My thoughts on the passing of Mario Cuomo: Back in 1981, I was one of a group of activists to start Mobility Through Access (MTA). At the time, notoriosly unreliable lift-eqipped buses were being introduced to the fleet, along with the realization that they were never going to efficiently transport wheelchair users to many parts of the city. The goal of MTA was to create 100 key subway stations by the year 2020. Virtually every major elected-official, including Mayor Koch, both US Senators and media outlets including the august New York Times, denounced the proposal as being too costly and irresponsible. In 1983, Governor Carey announced that he wouldnt run for re-election. This set up a Democratic Primary between Mayor Koch and the man he defeated when he was elected Mayor, Lt. Governor Mario Cuomo. Coumo pledged to the disability çommunity that if elected, he would support our plan for subway accessibility. Our community rallied around him as he carried the primary and general election. Acivists from this campaign, convinced of the potential power of the disability vote, started the 504 Democratic Club soon afterward. In one of his first acts, the first Governor Coumo pushed through legislation to create 200 accessible subway stops by rhe year 2020. He also led the way in hiring persons with disabilies in New York State government, including Evan Davis as his Counsel and my dear friend, the late Joseph Mulholland, as Parole Commissioner. He was supportive in so many other ways. More recently, his son, Andrew Cuomo, followed in his dads footsteps by breaking the stalemate on making the taxi ànd community car service fleet accessible. May his memory be a blessing.
Posted on: Fri, 02 Jan 2015 10:42:30 +0000
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