Independence

It's the 4th of July. The newspapers, radio and TV are heralding the release of the hostages and the joys of freedom. The NY Times headlines: "Ex-hostage Mark 4th Finding a 'Whole New Meaning", quoting one of the 39 held captive, Mr. Peel: "INDEPENDENCE Day has a whole new meaning."

Here in Chicago, by contrast, a large group of disabled people are confronted with a Whole 'Old' Meaning of in 'Dependence'. Thousands watch the news casts but can't get to the fireworks, celebrations of families or friends, can get away from their rooms or nursing homes to enjoy the lakefront or parks because they have no access to public transportation.

What makes this Independence Day more depressing for them is that a week ago the Chicago Transit Authority, through a hastily arranged Board of Directori meeting, with the minimum one-sided quorum present, voted against the proposals of groups of disabled persons for mainstream accessible transportation, with improved door-to-door service for those in need of such. Public notice of this decision-making meeting to vote on the civil and human rights of the disabled citizens of the city was only given 2 days before it was to take place....This raze a whole year of arduous pleading by groups of disabled people who had hope that 1985 would mark their Independence.

The Chicago Sun Times, June 27, '85: CTA Handicapped Plan Ok'd Disabled Groups Call it a 'Joke'...Transit service for the handicapped will be doubled beginning in September under a plan unanimously approved by th CTA board yesterday, but organizations for the disabled promptly labeled th program 'a joke'. The plan calls for the CTA to award contracts to private bu companies for the first time....because of cheaper labor....One disabled woman Verlia Lutcher, challenged Board Chairman Michael Cardilli to explain how th CTA will ensure quality control with the new program. Cardilli declared th meeting adjourned and walked out of the room." The Chicago Tribune, carrying the same story quotes Verlia more explicitly: "'You don't listen to anybody. Yo only listen to your people who are prejudiced against the disabled...You are bunch of rat-finks, a bunch of fat rat-finks."'

The Board Members have sanctimoniously proclaimed over and over again that they must abide by "fiscal restraints". Adding insult to injury, five days later th Sun Times reported: "CTA Board Chairman Michael Cardilli plans to replace his official 1982 Buick Sedan with a $25,000 (17 1/2 foot) Chrysler limousine....CardiIli also has given his longtime ally, Larry Pianto, a new job and a $5,000 raise. Pianto, currently one of the CTA's $68,053 deputy executive directors, has bee appointed to the newly created job of chief administrative officer."

Nothing new in this. The Board Members all have lucrative professions. Salaried for their part-time work on the Board are $20,000, plus multiple perqs. All are appointed: 4 by the Democratic mayor and 3 by the Republican governor. During all of the testimony given by the disabled people, only a bare quorum was present. Articles appeared in the papers. A Sun Times story: "The CTA spent more than $8,000 this year to lease a car complete with (an extra) $3,100 mobile telephone for the vice chairman of its board, Howard C. Medley. Medley, who say he owns four cars of his own, defended the lease. saving he uses the car to inspect CTA facilities 'day and night'. He said the car phone was installed in case I need to call someone.'..." Another: "Board Pals Raking in CTA Cash -The CTA is taking Chicagoans for a ride. While the transit agency complains about financial problems and asks union members to accept pay cuts, a three-month Sun Times study reveals that the CTA: *Awards lucrative contracts to political pals, including the wife of CTA board member Michael I. Brady and buddies of Mayor Washington, *Provides pay hikes for well-connected administrative employees, and *Wages its own version of Council Wars in a continuing battle over power and jobs....Each side accuses the other of circumventing CTA hiring and contract procedures to dole out jobs and direct business to cronies.....CTA personnel records show that three times as many new employees are hired from Cardilli's home ward as are hired from any other ward."

The Chicago Tribune editorialized on Independence Eve: "The agency needs a solid transit professional to replace Bernard Ford, who resigned June 30, in part because of frustration over the politicization of the CTA...What the CTA does not need at this point is a political hack at the helm. It has suffered enough at the hands of the politicians over the last decade to ensure that riders in the near future will be plentifully endowed with dirty, hot buses prone to frequent breakdowns. Patronage, not ridership, has seemed to be the primary preoccupation of the men at the top."

From the experience of our group, American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit (ADAPT), appearing before the Board this past year, this is so blatantly obvious and true.

Meetings with the Board came about the hard way. After 10 years of trying to work with the CTA staff, 40 people in wheelchairs raucously disrupted a Board meeting last summer after repeatedly being refused an audience with Board members to state their concerns over the lack of adequate and equal transportation in spite of millions of federal dollars given to the CTA over many years. It took four hours of pleading, sign-waving, chanting, shouting and demanding - the Board literally running from the room at one point - before the Board agreed to a series of specially called meetings to hear the concerns of the disabled community.

Members of organizations of disabled persons gave expert and documented testimony at four major Board meetings and numerous meetings with the CTA staff on the Federal regulations concerning equal access, the amounts of Federal Funds granted to the CTA for the same, what has been done in other cities, how the improvements could be financed, etc.

The struggle for the disabled people to get to these meetings, in contrast with the relative ease of the CTA participants, is an excellent portrayal of the "plight" of disabled persons and the whole transportation issue. The disabled people had to start out very early on the meeting days, begging rides from relatives or friends, paying for a taxi -provided they could get one, or riding a circuitous route on the CTA's own service if they were lucky enough to procure a seat. They needed to allocate the entire meeting day for this because of the amount of time and extra energy needed. Some who gave expert testimony wheeled themselves many miles in all kinds of weather because the inadequate CTA service either could not or would not provide them transportation to the meetings. The Board members arrived at their leisure in company cars and parked in reserved spaces, while parking for disabled persons was revoked just before these meetings began.

