Councilmember Shahana Hanif formally dropped her support of a bill that would ban 24-hour shifts for home health aides, and other council sponsors say they’ve proposed modifications to ensure people don’t lose crucial care. 

The loss of a co-sponsor for the “No More 24” bill comes as Council Speaker Julie Menin deferred a possible vote next week.

Menin hasn’t committed to bringing Introduction 303 to a vote when the Council meets May 14, according to a spokesperson who said it is moving through the legislative with no date set for a vote.

Those in favor of the bill say home health aides often work 24-hour shifts for disabled or elderly clients, but only get paid for 13 hours. Opponents say a lack of state funding for the bill’s requirement for two 12-hour shifts would harm people who require around-the-clock care.

Hanif (D-Brooklyn), who heads up the Council’s disability committee, chaired an oversight hearing Tuesday where she heard from disabled New Yorkers who spoke against the bill and urged her to take her name off as a sponsor. There are currently 17 co-sponsors.

“I hope it signals the seriousness required to move legislation impacting both workers and patients,” Hanif told THE CITY on Thursday.

Joseph Rappaport, executive director of the Brooklyn Center for Independence of the Disabled, praised Hanif’s decision and hoped others will follow.

“I think everybody realizes because this bill is flawed, and everybody also wants to make sure that these workers are protected,” he said. “I think people have figured out that if the bill went forward, some people will actually lose their jobs. Beyond that, people with disabilities will lose their coverage. Nobody wants that.”

A spokesperson for Councilmember Christopher Marte (D-Manhattan) said they were “hopeful that we can regain Councilmember Hanif’s support for this legislation and take seriously her point that this issue demands care and attention for both workers and patients.”

Other Council members told THE CITY they’ve pitched changes to make sure people who need the care get it, without workers being exploited. 

Councilmember Ty Hankerson (D-Queens) said he asked Marte to include an amendment that would let some workers get a waiver to work 24 hours. 

“I believe in the intent of the bill, 100% believe in the intent of the bill,” Hankerson said, adding that he would drop his support if the changes weren’t made. “I do think that there are some challenges that the bill presents that unfortunately on the council level we might not be able to solve.”

Councilmember Lincoln Restler (D-Brooklyn) said he’ll stay on as a sponsor but also wants changes.

Supporters of the bill, including elderly former home aides, camped outside of City Hall for weeks pushing Menin to bring it to a vote and for Mayor Zohran Mamdani to support it. 

Workers held a multi-day hunger strike before ending it after the speaker assured the bill would get a vote.

A spokesperson for Menin said she has “long fought for strong worker protections” and thinks more should be done to stop exploitation. 

“As part of the ongoing legislative process, the Council has updated the bill after many conversations with stakeholders,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

Though details of the Menin’s changes are not publicly available, POLITICO reported that the new version exempts union workers, delays its implementation for a year and allows home health workers to opt into longer shifts through the fall of 2027.

Vincent Cao, an organizer at the Chinese Staff and Workers’ Association, slammed Menin’s changes.

“We have fought for too long,” to allow people to continue working 24-hour shifts, he said. “It needs to end.”

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Disabled New Yorkers and disability advocates spoke out against a City Council bill that would ban 24-hour home care shifts, saying their own care will suffer. 

The bill, which was stalled in the Council, would replace the 24-hour shifts with 12-hour shifts performed by two separate workers.

But those who rely on the support of home health aides say the  proposed change — which has strong support from advocates for home health aides — would uproot their lives.

The “No More 24” bill has turned allies into opponents, pitting workers’ rights activists against disability advocates and those who need round-the-clock care. Both Gov. Kathy Hochul and Council Speaker Julie Menin reportedly still have questions about funding. 

Under the current home care system, health aides are required to spend 24 hours with a client even when they are paid for only 13 hours. Current rules allow for rest and meal breaks, but members of the largely immigrant workforce say they are often exploited and forced to work around the clock. 

The home care system is funded through the state, which has not budgeted for the increase in spending that would come from two 12-hour shifts by two fully paid workers. 

Jose Hernandez, a wheelchair user who has had home care aides for 31 years, interrupted Tuesday’s Council oversight hearing to speak out against the bill, saying he and others were being ignored.

“It scares me, as someone that was threatened to be placed in a nursing home when I was 16,” he said after he left the hearing. He receives around-the-clock care with home health aides like Bakary Sawo, who came with him to Tuesday’s hearing.

“I don’t want the people that look like me, that need home care like me, to be placed in institutions because [the city doesn’t] want to find a solution and do the hard work and work together with the disability community and the home care workers to ensure that a bill that supports both worker and patient is found.”

