Be included at the beginning of the planning and design process. Memorialize in actual text your rights and requirements in the relevant official documents. And stay involved in various stages of implementation so that what’s planned is indeed implemented — and maintained — or your fate is to play eternal catch-up. On Monday night members of the city’s Commission on Disabilities kept those key guideposts in mind as they gently peppered visiting (and invited!) Parks Department officials with questions. The occasion was the disability-services commission’s regular Zoom monthly meeting. The focus of the meeting was on discussing the whole range of parks projects, ongoing and future. They range from accessible golf carts making their way up to the summit of East Rock to citywide strategic plans in-progress that aspire to take in the concerns of the disabled throughout all the park land and playgrounds in the city. Here’s a summary of updates from the recent gathering: East Rock Accessible Golf Cart Plan: To make the summit available to people with disabilities, the Parks Department is pursuing the golf cart model, as recommended by the commission, and implementation is slow-going but indeed advancing, according to Parks Department Director Max Webster. While working through the usual issues of staffing, liability, insurance, and so forth, the next practical step, according to Webster, is actually piloting a model up the road to see how it goes with the slope, and other engineering concerns. That should happen soon, he added, because the city is currently re-negotiating its lease of golf carts for the city’s municipal course, and some accessible golf carts for the golfers (!) are part of that deal. The hope is for one of those vehicles, or an accessible variant of the same, to be the test vehicle. “Is there anything in the budget [for this] this year?” asked Sally Esposito, the city’s former disability-services director and a former commission member, who regularly attends these monthly meeting. While the answer was No, Webster said the current proposed parks budget — part of the ongoing city budget negotiations unfolding over the coming months — has categories with some increases, so that if a pilot is successful, money, hopefully, will be available to get the project moving on the road to the summit. Or, as Webster put in, in budgetese, “We might find additional capacity.” “People have been denied access for a number of years,” said city disability-services director Gretchen Knauff, “so I’m so happy you’re working on it.” “It’s a focus of ours, and I hope we can deliver a solution as soon as we can,” Webster replied. East Rock’s Trowbridge Environmental Center Upgrades and Accessible Trails: There’s good news here as both these projects have funding, from previous budgets and grants, all in place and proposals submitted to the state, and work on the verge of beginning. “We’ve submitted a strong proposal for a loop at College Woods complementing our work around the Trowbridge Environmental Center,” reported Webster. He said the department’s landscape architect Josh Price has been working on making the pathway all the way up from Cold Spring Street accessible, right up to the doors of the building, and sprucing it up. The focus of the project is on accessibility to the building, the pavilion, and the playground for people with disabilities. “That’s all funded, work good to go, just finalizing the plan, and in the next month or two we’ll hear back from DEEP [the state Department of Energy Environmental Protection], and then move forward.” Greenways 2030: This is a network of 27 miles of routes for what the city terms low-stress walking, biking, recreation connecting the neighborhoods and parks. It will be building on a 2004 plan and the major new feature is adding to the four north-south running “greenways/trails” (Mill River, West River, Shoreline, and Farmington Canal) from east to west to create what’s being monikered a “Crosstown Greenway” network. The city’s parks, planning department, and Yale’s Urban Resources Initiative (URI) are holding public input sessions and taking public comments at the site through the end of March. “We’ve talked to Gretchen [Knauff],” reported Fatima Cecunjanin, the City Plan staffer working on Greenways 2030, “and what came up was [concern regarding] amenities like benches, water fountains; and if we plant trees, that that be done correctly so the trails aren’t lifting up, and also that there be accessible parking throughout the system.” There were plenty of disability-focused comments and concerns Monday from the commissioners, especially from Commissioner Beverly Kidder, who was skeptical about the parking issue. “If you’re bringing someone with a wheelchair,” said Kidder, “is there in the planning process so that people [with disabilities] can get