After decades of mostly ignoring federal law requiring curbs and sidewalks to meet the needs of disabled pedestrians, the City has entered into yet another consent decree with the federal government. It is an outgrowth of a class action legal confrontation with a Maryland disability rights coalition.
But in their eagerness to get started on spending the $44 million the mayor signed off on, it appears that city and federal government officials have ignored historic district standards that apply to old neighborhoods like Bolton Hill. Early in March, city contractors pulled up to the northwest intersection of Lafayette Avenue and Bolton Street, in front of Memorial Episcopal Church, and ripped up the red bricks which are the standard sidewalks for many parts of Bolton Hill.
“We’re improving ADA curb ramps in this area,” read a postcard-sized notice distributed to doorways by the City Department of Transportation’s engineering and construction division for alleys and footways. “Your patience and cooperation while these repairs are being made are appreciated.”
Susan Van Buren, who chairs BHCA’s Architectural Review Committee and is the liaison to the City’s Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation (CHAP), happened on the construction project as a dump truck was hauling away the bricks and another truck was en route to pour concrete to replace the bricks.
“It appears that the federal government’s design standards for enforcing the partial consent decree do not take into consideration the requirements of historic districts like ours,” she said. It appeared that the contractors had no plan to restore the brick sidewalk or install an appropriate aggregate substitute to conform to long-standing CHAP requirements, she added.
Van Buren and a committee colleague, Greg Baranoski, placed calls to CHAP officials and to DOT staff, as well as to city Council Member Zac Blanchard, insisting on a solution that will make the curb ramps compatible with CHAP standards. The people at DOT said they were not in charge but would meet with federal officials to find a solution, Van Buren reported. Meanwhile, the fate of the bricks is unknown.
The legal settlement requires Baltimore to pay $44 million for upgrades over the next four years, including $8 million in the current budget year and $12 million for each of the three years after. In defending against the class action suit, city lawyers asserted that the true cost of bringing the city in full compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) would be $647 million. The City acknowledged that 98% of public curb ramps and median treatments, 66% of sidewalk miles, 80% of driveway aprons, 16% of crosswalks and 33% of pedestrian signals did not comply with ADA standard.
No one seemed to know how the decision to immediately start repairs in Bolton Hill came about, nor whether or when other ADA-compliant sidewalk and curb ramps are scheduled. The Americans with Disabilities Act will celebrate the 35th anniversary of its passage in Congress in July.
An attorney for Disability Rights Maryland, the group that in 2021 filed the class-action complaint against the City, told the Baltimore Banner, “This partial consent decree puts in place the programs to ensure that Baltimore finally lives up to the promises of the Americans with Disabilities Act, so that people with mobility disabilities can navigate around the City of Baltimore just as safely and to the same extent as everyone else.”
–Bill Hamilton
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