{"id":302887,"date":"2025-10-14T15:00:22","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T15:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/302887\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T15:00:22","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T15:00:22","slug":"philadelphia-accessibility-wheelchair-users-struggle-navigating-grays-ferry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/302887\/","title":{"rendered":"Philadelphia accessibility: Wheelchair users struggle navigating Grays Ferry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tess Galen said she \u201ccan\u2019t imagine what it\u2019s like for wheelchair users\u201d who travel on city sidewalks. The Brewerytown resident has struggled to push her child in his stroller, often crossing the street to avoid obstacles like trash, cones and illegally parked cars.\n<\/p>\n

Galen added that sometimes it\u2019s not even an obstacle in her way that\u2019s the problem \u2014 it\u2019s the sidewalk itself.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are some places I walk where the sidewalk in front of someone\u2019s home is completely torn up or missing,\u201d Galen said. \u201cWho\u2019s responsible for that?\u201d\n<\/p>\n

When Philadelphia settled an Americans with Disabilities Act lawsuit<\/a> in 2022, the city promised to build 10,000 curb ramps over the next 15 years. However, the city did not agree to do anything about the deteriorating state of the walkways. In fact, according to its definitions, Philly is not responsible for any sidewalk maintenance. Sidewalks in the city are private property and owners are held responsible \u201cto maintain them in safe and sanitary conditions,\u201d according to the city\u2019s website<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\u201cThe city seems to be taking a position that not many other municipalities are,\u201d said Rocco J. Iacullo, staff attorney at Disability Rights Pennsylvania. \u201cEssentially, it\u2019s all private responsibility for the sidewalks.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

By claiming that all sidewalks are private property, passing on the obligation of sidewalk and curb maintenance to building owners, Philly is trying to claim it\u2019s \u201cnever their responsibility\u201d to fix these walkways, even if they\u2019re not ADA-compliant, Iacullo said.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThe city is trying to have their cake and eat it too,\u201d Iacullo said.\n<\/p>\n

The city of Denver had a similar situation with property owners being responsible for sidewalk maintenance. That is, until this year. In January, the onus of walkway repair was given to the city. In a new program, Denver will now repair and be liable for broken sidewalks<\/a>, collecting a yearly $150 fee to fix them.\n<\/p>\n

Philadelphia could follow Denver\u2019s example and publicly fund sidewalk repair. Advocacy groups like Clean Air Council and Feet First Philly have campaigned for this kind of funding<\/a>, but the city has yet to make any moves to do so.
\n\"ChunkA chunk of the sidewalk is missing from the sidewalk on Oakford Street in Grays Ferry. (Ben Bennett\/WHYY)\n<\/p>\n

Preparing for the U.S. semiquincentennial<\/p>\n

With the 2026 World Cup and a host of other events set to bring millions of people to Philadelphia, disability rights advocates have demanded increased accessibility<\/a>. The city is not only looking to make improvements to infrastructure around Lincoln Financial Field, but in neighborhoods, as well, according to Department of Streets Commissioner Kristin Del Rossi.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully it leaks over here,\u201d Keiper said when discussing the upgrades the 2026 happenings could bring. He said Philly\u2019s neighborhoods seem to be an afterthought when it comes to accessibility issues.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople in South Philly make it like a joke a lot of times, it\u2019s just a South Philly thing,\u201d Keiper said. \u201cIf they had to deal with it, they would lose their mind.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tess Galen said she \u201ccan\u2019t imagine what it\u2019s like for wheelchair users\u201d who travel on city sidewalks. The…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":302888,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,35200,1448,2830,1311,12771,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-302887","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-grays-ferry","10":"tag-pa","11":"tag-pennsylvania","12":"tag-philadelphia","13":"tag-planphilly","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-united-states-of-america","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115373122660458628","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}