Hernandez and others urged Councilmember Shahana Hanif, the chair of the disability committee, to take her name off the bill, where she’s currently a co-sponsor. 

“There are some really bad conditions for home care workers, but the rules around living shouldn’t come at the cost of the safety and the well-being of people with disabilities,” he said.

Of the approximately 300,000 home care workers in New York City, about 8 to 10% work 24-hour shifts, according to the city Department of Consumer and Worker Protection.

At a Feb. 18 City Council hearing, DCWP external affairs director Carlos Ortiz said that the city supports the bill’s intent but that it has concerns that “prohibiting 24-hour shifts” without more Medicaid funding.

Supporters of the bill have rallied outside City Hall; several home care workers went on a week-long hunger strike last month to protest it being stalled.

They ended their hunger strike after an apparent deal to bring the bill to a vote — although its future is still uncertain. 

Evan Yankey, advocacy director at the Brooklyn Center for the Independence of the Disabled, testified that many people who receive 24-hour care are given it “through no choice of their own” in their managed care plan, and had no say in how their aides are compensated.

“Only an individual can appeal it, but it is a long process with hundreds of steps,” he said.

Under the proposed bill, agencies that still provide 24-hour care would be fined.

“Rather than face a fine, people will go without care, the home care industry will collapse, workers will lose jobs,” Yankey said. 

Looming Medicaid Work Requirements

Tuesday’s hearing focused on economic opportunities for the more than 1 million New Yorkers living with a disability. 

Nisha Agarwal, commissioner of the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities, testified about her agency’s work in helping people find – and keep – jobs. 

“The core focus of our work is about jobs for people with disabilities – the dignity of their work, the independence that it could provide, and the ability to build a life in the city that we all love,” she said.

Recent data shows that just 40% of New Yorkers with disabilities of working age are employed, compared to 73% of the overall working age population, she said.

Upcoming federal Medicaid cuts also loomed over the agency, with uncertainty over who would ultimately be exempt from work requirements.

“It’s not clear because there’s no finite rule until June,” Agarwal said, saying she was unclear on how many people could be affected. 

“The people are nervous,” she said. “I’m nervous, everybody’s nervous.”

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After more than five years of prodding from local residents, elected officials and the MTA, Columbia University will partially pay for accessibility upgrades to the No. 1 line’s towering 125th Street station, THE CITY has learned.

The Ivy League school will contribute $33 million for an elevator linking the street with the stop’s mezzanine level and to widen escalators at the southwest corner of Broadway and West 125th Street. The MTA will cover the costs for two other lifts that will connect to station platforms, along with additional station repairs.

A formal announcement will be made at a later date.

The total price tag for the project has yet to be determined, officials said, with the design process to begin this year and the start of construction targeted for 2028. Similar accessibility projects typically take two years to complete, according to MTA officials, with costs ranging between $70 and $80 million.

“We’re making this unprecedented push across the entire system to add accessibility in all places where it’s possible,” Sean Fitzpatrick, deputy chief of staff at MTA Construction & Development, told THE CITY. “We’re thrilled to be able to do it here.”

The MTA has committed to making at least 60 more stations come into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 as part of its nearly $70 billion 2025-2029 capital plan for systemwide upkeep and improvements. 

Since 2020, the transportation authority has fast-tracked ADA work, adding elevators or ramps at 57 stations while facing a court mandate to make 95% of all stations accessible by 2055.

The agreement between the MTA and Columbia marks a major step forward in the years-long campaign by local residents and elected officials to make the 121-year-old station next to the university’s Manhattanville campus fully accessible. The university had previously said “public investments” should fund additional improvements at the station beyond the widening of the escalators.

“All of our advocacy efforts take a long time,” said Dave Robinson, president of the Morningside Heights Community Coalition, which has pressed for the upgrades alongside the Elevator Lobby advocacy group. “This one has been particularly frustrating.”

As part of the 2007 Manhattanville Campus land-use approval process, Columbia was required to widen the escalators at one corner of the 125th Street station.

“It’s a contribution that should help with accessibility for people with disabilities and the accessibility for folks at this point who have to go up a very narrow and aged escalator,” said Robert Kasdin, senior executive vice president at Columbia. “So we’re very excited to do this.”

The 50-foot-tall station — which has escalators leading to a level with staircases that connect with both platforms — is near the NYCHA Grant Houses development and the Morningside Gardens co-op complex.

“That’s honestly sort of the underpinning of this,” said Robinson of the Morningside Heights Community Coalition. “Both complexes have elderly and disabled populations and they have this ridiculously difficult subway station to navigate.” 

