Day 2 in the Big Apple

We had another really busy day yesterday in the Big Apple. First of all we visited B&H camera and video store. It's massive with an overhead conveyerbelt truck system which transports goods around the shop. Being run by Orthodox Jews it's shut on the sabbath and next week due to a Jewish holiday. So yesterday morning was our only chance to have a look around. 

We then went for a walk along the highline - a disused elevated railway line transformed into a park. I picked up a pretzel from a truck before we set off though! 

Flowers on the highline. 

The highline has some amazing views of some iconic buildings. 

Empire State Building above the roof tops. 

The Chrysler building 

After walking the High Line we wandered around the meat packing district which I really liked. Cobbled streets, converted warehouses and brownstones. We walked down one tree lined street that could have been Sesame Street. 

We then went to Union Square to grab lunch and do some shopping. We went to Dylan's Candy Bar which is a Willy Wonkeresque kaleidoscope of candy! I wish I could take my niece Antonia here she would be in heaven! Due to my high blood pressure and related health stuff I abstained from buying any sweets for me! I know I resisted the massive box of jelly beans! Jelly beans are my major weakness. 

I made up for my saintliness in Dylan's by spending in Barnes and Noble the largest book store in the world. I bought a book about one of the USA's first law enforcers. Girl Waits With Gun by Amy Stewart looks like a a great read! Jase found a card strategy game to buy and I got a Cookie Monster  and here he is: 

We then walked up past the flatiron building stopping at the Lego store. 

For dinner we went out to a lovely Thai restaurant. We got back to the hotel in time for the new Muppet Show :-) 

First day in the Big Apple

Our first day in NYC was a busy one we walked 8 miles and managed to see many of the Mid Town sights I'd wanted to. 

There was a lovely sun rise yesterday morning I snapped from our window. 

We had a brilliant breakfast and then walked up to Central Park. It was a brilliant early autumn morning. We bought drinks from one of the hot dog stalls. Too early for a hot dog after a big breakfast! Here's a view of sky scrapers from Central Park. 

We saw the Ghostbusters building from Central Park - no sign of Zuul. 

I was impressed to see you can use your phone to get an audio guide to different parts of the park. 

After visiting the park we walked along 5th Avenue. As the Pope was due to arrive later for a service at St Patrick's Cathedral from Central Park down to about 48th St there were road blocks and barrakades. NYPD were everywhere but all in good spirits. We then went to Grand Central Station which is beautifully majestic. 

We walked past Central Library up to a nice bar called the West End Grille and I had a fabulous grilled cheese sandwich with Brie apple and bacon. It was delicious. I tried some craft beer. 

As the Pope was due to arrive around 5 and the streets near our hotel were getting crowded we went back to our room to watch the near by streets on the TV as the Pope arrived. 

Apparently FOX News have voted Pope Francis the most dangerous man in the world (beating the winner of the last 6 years, Barack Obama!) this is because Pope Francis has been raising issues like climate change (that it's real,) the positive effects of immigration and greed. All I can say is Pope Francis should be proud to have angered FOX News so much! 

New York

I couldn't sleep last night. In the end I got up and read up about New York and followed a few NYC based Facebook pages and Twitter accounts. This time next week I'll be in New York. 

Before my first trip to the US in 2011 I wrote a blog post about what I was expecting and when we went to Miami and then San Diego I discovered that the US is not what I expected in many ways and exactly what I expected in other ways. The trouble is in the UK we are surrounded by American culture through TV, film and literature and it's everywhere but of course it's not real! . 

So if the US culture I've gladly swallowed ranges from Westerns to the X-Files, Breaking Bad to Stephen King, Hollywood blockbusters, Little House on the Prairie and Huckleberry Finn it's no wonder my experience of Florida and California were some how lacking. There were no aliens, no Cowboys, no small towns haunted by evil clowns!

When I consider my cultural references for New York they're equally odd. Sesame Street, Fame, Ghostbusters, Cagney and Lacey were the New Yorks of my childhood. (Cagney and Lacey was actually filmed in Canada and LA!!) as a child I thought New York must be full of joggers grabbing hot dogs, women cops fighting crime, grouches living in bins, kids dancing in the streets and lots of ghosts! The kid in me is going to be so disappointed! But I'm sure in so many other ways I'm going to be delighted and surprised! 