That is the context of this struggle for Independence. Here now, are quotes from the records of the meetings:

Mike Ervin (disabled):
"I assume that the members of the Board would not support the policies of segregation practiced in the South 30,40 yrs ago, i.e., separate bathrooms, water fountains, public facilities, etc. I assume that all Board members would deplore such a position."

Mr. Hillman (Board) intervenes:
"....it would always have been possible to have a fully integrated society, at least with respect to all public facilities in the South without additional cost....To get to the nub of the problem we are discussing, there are substantial costs involved in what you are proposing."

Mr. Gallagher (Board):
"...I would agree with Mr. Hillman at this point."

Mr. Ervin:
"The reason why...we put this question up front is that we think that is the most important issue...We see it as a civil rights issue... what you provide for one, you should provide for all. That is a simple reality when you are providing public systems....It seems to me that what you are saying again and again, out of whatever spirit, is that money comes before rights. And whether you have your rights or not is based on how much money you have.

This is the purpose of our group. We simply want disabled people to have full access to everything, and not just transportation, but to the entire quality of life. The reason we choose transportation is because of a positive domino effect.... The reason why we see transportation as the first domino is simply that you cannot do the things you want to do unless you can get to them. You would not be at this meeting if you had no way of getting here. You would not be able to serve as Board members."

Mr. Gallagher:
"Isn't the position of ADAPT that money and cost is not a relevant factor with respect to full accessibility to transportation?"

Mr. Ervin:
"If you look at total and full accessibility to opportunities, including transportation as a civil right, then money cannot be used as a reason to discriminate....You don't say, 'well, we can't do it even though it's your right because you can't afford to buy that right'...Once you make a policy that you are going to do it, then we can talk money and find the cheapest and most efficient way to do it....When you talk about the cost of accessibility, the thing you forget is the cost of inaccessibility.

There are 10,000 non-elderly disabled people (and that's in 1979)...in nursing homes in Cook County. Who pays for those nursing home bills? The taxpayers! And those are usually quite exorbitant. Who pays for the Medicars - the private transportation carriers that charge $15 to pick you up and a dollar a mile to transport from nursing homes to their doctors or for whatever reason? - The taxpayers! "I want to read to you from a monograph issued by the Office of Civil Rights...called 'Accommodating the Spectrum of Individual Abilities,' Sept. '83: 'In speaking about transportation specifically, beyond interfering with handicapped peoples' ability to engage in social, recreational, housing and other opportunities available to the non-handicapped, transportation barriers have a serious effect on employment opportunities. One commentator has estimated that 13% of unemployment among handicapped people is due to travel barriers, and that 200,000 handicapped people would enter the work force if barriers were eliminated, adding as much as $1 billion in annual earnings to the economy. The Department of Transportation has estimated that approximately $800 million in net benefits to society would result in the elimination of transportation barriers."

Michael Grice (disabled):
"I have been a quadriplegic since five years ago. I am currently residing at Lakeview Nursing Home. I am working with several nursing home residents as a transportation facilitator, in teaching them how to learn to use your system. I don't think that the CTA really cares about the struggle that the nursing home residents go through. I think that it should be recognized by the CTA Board that nursing home residents are people. We have grievances as well as able-bodied; we should not be singled out because you say that you don't have the adequate number of services to provide us transportation to school, social outings, et cetera. I just don't think you are being fair."

Flavian Dougherty (Clergy):
"I want to emphasize the moral issue involved in this. Basically, this is an issue of justice. It is not something of charity or benevolence. These people are in the mainstream of all moral and civil rights seekers who have had to resort to non-violent techniques because of the real injustices perpetrated against them."

"The real problem is not the problems these people cause. The problem is institutional injustice....Institutions with well-fed and well-educated and well-placed people running them can be blind to the suffering they inadvertently inflict on powerless people....A one-on-one decision sometimes doesn't harm many people, but decisions that are made by Boards such as this and the institutions they represent...lead to terrible social conditions..."

In the aftermath of the Board's decision to deny equal transportation to disabled Chicagoans, Judy Benson, quoting from statistics provided by the CTA, gives an analysis of the same: "There are currently 8,529 persons certified to ride on the CTA Special Services paratransit system. The CTA has been able to provide approximately 200 one-way trips per day. This decision to contract the service to private providers will increase the service capability two-fold. That means 400 one-way trips per day. In real terms, that will mean that 200 people will be able to ride each day. 100 of those persons ride as subscribers, or those who have a guaranteed ride to work or school each weekday. There will be 100 people out of the 8,500 registered who can ride each day for other reasons. The ability to ride hinges on the luck you have getting through on the telephone the day before you wish to ride. The telephone line opens at 8:00 A.M. and the rides are taken up by 8:20 A.M. for the following day. According to 1980 Census figures, there are 473,500 disabled persons in the city of Chicago. Half of these, or 236,750 are in some way mobility-limited or transportation handicapped. The City of Chicago's own survey of severely mobility-limited persons states that in 1977 there were 31,000 people who could not use the CTA's inaccessible mainline service."

INDEPENDENCE?....Hardly.
 

Judy Benson, who is disabled, authored this Notebook. She has been a leading activist for the rights of disabled citizens for many years in Chicago and other parts of the country. She is the recipient of several awards for her work.