This past March, I wrote the letter below in an effort to get the handicapped transportation in my town (otherwise known as paratransit) to run to accommodate 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. standard business hours and a fifteen-mile radius of travel.
March 10, 2011
Michael LaPenna
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Pine Bush, NY 12566
Town of Crawford Board
121 Rt 302
Pine Bush, NY 12566
March 10, 2011
Michael LaPenna
-------------------
Pine Bush, NY 12566
Town of Crawford Board
121 Rt 302
Pine Bush, NY 12566
Distinguished Board Members:
My name is Michael LaPenna. I am a thirty-year-old resident of Pine Bush, New York. I was born with Cerebral Palsy and was raised in what one might consider a typical family of five, put through K-12 education in the Pine Bush School District, and began my college career at Orange County Community College. I pursued Communications, and completed an Associate’s degree in Applied Sciences in May of 2002 and like most young men in their twenties, viewed the world wide-eyed and hopeful and with that youthful vigor I took to my best skills: DJing parties for friends and associates, beginning a screenplay which would become a novel, and exploring freelance writing as a career for a couple of years until enrolling in the State University of New York a New Paltz in 2005 where I majored in Media Management – Communications. There I hosted a college radio show, joined a poetry team and met my future wife among a multitude of other priceless experiences, memories and friendships that I will hold dearly in heart for the rest of my life.
Since receiving my B.A. in May of 2007 after discovering that sales, marketing and the like just weren’t in my heart, I fervently pursued freelance writing—and while I have loved it, the market just has not paid very well. So like any enterprising person, I have soldiered on in the hope of finding work where I can get it. I even went so far as to enlist the services of a job coach this past summer at Independent Living Inc, in Newburgh, New York. I did so not because I thought I needed training in how to write a resume, how to speak, how dress and present myself at an interview, but because my disability limited my ability to work. This is a fact which my optimism continues to move beyond in a mental sense. However, reality is what is it is: I cannot do manual labor, build houses, dig ditches, wait tables in a restaurant, move furniture, stock high shelves and so forth. But moreover and most frustrating is the fact that my disability (as of today’s technological availabilities), completely prohibits me from being able to drive a car. For many years, I thought I would be able to get some type of hand controls to assist me in driving similar to those used by other wheelchair users like me—but as providence would have it, I would not be able to drive. The reality of this eventually led me to seek other means, and so I did. My search led my everywhere in the valley and I eventually found that there were ambulette services in my area that would cover the cost of my travels so long as I received proper approval from the State Medicaid office. I was thankful and I counted on this fact to assure and ensure my successful travel to and from any job that I would obtain in the future. And so filled with hope, this past summer I applied to jobs as many jobs as I could.
I spent a vast majority of my time combing the Internet, making lists of ideal jobs, writing cold letters and making phone calls to all jobs within range and consulting with my job coach on how to perfect my approaches on all levels. Within only a week, I had made several new contacts and was feeling great! I set up several interviews and finally I found and received a paying, part-time job with local Boys and Girls Club. I was excited! The job wouldn’t be high paying, but it was literally five minutes from my house! All that was left to do was to book my hours with the ambulette service. I called to book my hours and things were underway until I was asked where I would be going. I gave the address. That seemed fine. When I was asked my reason for going to the address I said, “It’s for a job at the Boys and Girls Club.” “Oh,” the woman on the phone replied with an apparent tinge of dread in her voice. She sympathized and told me if I took Wallkill Masters Coach to a job five minutes from my house, I would have to pay $75.00 per day plus mileage. I explained that I had accepted the job on the premise that I would have transportation. I was then told to call another office. That office told me the same thing. I was told this time in no uncertain terms that ambulette service only covers medical visits, medical equipment shipping and that the Medicaid system does not pay for work-related transportation.
I then spent the next three and a half hours on the phone with local transportation in valley only to find that although there are five disabled transport services in my area, (four of which are approximately within a fifteen-mile radius) but only the Town of Montgomery-Crawford Dial-A-Bus would be able to transport me. Not only is it currently the only service available, but the bus stops, running at 4.00 p.m., so therefore, I would never be able to be picked up from a nine to five, standard, eight-hour work day. Why paratransit is not already mandated by law to run a corporate business schedule is beyond all logic to me.
This nation though it may not be perfect, was founded on the indelible principles set forth by Thomas Jefferson and our forefathers 235 years ago in our Declaration of Independence, “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” It is in this vein that the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1991 was put into law: to say that if we are all born into this world as equal, if we believe this to be a universal truth beyond all race, religion, creed, class or sex, we must include those persons who have through no intention of their own, been born with a hardship to be overcome. In this vital sense, does the pursuit of our happiness not logically and without any doubt whatsoever include the means to earn a living wage? Does it not include the absolute right to access to travel during a standard business day? I, like you, have worked to overcome obstacles to have access to education, to go to college, to live life as normally as possible. I cite the following excerpt from the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 to point out a current flaw in the current “fixed route” rule as it pertains to reasonable access for persons with disabilities:
TITLE II, SUBTITLE B, SECTION 223. PARATRANSIT AS A COMPLEMENT TO FIXED ROUTE SERVICE. 42 USC 12143.
(a) General Rule. It shall be considered discrimination for purposes of section 202 of this Act and section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (29 U.S.C. 794) for a public entity which operates a fixed route system (other than a system which provides solely commuter bus service) to fail to provide with respect to the operations of its fixed route system, in accordance with this section, paratransit and other special transportation services to individuals with disabilities, including individuals who use wheelchairs, that are sufficient to provide to such individuals a level of service (1) which is comparable to the level of designated public transportation services provided to individuals without disabilities using such system; or (2) in the case of response time, which is comparable, to the extent practicable, to the level of designated public transportation services provided to individuals without disabilities using such system.
Such a “fixed route” rule allows passengers’ work hours to be at the mercy of any fixed route chosen by the provider—and bear in mind it being so with far fewer options then say, the New York City subway system with multiple trains and routes.
In my own case, the Town of Montgomery-Crawford Dial-A-Bus service stops running at 4.00 p.m. when in reality, the average worker would likely need it to run until between 6:00 and 7:30 p.m. depending on how far the distance required to travel may be. So in closing, I ask and propose to all relevant parties and town officials that disabled transport services and paratransit in the Town of Montgomery-Crawford be extended to run to accommodate 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. standard business hours within a fifteen-mile
radius to allow fair and equal access to a living wage. I ask this knowing that the rights to both transportation and earning a living are essential to any productive citizenry.
In humble gratitude,
Michael LaPenna
This is the reply I received one and a half weeks later...
Dear Mr. LaPenna:
I received your letter regarding transportation after the normal hour of the Town of Montgomery/Crawford Dial-A-Bus. I applaud your initiative and hope a solution can be found to your problem. Unfortunately this is a fixed bus schedule transportation service. If we changed the hours to service you others would surely ask for nighttime hours. (Me: No, REALLY? Because that wasn't the entire point of my letter.) :(
I encourage you to write your public officials if you, like I, feel there should be legislation to make sure these kinds of situations never happen again.
... And Life must roll on! Wish me luck!
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