onto the space.” Cecunjanin replied that there are a few existing parking lots, such as at places like Edgewood Park. Regarding the “Crosstown Greenway,” however, she acknowledged there was no dedicated parking area for access, but then suggested as that route goes through many residential neighborhoods there would be parking available. “That’s a fantasy,” replied Kidder. “I’ve lived there and there’s not enough for the residents, let alone those using the recreation areas. Does the plan specifically include parking access for the disabled?” “It doesn’t explicitly” Cecunjanin replied. “But I’ll bring that to the planning group.” “That’s good,” said Kidder, “because without parking, you continue the inaccessibility for us.” Commissioner Lena Esposito wanted to be sure the Greenway trails would be wide enough for wheelchairs, some of which are wide. “The goal,” said Cecunjanin, “is to have the Greenways be 12-feet wide to accommodate wheelchairs and walking traffic. On the Shoreline and Mill River trails, where we already have funding, it’s 12-feet wide.” Esposito pointed out some of the intersections, especially on the Crosstown Greenway in-progress, have intersections at major roadways. What about crosswalks and signals there? She especially asked about maintenance of signals at the major intersections. “The maintenance of signals and trails will be added to the budget of the engineering and traffic departments” as part of the plan, she answered. “Making that part of the plan would be great,” said Knauff. Then another commissioner, Annie Harper, added a cautionary note, based on her recent travels. “The intention is awesome, but the implementation not so great at times at systems I’ve experienced in Europe.” Knauff also queried about whether the designs are for 24-hour use “because some with visual disabilities, lighting is really critical.” While the goal, said Cecunjanin, is indeed for the trails to be well lit and safe at night, the public comments thus far about lighting seem to have pertained to issues of too much light that might be harmful, for example, to migratory birds. “But, yes, we’re working so they are safe to use at night and day and folks have pointed out those spots.” Knauff brought the discussion to a close with a reminder about process: “It sounds to me like you have a plan but you’re open to suggestions. One of my concerns is that you come back to talk to us so we’ll see if it is attentive to people with disabilities.” She also urged the commissioners and others in their circle to send in comments to the city about all the issues discussed and more, like signage and navigability. “Send in comments. This is our shot.” All Hands For New Haven Parks! A Strategic Plan: Webster and the Parks Department’s key partner, URI director Colleen Murphy-Dunning, limned what amounts to, said Webster, the first serious master plan for the parks of New Haven in decades – “how we’re operating and what we do to upkeep the parks.” It’s very much a work-progress and soliciting “stakeholder” comments for the upcoming draft. A key goal of the public stewardship is accessibility for all. The commissioners had much to say: Esposito again asked if the current draft of the plan has language “specifically regarding people with disabilities throughout the park system.” “I don’t think we have that specific language yet,” he answered and said he’d love, for example, to hear suggestions for that language from the commissioners. What about including an “an assessment of the parks as they are?” asked Knauff. “Like you have splash pads but can everyone get to them? That’d be a great place to start.” Harper wanted to be sure that the parks and planning departments’ strategic planners understand that “people with disabilities are disproportionately represented in the homeless population. Can we see homelessness from an accommodating perspective?” she asked. “Not as something to get rid of?” “Yes, I agree,” replied Webster, “and I appreciate that comment.” He also reassured Esposito that placing gates on playgrounds and other amenities and features for little kids with a whole range of ages and disabilities is indeed being incorporated into the planning. Christopher Bresky, also a staffer with the Parks Departmen, who was attending the meeting, said that this Thursday evening March 12 at the Fair Haven Branch Library, the “All Hands For New Haven Parks” plan is convening another in its series of brainstorming/comments-gathering sessions, and the public is, of course, invited; it’s in the downstairs community room between 6:00-8:00PM. Another meeting, on the same day, is being led by Max Webster on ecological managent of the city park system; it convenes between 4:30 and 5:30 PM at Kroon Hall, 195 Prospect Street, on the top floor auditorium. 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