MTA data shows that the escalators at the 125th Street stop were in service just over 88% of the time from January 2021 through February, with that number falling as low as 51% in February 2021. The authority’s own numbers show that station escalators had 48 outages last year, including 41 that were unscheduled. That marked the station’s highest number of escalator outages in a decade.

“Seven days a week, 365 days a year, I’ve been wishing for an elevator at this station,” Rodolfo Serrano, 72, said last month as he walked out of the station with a cane on a day when its escalators were out of service.

Local residents and elected officials have repeatedly rallied for enhanced accessibility at a stop that serves 6,500 riders daily and which sits along a stretch of the No. 1 line whose closest set of subway elevators is four stops south at 96th Street.

To the north, the MTA is presently adding elevators at the No. 1 line’s 137th Street-City College station, with that work set to be completed this summer. The transit authority’s current five-year capital plan also calls for elevators to be added to the Cathedral Parkway-110th Street station on the B and C lines.

Fitzpatrick said the involvement of advocates from the Elevator Lobby and several elected officials amounted to critical support that made the MTA and Columbia “make sure we were prioritizing getting to an agreement.”

Kasdin said the accessibility upgrades are central to Columbia’s expanding presence north of its main Morningside Heights campus, which extends between 114th and 120th streets. The Manhattanville campus opened nearly a decade ago and houses the university’s business school, a science center, a center for the arts and more.

“As our presence in West Harlem has started and grown, we have committed to make sure that not only do we do no harm, but that we continue to improve the lives of our students, our faculty, our staff and, importantly, the community,” he said.

Additional reporting by Kennedy Sessions.

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Fifteen home health aides started what they called an indefinite hunger strike on Thursday after the City Council failed to advance a bill banning 24-hour shifts, an issue that has roiled the mostly immigrant women working in the home care industry and the vulnerable patients who rely on their round-the-clock care.

For more than a decade, live-in home care workers have sought to end state rules that allow 24-hour home care workers to be paid for only 13 hours a day. The 24-hour shifts are permitted as long as workers are allotted three hours for meals breaks and at least five hours of sleep without interruption. 

Workers say they routinely work in the same home up to 96 straight hours without rest — while getting paid for only a fraction of that time.

Outside City Hall, where workers have been protesting for nearly a month, home health aide Yunfang Zhang, 70, said through an interpreter she is joining the hunger strike because “home care workers cannot wait any longer, and our health has been destroyed.”

“We cannot allow this to continue to the next generation,” she said.

The battle over 24-hour shifts has scrambled a field of otherwise natural allies, pitting workers’ rights activists against advocates for disabled New Yorkers who rely on home care and, reportedly, Gov. Kathy Hochul against Council Speaker Julie Menin over questions of funding.

The stalled bill, introduced by Councilmember Christopher Marte of Chinatown, seeks to replace the 24-hour shifts with 12-hour shifts performed by two different workers. But disability advocates and even some worker allies, including the city’s worker protection agency, say the effort must be supported with additional state funding or it risks leaving vulnerable patients without care and workers without jobs.

Workers say they have been pushed to take the desperate step of undertaking a hunger strike.

About 40 workers holding “Stop the 24 Hr Workday” signs sat on folding chairs beside the gates of City Hall in 85-degree weather. Fifteen of them began the hunger strike at 1:00 p.m. A previous hunger strike by about two dozen home care workers in 2024 ended after six days.

Opponents argue the bill does not address how the proposed split shifts will be funded. Home care is heavily subsidized by state Medicaid dollars, which the city has no control over.

Though Zohran Mamdani said on the campaign trail that he supported ending the 24-hour shifts, his mayoral administration has pushed back on Marte’s bill over questions of how it will be funded. 

Asked about Marte’s bill last week, the mayor told THE CITY he’s “long been supportive of any effort to recognize the immense labor of home care workers,” and would let the legislative process play out.

Marte said he’s “optimistic” that he, Menin, Hochul, and other stakeholders will soon nail down a deal.

“We’re continuing to organize and to push to hopefully get it up to a vote,” the next time lawmakers gather to pass legislation, said Marte. A bill he introduced in 2023 also failed to advance.

Last month, more than a dozen disability rights advocates and legal organizations sent a letter to Mamdani and Menin opposing Marte’s bill, saying it would “create a home care crisis that would leave thousands of New Yorkers without the services they need and would force them into hospitals, nursing institutions or shelters.”

Jose Hernandez, 45, who has no mobility of his legs due to a childhood spinal injury, told THE CITY in a phone interview he supports the workers’ struggle to be fully compensated. But he’s concerned that without adequate funding, efforts to grant them relief will leave vulnerable patients behind.