Save Bedfordshire's library van and door to door service!

Central Bedfordshire Coucnil is currently reviewing it's library van and book delivery service. (The book bundle delivery is currently for those unable to get to a library.) The plans are to stop the library van and to change the book delivery service to one with eligibility criteria to be run by volunteers. I only just found out about the consultation on this and the closing date is this Friday 18th September.

From a quick glance at the information provided the eligibility criteria being proposed doesn't include partially sighted people only those severely sight impaired rather than both sight impaired and severely sight impaired. Yet partially sighted people can't drive so face the same issues getting to a library. I am hoping this is just a language oversight but unfortunately more and more recently I am becoming aware of criteria like this ignoring those registered as sight impaired (partially sighted) and only focusing on those registered (severely sight impaired.) Many older people are registered sight impaired are no longer able to drive and are living in rural settings with out public transport and so are unable to get to the library. If the wording stayed as it is they would be denied the opportunity to receive library books.

The Council also propose that library staff will assess whether someone is entitled to the service from the check list of different impairments! I think this is extremely worrying as I am certain most librarians and library staff did not go into their chosen career in order to assess how disabled someone is! It is putting an unnecessary burden on the library staff and I can see it only causing real problems for library staff. Are the council really suggesting that there are hoards of people pretending to be disabled in order to get some books delivered to their house every couple of weeks?

The council also proposes to cut the library van completely which they say is only used by 241 people currently.  I would guess though that a lot of those people use the van because they can't get to the library and will be forced to use this volunteer lead book delivery scheme instead or as the council probably hopes will not sign up for the service (who wants to be assessed as disabled by your local librarian?) and so save money that way.

I understand that the council needs to save money but I can only see this causing huge problems for the older and disabled people who rely on the mobile and door to door book service. These will be some of the most vulnerable and isolated people in our society who rely on these books as a real life line. I know that RNIB research shows that losing the ability to read is one of the greatest fears people have when they are diagnosed with an eye condition. Of course with brilliant services like library vans and the door to door service blind and partially sighted people can continue to read in many formats (large print, braille and audio books.)

The consultation closes on Friday so please fill out the survey even if you don't live in Beds or use the mobile library service, one day you might have to! You have to scroll down the page to find the Library Link consultation  http://www.centralbedfordshire.gov.uk/council-and-democracy/have-your-say/default.aspx

Technology

I just saw one of those posts on Facebook, invariably posted by someone over the age of 40 (yes I fall into that category) saying something like "I'm glad I was a child before the internet and phones and other technology." Usually these posts have a picture of a minion on them (Am I the only person on the planet who hates the horrid yellow filter tip / earplug creatures?) any way this isn't about minions. It's about technology.

This weekend I spent a couple of hours with a group of 11 -17 year olds at their youth club talking about education, what they wanted to do when they leave school or college and what they like to do in their spare time. All of the young people had a visual impairment. What was interesting was that they really aren't that different from me at that age in many respects. They were into Dr Who, or the latest boy band, they had worries about how other people perceived their visual impairment, the older ones were coming to terms with the thought of not being able to drive.

But there was one huge difference between there childhood and mine. They could access their education so much more easily than me. They could read any book they wanted to. They could get around London (where they live) easily and independently. Where I had struggled to read the black board at school even when I sat underneath it, they had the information on the teachers smart screen sent straight to their iPads. Or if the teacher was using a non smart board, they just took a photo of it on their tablet and zoomed in to see what was what. The books they needed to read in school were available on their iPads too, so they could have them in large print or listen to them. For experiments in science lessons they used hand held CCTVs to magnify their apparatus and results.

Similarly when reading for pleasure there are countless audio books available or the kindle which allow you to enlarge the print to a size they can read.

When getting around London, the buses speak, telling them which stops they are at, the trains do the same too. Google street view means they can check out where they are going in advance so they know what obvious landmarks to look out for. Those with less sight use the google directions.

I am certainly one person who wishes that this modern technology had existed when I was a child.

Technology isn't the reason kids no longer play outside and roam across the countryside that comes down to two reasons the increase in traffic making it much more dangerous to be out crossing roads and our society's collective fear of strangers.

