Roosevelt Island Park Isn't Accessible To People With Disabilities: Lawsuit

ROOSEVELT ISLAND, NY — The Four Freedoms Park on Roosevelt Island, named for the nation's 32nd president who used a wheelchair for years, excludes people with disabilities, according to a class-action lawsuit filed this month.

Three people who use wheelchairs are the named plaintiffs in a class action lawsuit filed against the state's parks department, the department's commissioner, and the conservancy that runs the Four Freedoms Park, faulting the "inaccessibility" of the park. The Brooklyn Center for Independence of the Disabled is also a plaintiff. The suit, filed last week in federal court in Manhattan, accused the park's design of creating "systemic, discriminatory exclusion of persons with mobility disabilities."

"Such blatant violation of disability law is tragically ironic in light of the fact that President Roosevelt himself used a wheelchair for mobility after becoming paralyzed from polio at the age of 39," the lawsuit says.

The park, located on the southern tip of Roosevelt Island, features a stretch of grass with impressive views of Manhattan and Queens. The entrance to main part of the memorial sits at the top of a flight of stairs; the alternate path to the memorial is constructed of stones that are "uneven and extremely unpleasant even for power chair users," according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit also says that the memorial's gift shop is not accessible and that the park's bathroom is not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

"I’m not a radical wheelchair-accessibility person — if a restaurant isn’t accessible I’ll find another one," plaintiff Phil Beder told the New York Times in an interview. "But when it comes to something like a memorial to a wheelchair-using president, it’s just insane that it wouldn’t be 100 percent accessible."

The lawsuit called the park's design "particularly stunning" because its construction began in 2010, "decades after the federal, state, and city disability laws clearly established that places of public accommodation may not discriminate against persons with disabilities."

Designs for the park were completed in 1974 by architect Louis Kahn, but persistent efforts to fundraise and build the park didn't begin in earnest until 2005.

"We are in the process of carefully reviewing the lawsuit," a spokeswoman for the park's conservancy said in an email to Patch. "FDR Four Freedoms Park is – and always has been – committed to accessibility for people with disabilities. We take accessibility issues very seriously and strive to meet the needs of all of our visitors."

This post has been updated.

Lead image via Google Maps.