Hernandez, of the South Bronx, said living in a nursing home — the only recourse for disabled clients who lose their home health care — would be a “fate worse than death” that advocates and the disability community have fought for many years. 

“You’re imprisoned in a nursing home for no reason but being disabled and needing help,” he said. “Like, I would lose everything: I would lose my apartment. I would lose every single possession, except the clothes that I have. I would lose my freedom, because I’m not able to get in and out freely in a nursing home. I would lose my employment. 

“I would lose everything — it’s no different than a prisoner going into Rikers Island,” he said.

Estimates from 1199 SEIU, the leading union representing home care workers statewide, say that split shifts would cost an estimated $450 million annually in the five boroughs alone. Gov. Hochul warned Menin she won’t pick up the tab, Documented reported. 

Menin told reporters on Thursday that lawmakers are going back to the drawing board after talks with “a variety of stakeholders.”

“We look forward to sharing a new version of the bill with the governor’s office,” the speaker added.

Home care programs are administered by organizations that receive state funding through Medicaid, over which the City Council has no control. State lawmakers have long opposed similar statewide proposals to split up 24-hour shifts over concerns that, without additional funding, expanded worker protections could cause nonprofit agencies to risk insolvency, cost workers their jobs — and leave vulnerable patients without needed care.

At a Feb. 18 hearing, a representative from the city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection said the agency supported the intent of Marte’s bill while expressing concerns that it could have unintended consequences for patients and workers.

Disability advocates have accused Marte of freezing them out of discussions about the bill. They say that, as currently written, it would increase costs for patients and could force them into nursing homes. 

In an interview with THE CITY last month, Marte dismissed concerns about state funding for the bill and the estimated $450 million price tag was “fear mongering.”

Disability advocates and patients who spoke with THE CITY said they had no idea Marte had reintroduced the bill this year until a month after the Feb. 18 hearing.

Marte called those assertions a “false narrative” aimed at  his credibility and the credibility of the home care workers. He said he has an “open door policy” and that his hearing was heavily promoted on social media ahead of time. 

“I’ve spoken to every kind of stakeholder, even the ones who disagree with our bill,” he said. “I actually think that this bill is going to improve their care.”

The issue has led to profound rifts between patient and worker advocates, to the frustration of some leaders on both sides. 

Sharon McLennon Wier, executive director of the Center for Independence of the Disabled New York, said her organization does “not oppose the fact that home health aides should be paid — we support that each and every hour of their work should be paid for.”

But she underscored concerns that without adequate funding, patients may end up back in nursing homes or institutions, harming their own independence and freedom and home health aides’ job prospects.

Katie Honan contributed reporting.

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When baseball returns to Yankee Stadium on Friday, two elevators at the neighboring subway station will remain on the disabled list — with their return to action still weeks away, according to the MTA.

Contractors for the transportation authority have been replacing five elevators at 161st Street-Yankee Stadium since late 2024, but the MTA said Thursday that some work remains, even after three new lifts went into service on the eve of the home-opener against the Miami Marlins on Friday.

As he passed an ELEVATOR CLOSED sign and slowly climbed stairs to the southbound No. 4 line platform with the help of a cane, Anthony Jerez said the outage that started in November 2024 has been frustrating for New Yorkers in need of a lift.

The work was supposed to have been completed last December, but MTA officials pinned the delays on significant structural challenges stemming from the age of some elevator components.

“For people like me, it’s a big problem,” said Jerez, 28, who underwent knee surgery after a recent accident. “We have to force ourselves onto the platform or else find some other way to go.” 

The two remaining out-of-service elevators that will carry riders to and from the elevated platform on the No. 4 line are set to open “in the coming weeks,” according to the MTA.

“It’s been a minute,” said Yvette Alston, 37, who was pushing a baby stroller through the station Thursday. “Actually, it’s been more than a year, it just feels longer.”

A pair of elevators which connect the station mezzanine with the northbound and southbound platforms for the B and D lines were put into service in the nick of time, on Thursday, along with one at street level.

The work is part of the MTA’s efforts to accelerate the installation of elevators at subway stops across the city. The contract for the 161st Street-Yankee Stadium job was awarded in 2022 as part of a public-private partnership that includes accessibility upgrades at 14 subway stations and nine stops on the Long Island Rail Road.

MTA data shows that the subway system in February had an elevator availability rate — which measures how often elevators are available to riders — of 97%, a figure that Janno Lieber, the authority’s chairperson and chief executive, told the City Council last month is “way, way, way higher than it used to be.” 