Street audit and recommendations for Biggleswade

Street audit and recommendations for Biggleswade

1 Introduction

As part of the RNIB’s Who Put That There? street campaign I undertook a brief audit of some of the obstacles in Biggleswade which affect me and other blind and partially sighted residents. It became abundantly clear that problems which I face also affect other disabled people (especially those who use wheelchairs or other mobility aids,) older people and families with young children. This makes up a sizeable chunk of Biggleswade’s population.

As well as looking at what the main problems are in Biggleswade when it comes to street obstacles I engaged with local councillors and my MP. I complete 3 blindfold walks with Town Cllr Bernard Rix, Central Bedfordshire Cllr Budge Wells and my MP Alistair Burt. These walks highlighted the common problems but also some of the coping strategies I and other blind and partially sighted people use to get around. 

I have written up a separate blog piece explaining more about these blind fold walks which you can read here.

There are also a number of films relating to street obstacle issues in Biggleswade featuring Paul Day and me which you can find here

2 My Audit

Although there are a number of street obstacle issues which affect Biggleswade including:

• wheeliebins
• cars parked on pavements
• over hanging branches
• pavements in poor repair
• Advertising boards (A-Boards)
• cafe furniture
• a need for safer places to cross roads

I focussed my audit on aspects which are easier to quantify - the number of A-boards and cars parked on pavements. I also noted any good practice that I came across.

Advertising boards present on Saturday 11th July

A-boards are particularly problematic as they are often placed in different places daily so a visually impaired person can not “learn” where they are. By their size and shape they are often hard to see if you are visually impaired. Many are quite heavy with sharp edges, they are also at that height which means that they catch your wrist whilst using a white cane or they can trip you. It is important to note that most blind and partially sighted people will follow the shop line either with their white cane or guide dog. When A Boards are placed along the shop line this can cause difficulties but visually impaired people at least expect to find them there. When they are placed in the middle of pavements or in random places they can cause even more problems as they are not expected to be there by the visually impaired person.

Market square 

Against shop fronts: 14

Elsewhere / random: 19

Total: 33

High street (from Rose Pub to Shortmead St including around the war memorial) 

Against shop fronts: 12

Elsewhere / random: 4

Total: 16

Total number of A boards present in Biggleswade town centre:

Against shop fronts: 26

Elsewhere / random: 25

Total: 51

Cars parked on pavements on Saturday 11th July

Cars parked on pavements cause a double obstacle in that visually impaired people can bump into them but if they completely block the pavement they cause visually impaired people to have to walk out into the road in order to get past. Having to walk out into roads where there is no pedestrian crossing can be a very stressful and a dangerous thing for a visually impaired person to have to do.

These were counted on one of my usual routes home from Biggleswade town centre

1 on Eagle a Farm Road

1 on Sorrel Way

7 on Apollo Gardens 2 completely blocking path

1 on Pluto Drive

Cars parked on pavement on Apollo Gardens on Monday 13th July

6 on Apollo a Gardens 1 totally blocking path 

1 on Pluto Drive

I avoid walking down the remainder of my own street, Jupiter Way due to the road surface still not being properly laid and that there is invariably 2 or 3 cars blocking the pavement. 

Also on my route home that day I walked into some over hanging branches and came across two road work sign frames which had been left on the pavement for over a month. They were advertising road works which ended at the beginning of June. These were particularly dangerous as they were heavy but only the frame which was very hard to see. 

Good Practice

Some cafe’s like the Surfin’ Cafe in town do have barriers placed around their cafe furniture - this allows white cane users to find the boundary of where the cafe furniture is and so avoid walking into chairs and tables. They also place their cafe furniture in the same place every day which again is useful so that blind and partially sighted people can learn where the obstacles are. 

The pedestrian crossings in Biggleswade do have rotating cones which indicate to a visually impaired person when it is safe to cross. This is particularly important when the crossings do not beep. There is also good tactile pavement indicating the crossings.

The market is laid out in such away that there is a wide route down the middle and to the sides of the market. There are also exits from the market at designated points along it. This enables visually impaired people to learn the route of the market. Often markets are laid out in such away that it is difficult for blind and partially sighted people exit it safely.

