504 Democratic Club: Questionnaires (Candidate for City Council Gwen Goodwin's 2009 response)

Candidate Name: Gwen Goodwin

Council District: 8

Campaign Name: Committee to Elect Gwen Goodwin

Campaign Manager: Peter Anderson

If there is a Campaign office, is it wheelchair accessible? N/A.

Campaign Address: 152 East 100th Street, New York, NY
Phone: 212-534-0963
Email: gwe2000 @ aol.com
Website: www.gwengoodwin.com

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?
  
  N/A
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)?
  
  Yes.
General Questions
1. What personal and professional experience have you had with people with disabilities in your personal life and in the workplace?
  
  In my personal life, an ex-boyfriend was visually impaired (i.e., complete unable to see due to complications from glaucoma surgery at 19). My nephew Matthew has autism.
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?
  
  All jobs that the person is capable of performing and for which the person is reasonably qualified.
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?
  
  This will be a major priority.
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?
  
  I fully encourage it and fight bigoted exclusionary NIMBY-type attitudes.
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?)
  
  It should be equalized, and beyond "disabled" and "senior" categories, housing must be made accessible and affordable to all income groups. Building more housing could change the supply-demand relationship to make housing generally affordable again, along with strengthening rent regulations, including but not limited to rent control, rent stabilization and PHFL.
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?
  
  Yes, strongly.
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.?
  
  Yes. Major priority.
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 would push for legislation requiring taxis and community car services vehicles to observe green and accessibility guidelines. The two issues are closely related, and should not be used to play off each against the other. Green design will keep people individually and collectively from falling into disability, while accessibility is a key environmental challenge to people with disabilities.
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?
  
  AAR must be subject to regulation and inspection to insure compliance and friendly consideration to those who need its services. It must be subjected to civil penalties for any willful, negligent or reckless non-compliance. In addition, the idea of introducing competition as a built-in regulatory feature in the provision of Access-a-Ride-type services, should perhaps be explored.
Civil Rights

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

Strengthen. My office will be open to process complaints and apply pressure where needed.
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?
  
  Yes. To allow deficiencies in this area to continue compromises the democratic spirit and function.
2. How many people with disabilities have/will you appoint to your local Community Board(s)?
  
  I have not yet held office, and therefore cannot claim to have appointed any Community Board members. In office, I would have to survey the field of applicants to the Community Board and assess the qualifications of each applicant, before I could determine a specific number. I can promise to maximize representation of people with disabilities to the greatest reasonable and practicable degree, and view disabilities categories in a spirit of affirmative action.
3. Will you support the "requirement" and implement, a Disabled Committee on every Community Board?
  
  This I regard as essential.
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?

This is a far better use than what I have seen in the way discretionary funds are often, if not usually, applied.
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?
  
  While I would have to gather more knowledge about the specifics of a timetable to establish, it is a disgrace that these features are allowed to be in disrepair. This should be given a very high priority. I will be among the strongest voices in the City Council in keeping pedestrian ramps user friendly, particularly to those with disabilities.
2. What steps do you think NYC should take to encourage business owners to make their establishments more accessible?
  
  Incentives and counter-incentives should be agendized to reward accessibility improvements. Such incentives should include a tax break schedule, and counter-incentives could include fines in extreme cases, provided that the requirements, criteria and enforcement considerations can be worked out.
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?
  
  Facilitation of provisions for emergency evacuations for PWDs should be made mandatory for all buildings above a certain scale, and incentivized in smaller buildings and structures.
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 am not yet familiar in detail with the budgetary features of the MOPD, or its responsibilities and limitations from a comprehensive perspective. It seems that the PWD community should be mobilized to keep the MOPD alert to perceived or real difficulties with all agency functioning, along with recommendations for improvement. MOPD should also be in a position to require regular reports regarding areas of concern, to exert pressure to fine-tune consideration to PWDs, along with recommending legislation in city, state and Federal legislatures as appropriate.
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?
  
  I believe the best method would include regular consultation with the PWD community and PWD-related agencies, and to mobilize PWDs at the grassroots for vigilance and pressure on government agencies.

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