[An older man walks with two crutches, among moving cars, in the middle of Norfolk Street, nearing the corner of Bishop Allen Drive. He appears to be wearing leg braces as well.]

Here we see how a senior with a significant disability has to vie with trucks on Norfolk Street, in order to get to Central Square! Why, you wonder. Isn't he endangered in the street? Wouldn't he be safer on the sidewalk?

Even if the bricks did snag his walker once in a while, and cause him to fall, wouldn't someone come to his aid? Doesn't the City provide 911 cell phones? He could call for help? Assuming, of course, he wasn't knocked out when he fell.

Perhaps we believe he can see the cracks, the broken spaces in the bricks, and avoid them? Can he see them? Can people who have vision problems see them? Can the blind see them? Can we see them?

Using bricks on sidewalks is not a neighborly thing to do. It handicaps our most vulnerable residents, not to mention visitors to our "beautiful" city. Visitors to our city want to see history, not trip over it!

On the city manager's agenda in mid-November was the report back on the City's policy on using bricks on sidewalks. No surprise to me, this policy, and the attached program, are non compliant with the Federal Civil Rights Act of 1990, The Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), and the regulations of the Architectural Access Board (AAA).

In fact, here is one issue, the use of bricks on sidewalks, on which the Cambridge Disabilities Commission has actually taken a position. But the city manager’s report does not even mention the concerns of the Disabilities Commission. It was as though Michael Muehe, and the Commission for Persons with Disabilities does not even exist! So, at the Commission's November 10 meeting, I asked that they send the city council a copy of the letter they had unanimously voted and sent in response to the super-expensive Harvard Square sidewalk rehab project.

One glaring example of ignorance is the City's classification of "vertical displacement." In plain English, this means how high a brick sticks up from the flat surface of a sidewalk.

The City has three categories. A brick with "vertical displacement" of under 3/4 of an inch is put on a watch list and gets reinspected in a year. That means it’s OK for the brick to stick up that high. Yet the ADA and AAA both require that a vertical displacement of only 1/4 of an inch must be beveled.

When access is continually denied due to disrepair, it is a violation of the civil rights of those who need access to all the benefits, programs and services of their community. That is one reason the MBTA has come to a settlement on the suit filed against them, because of chronic disrepair of the elevators.

Here in Cambridge, our sidewalks are in chronic disrepair, due to a non compliant "Sidewalk Inspection and Minor Repair Program."

There are many non compliant elements in the City's policies on using bricks on sidewalks. Failing to include persons with disabilities in this policy making effort, and non compliant assessment of vertical displacement are two of them.