3 Input from other residents of Biggleswade who are not visually impaired

Through the We Love Biggleswade page I received 34 comments about street obstacles, the vast majority about wheelie bins but there were also comments and messages about cars parked on pavements and over hanging branches in various localities around Biggleswade. I was sent a number of photos of wheelie bins obstructing the pavement and the following streets were named, often more than once, as problem areas for wheelie bins being left as an obstruction by the bin men:

Lawrence Road

Havelock Road

The Baulk

Banks Road

Drove Road

Auckland Street 

Only one person commented about neighbours not putting their bins away all other comments were about the bin operatives leaving the bins in a worse place than where they were originally left.

My posts on the RNIB street obstacles campaign received 71 likes over the course of 2 weeks.

4 List of recommendations / requests

From the work I have done over the last few weeks with town and central Beds councillors and our MP as well as speaking with residents I would like to propose the following recommendations are taken forward.

1 Engage meaningfully and proactively with local disabled people

The Town and Central Bedfordshire Councils should proactively seek advice and consult with local disabled people on issues relating to the built environment. This can be achieved in two ways:

i)A group of disabled people with suitable skills and expertise should be brought together as an “access panel” or group. They will be consulted with about key policy issues and developments affecting the built environment. 

ii)More widely when public consultations are planned disabled people should be encouraged to take part and the process should be accessible to them.

These measures will ensure that policies and schemes are “access proofed” by people with the right expertise and experience. They will be able to spot potential problems for disabled residents at an early stage and prevent costly mistakes from happening. The involvement of access panels is widely accepted as a way of meeting Equality Duties and showing that a council is paying due regard to the needs of disabled people.

It is particularly vital to involve disabled people in plans for the works on the railway bridge on the High St, proposals to move the market and the development of the transport interchange in Biggleswade.

2 Improve blind and partially sighted people’s experiences of bin day - and you’ll improve everyone’s experience!

Advertise widely the phone number and email address for reporting wheelie bin obstructions including on pages like We Love Biggleswade, The Chronicle and the local talking news paper.

I would like to Invite refuse operatives, council managers and councillors to take part in a blindfold "swap with me" event with local blind and partially sighted people. So both groups can learn from each other. It is much easier to understand why it is important to keep the pavements free of obstacles when you actually spend time with the people affected. This would involve refuse operatives and council officials meeting with blind and partially sighted residents, trying on “sim specs” which simulate different eye conditions and attempting to navigate the streets on bin day. It would also allow blind and partially sighted people to learn about the job of waste disposal and the challenges bin operatives face. Similar initiatives have happened with refuse and waste departments in other local authorities and with bus drivers. (Nearly 50 of these “swap with me” events have been held with bus drivers across the country.)

There should be a change of policy so that on bin day where ever it is possible, residents should leave bins in their front gardens and drives, off the pavements but easily accessible for the bin operatives.  Refuse operatives will return bins to this area just inside the residents property after the bins are emptied. This policy is used across the whole of London but also in more rural local authorities around the UK.

3 A-boards and street furniture

The town and Central Beds Council should consult with residents and business about their A-boards policy. Once a suitable policy is decided upon it must be enforced whether that is to license with safety conditions or to ban A-boards in all or part of the town. 

4 Cars parked on pavement 

As with the wheelie bins the council need to advertise the reporting number and email more widely including with the talking news paper.

Consider the issue of pavement parking in the current parking strategies - as more double yellows or parking restrictions often lead to more pavement parking. 

Council and Police to consult with residents where problem areas exist.

5 Shared space on Hitchin St

Urgent repairs are needed to this shared space area on Hitchin Street and blind and partially sighted people need to be consulted with over any further  changes to this area.

Who Put That There? Biggleswade blindfold walk

RNIB (Royal National Institute of Blind People)  are currently running a fortnight of action on street clutter. "Why?" you might think. Ask any blind or partially sighted person and they'll tell you that they regularly collide, trip or fall due to obstacles being in the way as they try to walk about their local area. Of course the irony being us visually impaired often have no other option other than to walk, not being allowed to drive and all. Public transport can only get you so far, so shanks' pony is what most blind and partially sighted people rely on.

