504 Democratic Club: Questionnaires (Candidate for City Council Gerald Esposito's 2009 response)

Candidate Name: Gerald Esposito

Council District: 34

Contact Person: Morgan Pehme

If there is a Campaign office, is it wheelchair accessible? There is no campaign office yet.

Campaign Address: 152 Conselyea Street, Brooklyn, NY 11211
Phone: 718-928-4198
Fax:
Address:
Email: electesposito @ gmail.com
Website: gerryesposito.com

Endorsements: (Political, Community & Labor) pending

Action Shows Commitment!
1. 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?
  
  Throughout my tenure as District Manager of Brooklyn Community Board #1, I have consistently requested information on various projects to ascertain what needs they were addressing, such as making apartments wheelchair accessible and accessible to people with other disabilities. I will continue to see that these needs are being addressed in design and construction, and in other areas as well. On an individual level, I got the Department of Transportation to install a pedestrian ramp on Graham Avenue in Williamsburg after the City had neglected to make one following a new sidewalk construction.
2. Will you commit to only attend / sponsor events that are accessible to people with disabilities (PWDs including providing written materials in alternate formats, providing assistive listening systems, and sign language interpreters as well as ensuring that locations are physically accessible)?
  
  As a City Councilmember, there will likely be some events that I will have to attend in order to properly represent my constituents that unfortunately will not be accessible to people with disabilities. I cannot commit to boycotting an event that will or can help my community. What I will commit to, however, is making sure that any event I host or sponsor will be as accessible as possible to people with disabilities.
General Questions
1. What personal and professional experience have you had with people with disabilities in your personal life and in the workplace?
  
  Over my thirty years of working in Greenpoint and Williamsburg, I have gotten to know many people of varying disabilities, from children with special needs to adults who have become wheelchair dependent. What I have gained from these experiences is that listening is the key to understanding what a group of people wants, rather than assuming what their needs may be.
2. What type of jobs would you be willing to hire and to provide reasonable accommodation (e.g. flex or part time) for staff members with disabilities?
  
  I would unquestionably be willing to hire people with disabilities for any position on my staff.
3. How will you work closely with the disability community to assure passage of vitally needed legislation through the City Council? What will be your strategy?
  
  I will be both an eager listener to the concerns of the disability community and an active force in reaching out to people with disabilities to make sure I fight for them. In the Council, I will take action wherever possible to introduce or co-sponsor legislation that will protect and assure equal rights for people with disabilities. I will also lobby my colleagues in the Council to support these resolutions.
Housing
1. What is your position on the development of supported apartments/homes and retirement homes for the persons with mental and/or physical disabilities in your district?
  
  Several developments such as these (senior housing, developmentally disabled housing) have been established within the confines of our community board. I have supported these developments, so that they could meet the many needs of the residents in the district. It is important that these developments fit into the neighborhood and are woven into the existing fabric, so that they could be embraced and, more importantly, utilized by the community.
2. What is your position on making DRIE (Disabled Rent Increase Exemption) and SCRIE (Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption) programs income eligibility comparable? (At present a individual senior or household income eligibility is $28,000. While the income for a younger disabled individual is capped at $19,284 and $27,780 for a household?)
  
  I think the discrepancy between SCRIE and DRIE is unfair and I would absolutely support making their income eligibility requirements equitable.
3. Visitability sets guidelines to ensure newly constructed multi-family dwellings have basic accessible/adaptable features to permit people with disabilities can visit, and for residents to "age in place," without having to move out when age and/or disability set in. Do you support incorporating the concept of "visitability" in the Building Code?
  
  I think "visitability" is a positive step forward and that the Building Code should be revised to incorporate this concept.
Transportation
1. Will you support an expansion of affordable wheelchair accessible transportation in NYC, including taxis, livery service, express buses, and shuttles, more accessible subway stations, etc.?
  
  Absolutely. People shouldn't be punished for being poor, any more than they should be punished for having a disability. The City needs to acknowledge the fact that having a disability in our society often takes an unfair economic toll on a person, as evidenced by the shamefully higher level of unemployment and lower level of education attainment among people in wheelchairs. The City also needs to acknowledge the fact that at our current level of wheelchair accessibility, it is still very difficult and very expensive for people with disabilities to get around. Right now, the subway is practically useless for people with disabilities outside of Manhattan. We need to make our transportation system fair and a significant part of doing that is setting fair prices for people with disabilities.
2. Efforts to secure a 100% accessible fleet of medallion taxis have been hampered by opposition from Mayor Bloomberg and the taxi industry. The current emphasis is on creating a 100% "green" fleet. What would you do to assure that taxis and community car service vehicles are both "green" and universally designed for wheelchair access?
  
