no-show" when the bus has not shown. Consumers who complain are often subject to retaliation. What would you do to improve the quality of service for those who must use Access-A-Ride?

Access-A-Ride ought to be a valuable service for expanding the transportation options of thousands of New Yorkers, but the service has never lived up to this promise. We need to improve scheduling routes, as many of the failings of the current system can be traced to woefully inefficient route assignments. More generally, the MTA and the city, through the NYC DOT, have to work together to figure out a way to make the service more accountable and responsive. Unrelenting oversight will help keep pressure on Access-A-Ride, and I will help provide that oversight, if elected.
 

Do you favor the construction of the Second Avenue Subway? If so, is this a priority?

Our mass transit system needs to provide adequate, accessible coverage throughout the city. Advocating for an accessible, full-length Second Avenue Subway line will be a priority if I get elected.
 

The Local Civil Rights Restoration Act (Intro 22) seeks to protect the vigor and independence of the City’s Human Rights Law against the attacks of an increasingly conservative State and Federal Judiciary. Although there are 38 Council sponsors, 32 civil rights and allied organizations, in favor of this legislation, and three hearings have been held, Mayor Bloomberg continues to oppose the most central aspect of the bill, the need for City Human Rights Law not to be restricted as federal and state civil rights law gets cut back. Would you work to assure its passage? Please describe your strategy.

As Council Member Gale Brewer’s Chief of Staff I worked to draft and introduce this bill. The Local Civil Rights Restoration Act is a very important step to ensure that New York City offers civil rights protections that are distinct from those offered by the federal and state governments and in preserving the role of "catalyst" cases in ensuring that our rights are protected. I strongly support this bill and hope to work hard for its passage, lobbying the Council to put the bill to a vote and pass it, while lobbying the mayoralty to drop its opposition and sign it into law.
 

Under the Bloomberg Administration, the Corporation Council intervened on the side of the city of Sacramento when it sought to challenge the Americans with Disabilities Act regarding the requirement to maintain accessible sidewalks. Do you pledge to use your office to affirm or strengthen, rather than weaken, civil rights protections for persons with disabilities?

I pledge to use my office to strengthen civil rights protections and strengthen the ability of individuals to call upon those protections.
 

Do you support making sign language interpreters available for Community Board meetings? If so, how would you fund this?

Yes.
 

Will you appoint disabled persons to local Community Boards?

Yes.
 

How many have you/ or will you appoint to Community Board?

One of the roles of my Disabled Advisory Committee will be to guide me through the selection of my Community Board appointees. I will strongly consider applications from all disabled applicants.
 

Will you support the "requirement" and implement, a Disabled Committee on every Community Board?

Yes.
 

Please Specify: Have you used (or will you use) your discretionary funds to support organizations serving persons with disabilities or service organizations seeking to make their programs accessible to persons with disabilities? If so, what percentage of your discretionary funds went to such organizations?

While I was with Council Member Brewer, we supported the completion of an accessible playground at P.S. 199. We also allocated funds to the Jewish Guild for the Blind, to the League of the Hard of Hearing, and to Adaptive Design, among others.
 

Under Mayor Bloomberg, the City settled with the United Spinal Association and agreed to install curb cuts -- Pedestrian ramps, on all corners which presently don’t have one. However, no provision has been made to repair or replace those current ones which are unsafe. How would you ensure that curb cuts—pedestrian ramps—are provided on or repaired on streets that need them? What would you establish as a timetable?

The City needs to make a stronger effort to make and maintain fully accessible sidewalks. Getting all curb cuts needed requires substantial capital, and I will work through the budget process to advocate for curb cuts as a priority. As well, I will rigorously oversee the DOT and the repair process, to make sure that curb cuts are repaired as quickly as possible.
 

What steps do you think NYC should take to encourage business owners to make their establishments more accessible?

There is a lot that the City can do to encourage business owners to make their establishments more accessible. First, we should expedite the permit process for renovations to make a business more accessible. Also, we should make efforts to educate owners about the need for no-step entrances and accessible bathrooms and other provisions, and to the business benefit of being able to serve all customers.
 

Do you believe that landmark buildings can be made accessible without losing their historical integrity?

Generally, yes.
 

What is your position on efforts to elevate the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities (MOPD) to a commissioner level agency or Commission on Disabilities to enable coordination of efforts of agencies? (A one stop shop for information and assistance.) How would you ensure that city departments/agencies coordinate through MOPD?

The office’s lack of a Commissioner downplays what should be important issues for the city. We need to give the office and its issues the attention they deserve, and elevating it to a commissioner-level agency would help in that effort.
 

What implementation/authority should MOPD have, and/or how would you ensure that MOPD?

The MOPD should have the authority to oversee implementation of programs and services, perhaps in a manner similar to the way that the DOITT commissioner has authority over technology issues in a variety of contexts.
 

Since presumably "this" office is a Mayoral Office, how would you enforce and do oversight regarding the work of the office and be certain of the implementation and its efforts?

Whenever possible, I would use the Council’s oversight powers to promote a coordinated approach to the efforts of all agencies to promote the rights and expand access for people with disabilities. I would inquire frequently what agencies are doing individually in this regard and how they are coordinating with each other and with the MOPD or its commissioner-level successor. I would also encourage the relevant committees of the Council to hold joint hearings to get at the many issues of interest to the disabled community that cut across agencies.