 An abandoned road works sign on a main route into Biggleswade town centre

Last year a survey of over 500 blind and partially sighted people found that in the preceding 3 months 95% of them had collided with a street obstacle. Of that number a third had been injured in some way ranging from serious brakes, cuts and sprains as well as bad bruising. As well as the physical damage most said that such collisions made them feel nervous or anxious about going out. In extreme cases a few said that would not go out with out another person with them. Many said that they would take deliberately longer routes in order to avoid certain obstacles or busy roads. Whilst others would avoid going out on bin day because the dustbins and recycling bags were strewn in such a way that it made walking about just too stressful.

Cllr Bernard Rix being lead by Emily to avoid bins - road has been like this for months on our new estate and is unsafe to walk in

It's not just blind and partially sighted people, older people, those with mobility problems, or those who use wheelchairs, as well as parents with small children and buggies/ prams said that they find street obstacles a problem. So what do we mean by "obstacles?" The most common mentioned are:
Bins
Cars parked on pavements
Advertising boards
Over hanging branches
Street furniture and cafe furniture
Roads too unsafe to cross or pedestrian crossings which are not fully accessible

So from the 6th - 19th July RNIB campaigners from around the country are asking local councils and government to consider these issues. There's a helpful report which outlines the problems and a toolkit (see previous link) for councils which helps them plan with local blind and partially sighted people to develop a "Street Charter" which brings together best practice and new initiatives into one document.

Today I was joined by two councillors, Bernard Rix who is a town councillor and Cllr Budge Wells from Central Bedfordshire Council, who has responsibility for waste and highways. Both agreed to wear a blindfold or "sim specs" which simulate different eye conditions and be guided by Emily Papaleo, RNIB Regional Campaigns Officer for the East of England, whilst I spoke to them about the problems I face and the strategies I use to try and stay safe. Initially I wasn't sure if the whole blindfold / sim spec thing would work, it smacked of tokenism. But over the last 2 years I have changed my mind completely. As long as the person wearing the blindfold is accompanied by a visually impaired person ( as well as the sighted guide) then I think the blindfold walks work really well. It's also in context, so walking down the street is something we do all the time thinking nothing of it, but if you temporarily have a sense impaired it makes that experience of walking down the street seem different. Most people become afraid and cautious, they wonder how they would cope if this happened permanently and they didn't have a guide? They begin to ask questions they had never thought of before like "How does someone who is blind learn how to use a white cane? How would a Guide Dog help you here? How do you cope with all the noise it's really frightening? I never realised how noisy streets are!"

Cllr Bernard Rix and Cllr Budge Wells with me in the market square A- Board in background

These questions start a dialogue. Cllr Budge summed it up quite well after his walk. He said something like "You'd have needed many more words and a lot more time to help me understand what I have just learnt by wearing this blindfold. In fact words would not have been able to convey what I felt doing this." He's right, not just emotional feelings like, "This is scary and overwhelming" but the physical feeling of tactile paving under your feet, and the relief that when he felt it he knew there was a crossing.

Any way both walks were really useful. Bernard walked around the streets near my house. He experienced needing to weave through wheelie bins and parked cars on pavements and how difficult it is to walk on uneven surfaces if you have no depth perception.

Budge was able to go on a longer walk around the market square in Biggleswade. He was surprised by the number of advertising boards and their random and confusing placement. He experienced how disorientating it was when road and pavement surfaces are the same with no kerbs. He learnt how guide dogs are trained to find kerbs for their owners. They rely on kerbs in knowing where to cross roads safely. He also learnt about how visually impaired people often take longer routes in order to cross safety at road crossings. We also showed him the mysterious "spinning cones" under traffic light boxes that tell you when it's the "green man." We then walked along a narrow residential street so he could feel what it was like to collide with a wheelie bin.

It was during our walk down this street that we came across a van illegally parked completely across the pavement, on a road with double yellow lines. Added to this the placement of wheelie bins made it impossible to carry on walking along that path. A lady with a buggy who was following us also could not continue her journey safely because of the parked van. Budge was so angered by this he immediately called the highways reporting line and reported the van. This meant that an official would come to the site and fine the van driver for their illegal parking.

Illegally parked van - a few yards away from public car park! Note the wing mirrors - many blind and partially sighted people are injured by wing mirrors.

We discussed many issues with Budge but in particular the importance of regularly consulting and involving disabled people in highways and planning issues. If one thing comes out of this exercise I hope it is that an access group is set up to advise the council.

