Moscoe and the Disabled
TheStar.com - News - Scrap disabled parking system: Moscoe
Howard Moscoe is being controversial again. This time he’s targetting disabled permit holders. Is no sacred cow too sacred for him?
Any self-respecting Torontonian will storm towards an abuser of those disabled parking spaces in lots and righteously yell at them. Any self-respecting Torontonian knows how to spot a disabled person — they’re in wheelchairs — and so know who to yell at. And so any self-respecting Torontonian would be appalled at Moscoe’s idea of requiring disabled drivers, who already have to battle the able-bodied for their spots in lots and who struggle with doors and steps once they leave their cars, to pay for their parking. Too bad I’m not a self-respecting Torontonian.
I knew a man once, who because he was disabled and had to be driven round in a specially built van, believed he could park anywhere, including tow-away zones. I had no idea up until then that the disabled felt free to park wherever, whenever they wanted and might even get a bit miffed if told to move along. Yet can we expect them to park like the able-bodied, pay for it like the able-bodied? In one news story, a man with quadraplegia demonstrated how the snow and height of the parking meter were designed to not let him pay. How can Moscoe demand that the disabled pay at the meters and obey some of the parking laws when they literally cannot? Because the fact the man can’t reach the meter pay slot isn’t the issue. It’s just a symptom.
The central problem is that the people who design our urban spaces do not, and will only do so under duress, take into account the disabled.
Streetcars are inaccessible. Bus drivers watch women with strollers struggle on as they refuse to use the lowering mechanism of the bus. Many restaurant washrooms are at the bottom of sloping stairs. Escalators regularly die on the TTC. Parking meters are spaced far apart (for those with breathing problems and heart conditions that length is like 10 miles). Grocery stores are designed to make you walk forever around them so that you will spend more money; forget about the fact that some customers don’t have the stamina and it’s a real problem physically every time they move their stock around causing confusion and more walking (sure, they can get their groceries delivered, but what about the dignity of wanting to at least still choose your own fruit which you could if it wasn’t for the store design). I could go on.
The designers of this city do not take the disabled into account, not the ones in wheelchairs, nor the ones self-respecting Torontonians tell off cause they’re standing on two legs, ignoring the fact that their breathing is shallow and rapid. And because they don’t want to take them into account, seeing them more as a problem, not as a vital part of Toronto, they don’t treat them as if they’re as capable as everyone else in all facets of life, except for that one pesky health problem, including being able to pay for parking, including holding them accountable to the rules of society (like don’t hang on to your disabled parking permit long after you stopped needing it).
Some advocates are concerned about the fact that many disabled are on fixed incomes, which means they count every dime and nickel. Well, first, if you’re that poor, you can’t afford a car, or if the car has been given to you, then the maintenance of it. The insurance alone would be beyond the financial means of the poor. So if you can afford the insurance, you can probably afford the parking. But second, this objection is again a symptom of a much bigger issue: why are so many Canadians living below the poverty line, unable to afford a decent roof, even losing their teeth, yet still having to pay taxes (!), and suffering the indignity of the Ontario government clawing back the miserly CPP disability pension to their even more miserly levels of ODSP, which one can only get when all savings are exhausted? In other words people, that fixed income of a maximum of about $900 per month is without any safety net in the RSP or savings accounts whatsoever. OK, I exaggerate. You’re allowed $5,000. Big whoop.
I often wonder what our politicians say to themselves when they devise schemes like the property tax increase cancellation program that the city recently started. That’s the one where a person on a low income has to pay the full amount of the increase before they can get the increase back late in the year. The city cancels the increase because they know the person can’t afford it, but they’ll only cancel it once you pay for it. The mind boggles. What about the provincial politicians who hike their pay by over 20% but balk at increasing ODSP, which is too low to properly sustain a person in Toronto, yet is given only to those who cannot work and thus cannot supplement it.
While self-respecting Torontonians yell at who they perceive as abusers of disabled parking spots and perhaps are appalled at Moscoe’s suggestions, they rush by, ignore, and do not yell at the bigger culprits, the real abusers of the disabled: our governments, our urban space designers, ourselves.
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Great article, I applaud Moscoe for the simple reason as someone with a disability who does not need a handicapped permit I have seen many able boddied people who have them. I feel unfortunantely his extreme methods are nessary to help others who follow the rules/ free up spaces for those in need. Also good points about the general state of un-access in the city. Also keep in mind like 75-80% of people with disabilities are unemployed and cannot afford the time or effort to fight the system, as every day is a struggle in itself.