The City of Atlanta may have avoided a lawsuit regarding the ongoing open records investigation at City Hall, but now it faces another – a class action suit brought forward on behalf of disabled residents under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The suit, being filed by Radford & Keebaugh and Parks, Chesin & Walbert, accuses the city of a “systemic failure to maintain sidewalks that are equally accessible to persons with mobility impairments.” It goes on to claim that the city has allowed thousands of sidewalks and intersections to fall into disrepair, in many instances becoming impassable for those bound to a wheelchair.
Said the attorneys in a press release, “the same audit found that, within the city, there were 7,099 intersections that lacked curb ramps to allow for wheelchair access. The audit found 8,705 intersections with curb ramps that did not meet the requirements of the ADA.”
City officials have already pushed back, claiming that a 2009 review from the U.S. Department of Justice resulted in an agreement relating to sidewalk maintenance and repair that has not since been violated, (though the suit, of course, disagrees).
This case figures to be a drawn out one with no easy answer. Most sidewalks fall under the purview of the property owners just behind them, and often those individuals can not, or will not, spend money to maintain them. The city could take control back, but with a seemingly endless backlog of infrastructure repairs and upgrades already on the docket, would that really solve much? Atlanta residents seem willing to hike taxes to install high speed rail, but what about low speed sidewalk repair?