On Saturday two other councillors will meet with me and a blind resident to do a mini blindfold walk. I will continue with my street audit during the next few days then I'll write up a report with recommendations which I will submit to the councils and share here.

Garden after a fortnight of holiday

I've spent an hour first thing this morning tidying up the garden a bit. We returned to find our lawn has grown like mad and gone to seed! 

Our pumpkins have flowered which I hadn't expected! They're still in small pots! I have lots of male flowers pictured and a couple of female flowers appear to be beginning to grow too. Below are two male flowers. 

Very excited that my first beef tomato is growing - tiny it may be right now but hopefully it will grow into a lovely juicy beefsteak tomato! 

The begonias are looking good too. 

As are my pansies. 

I was most surprised that my hanging basket was looking good too! 

Kitchen town, temple and shady park

Today we did many things. We visited Kapabashi street in "Kitchen Town" where you can buy anything you could possibly want for your kitchen from cookie cutters to impressive Japanese knives, to pottery bowls and kettles. They also sell to the Tokyo restaurant trade so there are shops selling chairs, no smoking and reserved table signs and of course the famous plastic food which many restaurants have outside advertising their menu, and many a foreign tourist is grateful for. Below is a picture of some plastic fruit and veg. 

I bought myself a cat cookie cutter and one shaped like a tea pot and another like the face of Rilakkuma bear. 

After our walk up and down Kappabashi street we went to Senso ji temple at Asakusa. Jase hadn't been here before - I visited it alone a couple of years ago when Jase was working and I was amusing myself. It's a temple dedicated to the goddess Kannon (closely linked to Guanyin) the goddess of mercy. 

Below is a photo of people wafting incense on to them selves for good luck. I had a go too. 

At the side of the temple are smaller gardens and statues like this one of the Buddha. 

There is also a stream with Coi

And a waterfall. 

After grabbing a snack from one of the many stalls that line the roads to the temple we popped back to Akahibara and then to Kyu Shiba Rikyu Garden. It was a lovely peaceful garden of greens and pinks with a lake in the middle.  

I love all the greenery in the heart of Tokyo. This park is flanked by both a train line and an express way! 

It was a lovely spot to explore this afternoon as it got very hot. 

Back at the hotel we started our evening with a cocktail. I had a mango mojito which was very refreshing. 

Shopping in Tokyo Station

If yesterday was all about Buddhist temples, nestling in the tree covered hills of Kamakura leading down to the Pacific Ocean, then today was about a different side of Japan. It was about shopping. We chose today as a shopping day as it rained over night and first thing,  we woke this morning to a lovely cloud swept sky, pictured below. We decided to go shopping at Tokyo Station. 

The last time we were in Tokyo, the revamped Tokyo train station had just been completed. It has been restored to its original plans from 1914. During the devastating fire bombing of Tokyo in 1945, which killed more Japanese people than the atomic bombs, yet is relatively rarely reported on, Tokyo Station's roof and third floor were destroyed. The station was patched together temporarily and that restructuring lasted 60 years! But it was decided the station should be restored to its original design and now the roof has domes on top of it as it originally did 101 years ago. We saw it from above today in a glass lift. It was too crowded for me to get a photo. 

The shopping mall however is below the station. We sought out the kitkat shop on arriving. The Japanese love kitkats, the name sounds like the expression for wishing good luck in Japanese so kitkats are given as good luck gifts before exams or tests or even before journeys. They also come in a myriad of flavours from green tea to rum and raisin to wasabi to strawberry cheesecake. Today we bought ginger, apricot, chilli and raspberry flavour ones. They are exquisitely wrapped - not at all like the Kitkats back home. Below is a photo of a kitkat display. 

Part of the shopping mall is called character street comprising of shops of children's and TV characters like Hello Kitty, Snoopy and the Moomins. There was a shop dedicated to the bear rilakkuma - it means relaxed bear - that my niece Lucia loves. 

Another thing I love about Japan is the exquisite fruit, often given as gifts and you'll see why in a moment. I took the photo below of 15 identical strawberries, identical in size, shape and colour. They are carefully displayed in a box, each one protected from being bruised. They smelt amazing but at the equivalent of £10 for the box of 15 they are mega expensive!