  I'm 100% for a green fleet, but a green fleet and an accessible one need not be mutually exclusive. It is disgraceful that there are barely a few hundred wheelchair accessible cabs in a fleet of 13,000 taxis. Right now, one of the arguments against a 100% accessible fleet is that the kind of hybrids the City has selected for the fleet are not currently manufactured to be accessible. I think this reasoning is backwards. If the City and our tremendous buying power demanded 100% accessible hybrids, some car manufacturer would step up and build those cars to get our business at a price we were willing to pay. With the current administration I'm not sure if there's a way to push through a 100% accessible fleet, but at the very least the Council and the Mayor need to commit to phasing in far more accessible taxis as soon as possible.
3. Access-A-Ride (AAR) users experience unnecessarily long trips, causing workers to be late for work, have their pay docked and possibly losing their jobs. AAR leaves consumers stranded, lies that a vehicle is coming and penalized riders as a "no-show" when the vehicle never arrived. Riders who complain report they are subject to retaliation. What would you do to improve the quality of AAR? Would you support the issuance of a "smart card" so that Access-A-Ride users can use accessible cabs/livery service at a reduced cost and receive better service?
  
  64% of Access-A-Ride users have a household income that is less than 250% of federal poverty. The fact that Access-A-Ride service is woefully inadequate insults the 100,000 Access-A-Ride users who are struggling to make a living and take care of their needs. Access-A-Ride drivers must be subjected to higher hiring standards and should have to complete more rigorous training in rider care and consideration before they are allowed on the job. At minimum, Access-A-Ride drivers should be of the same quality as bus drivers. As for the "smart card," I like the idea. It is absolutely unacceptable that Access-A-Ride doesn't even accept Metrocard right now.
Civil Rights

Do you pledge to use your office to affirm or strengthen, rather than weaken, civil rights protections for persons with disabilities?

Yes.
Community Board
1. Do you support requiring all Community Board meeting and function be accessible, including requiring sign language interpreters and large print format material?
  
  At Brooklyn Community Board #1, where I am district manager, we hold our general meeting at a senior citizen center that is accessible.
2. How many people with disabilities have/will you appoint to your local Community Board(s)?
  
  All members of the community board are appointed directly by the Brooklyn Borough President.
3. Will you support the "requirement" and implement, a Disabled Committee on every Community Board?
  
  Community Board #1 has had a Disabled Committee in place for several years now. The Committee plays an important part in helping to make our community better.
Discretionary Funds

Will you use your discretionary funds to support organizations serving people with disabilities or service organizations seeking to make their programs accessible to people with disabilities?

Yes.
Accessibility
1. Under Mayor Bloomberg, the City settled with the United Spinal Association and agreed to install pedestrian ramps, on all corners which presently don't have one. However, no provision was made to repair and/or replace existing ones which are unsafe. How would you ensure that pedestrian ramps are provided or repaired? What would you establish as a timetable?
  
  This is an issue that I have advocated for several years now on the Community Board. It is ridiculous to fund implementation of a design and not provide adequate funding for maintenance. I believe that the Department of Transportation needs to be held accountable for a fully operating program that includes a timetable, which will move quickly to reach these goals for implementation and repair.
2. What steps do you think NYC should take to encourage business owners to make their establishments more accessible?
  
  The City needs to reach out to business owners, educate them as to how they can make their businesses accessible, and then offer incentives to business owners to take these steps.
3. How would you ensure that emergency evacuation for PWDs provisions are put in place to improve survival rates of PWDs in the event of fire, attack, blackout, or other emergency situation?
  
  The Office of Emergency Management must ensure that all response protocol designs address this area for various events. I would work with them to see that these are in place so that all response agencies have a working plan in an event of an emergency.
Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities (MOPD)
1. Mayor Bloomberg elevated the Director of the (MOPD) to a Commissioner without any increase in budget or responsibilities. How would you ensure that city departments/agencies coordinate through MOPD?
  
  I would work on the design for coordination and consulting with the agency and make it part of the City's Charter.
2. How do you believe the City Council should enforce and do oversight regarding the work of the office and be certain of the implementation and its efforts?
  
  The City Council should conduct an in-depth study to critically assess the agency's function and develop an evaluation of what has been done and what direction to take for the future.

Date: May 29, 2009

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