To the Editor:
Until 3pm every day except Mondays and Fridays, I’m at home. As a person with low vision, I no longer have a car or drivers license. There are no sidewalks between my home and shopping, and although I have a handicap scooter, I don’t feel safe nor do I believe it right for me to drive it in the streets, so it sits in the garage. I have to call 3 days in advance to get a ride on the handicap bus, but it doesn’t run on weekends. My 80 year old husband holds down a strenuous full-time job, and he is often too tired to take me places I would like to go, and after 3:00 PM is not good for me, either, as I start our evening meal around 4:30. He goes to bed at 8:00 PM. One cannot have an enriching life experience out in our community only between the hours of 3 and 4:30:pm!
I have to order my groceries and nearly all other things I need online. Amazon is a godsend for people like me. But I would love to go to Saturday market. I enjoy cooking, and buying from local farmers. I need a social outlet, but have none. We were able to attend the recent Food Truck party at the market on Friday evening, and even in the rain, it was wonderful for me. We chatted with a young couple over our meal, and with the craft vendors for nearly two hours. I saw what I am missing – simple contact with other people.
I have to limit my medical care to my husband’s days off. I am very active in my online life engaging in my hobbies, and if I need supplies, I feel guilty about asking to go to the fabric or hobby stores. I used to be so independent! I do have a pilot’s license I don’t/can’t/wouldn’t use, and before I lost much of my sight to a medical error, I earned a motorcycle endorsement on my drivers license at the age of 73! I had to sell my Vespa and give up driving altogether except for a handicap scooter which sits in the garage because there are no safe places to drive it. There are no sidewalks in NE Ocala! I’m an avid reader, but I can’t get to the library, so I have Kindle on my iPad. That gets expensive in a hurry. I would relish a trip to the Downtown Market on Saturdays! it is demeaning to have to beg for a ride. I never do it.
I am in the process of being taught to use the white cane for stability by a blind center specialist in orientation and mobility. The Florida Center for the Blind services eight counties and has plans for a full time school, yet I have never seen another person using the white cane when I do go out in public. Beyond the handicap bus, requiring a three-day advance notice for a ride, there is no thought given to the needs of the handicapped, and that is inadequate. I have only used it a couple of times for medical appointments and was met with heavy resistance to take me to my eye specialist in the SW part of town. I was told to get another doctor! What will Ocala do for blind kids who will want and need entertainment after school? Where are all the vision-handicapped people I know are in this city? Trapped at home unless aided by friends or family because there is inadequate transportation or even sidewalks for us, I have to assume! Uber? Who can afford that?
I could be, and would enjoy being, a “sidewalk sailor” if I was able to get to Silver Springs Blvd. on my scooter safely. Go to a restaurant for lunch? Be still my heart! Not possible! No sidewalks! We moved from a location in the county two years ago so I would be closer to necessary shopping, but there being no sidewalks in NE Ocala, my only option would be to ride in the street and it just isn’t safe. After two handicapped people, one on a scooter and one in a wheelchair, were struck and killed on Silver Springs Blvd. near WalMart, perhaps there should be a bridge over that very daunting roadway! Crossing four lanes of 40 MPH traffic on foot or a slow conveyance is indeed very daunting! Try it sometime and see how safe you feel! I have yet to try.
Has the City Manager or the City Council ever spoken to handicapped people of any age about their needs to go anywhere besides a doctor’s office? Do they know we are limited to three bags of groceries per trip? Do they know how inadequate that is? If I lived alone I don’t believe I could be well nourished, but I cook for two, and if Hubs ever has to stop driving, we will surely starve unless we get on-demand delivery service. Good cooks like to choose their own food!
Are a few sidewalks really all that impossible for this city to provide? Is that really too much to ask?
Respectfully submitted,
Barbara Gilbert
Ocala
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