“In 2025, we doubled the MTA’s previous record for elevator replacements and we’re on track for another great year in 2026,” Jamie Torres-Springer, president of MTA Construction and Development, said in a statement Thursday. “These modernized elevators are a major improvement for Yankee fans and Bronx riders, making it easier and more convenient to take the train to the game this season.”

Transit officials told the City Council last month that the MTA has shaved the length of time for elevator replacements from eight months to six months. But advocates for riders with disabilities said all five elevators should have been replaced and put in service in time for the home-opener. 

“Timing is everything in baseball and getting these Yankee Stadium station elevators back in time for Opening Day should have been a top priority for the MTA,” said Joe Rappaport, executive director of Brooklyn Center for the Independence of the Disabled, an advocacy organization. “While the MTA has done better in general, they struck out here.”

Prior to going out of service in November 2024, the reliability of the station’s elevators had dipped as low as 88.1% in August 2022, MTA data shows. That figure had climbed to 98.2% a month before the start of the replacement project.

Riders at the stations said they will be happy to have full accessibility restored. 

“I’m out of breath and I have asthma,” Cola Capers, 65, said after taking the station stairs up to 161st Street shortly before one surface-level elevator went back into service. “But maybe I’ll be using the train more now.”

Additional reporting by Kennedy Sessions.

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The MTA is aiming to boost the reliability of express bus lifts that are essential for wheelchair users who often encounter mechanical glitches and drivers who don’t know how they work.

The head of New York City Transit said Wednesday that the agency is upping the frequency of training for bus operators on how to work the hydraulic devices that raise and lower riders with disabilities.

Bus operators are trained on how to use them upon being hired, then have mandatory twice-a-year retraining, according to the MTA.

“We’re looking at giving them three times the amount of training that they are currently receiving,” said Demetrius Crichlow, president of New York City Transit. “We’re also including information within the bus itself that will give them additional information on the operation of that specific equipment for that specific bus.”

Even with an express bus fleet that is fully accessible to people with disabilities, the MTA has, for years, faced criticism over the lifts installed on each of the 1,100 buses that carry commuters between the boroughs and Manhattan.

Unlike the 4,886 buses on local and Select Bus Service routes — which are low-floor rides equipped with surface-level wheelchair ramps — the larger, high-floor express coaches have more intricate hydraulic lifts.

The MTA’s data shows all of those devices have, over a 12-month average, been deployed more than 112,000 times. But the statistics do not distinguish between the ramps on local routes and the lifts on express buses.

THE CITY reported in 2023 on how some wheelchair users avoid the express routes out of fear of being unable to board or exit, or of riding with bus operators who are not schooled on how to properly use the lifts.

“The bus drivers say, ‘I don’t know, I have no idea what to do, I haven’t been trained,’” said Jean Ryan, a motorized wheelchair user and head of Disabled in Action, an advocacy organization.

Representatives for New Yorkers with disabilities said those obstacles discourage people who rely on wheelchairs from riding the express routes, which make fewer stops while carrying an average of 60,000 riders daily between the boroughs and Manhattan.

“It’s not something that should take 10 to 15 minutes and delay a bus that’s supposed to be express,” said Jose Hernandez, a wheelchair user and president of the United Spinal Association’s New York City chapter.

Then there’s the hostility riders with disabilities can face from fellow commuters who grow frustrated by service slowdowns when a bus operator steps away from the wheel to board someone via a lift.

“I’m not doing it anymore — I will not use an express bus because the abuse from other riders was ridiculous,” said Debra Greif, a 67-year-old Brooklyn woman who uses a walker after previously relying on a wheelchair. “People would say, ‘Why don’t you use Access-A-Ride?’”

A survey last year of express bus riders from the office of the city comptroller found that wheelchair users were unable to board nearly 25% of the time — with that number doubling on Staten Island.

The 2025 report from then-Comptroller Brad Lander encouraged the MTA to consider testing and then potentially shifting to buses with low-floor entryways once older coaches are retired.

“Until they develop a strategy where the loading and unloading can be equally as fast as it is for our able-bodied counterparts, the maintenance and the training of bus drivers are still going to lead to longer load times and delays,” Hernandez said.

Dustin Jones, a wheelchair user who regularly uses express buses to travel to relatives’ homes in Far Rockaway and Sheepshead Bay, said it’s “refreshing” when he is given a boost onto the bus by operators who are familiar with the loading equipment.

But he said that is “very rare.”

“Some of them will be honest and tell you, ‘I haven’t done this in a while, so just give me a minute,’” said Jones, who lives in Manhattan. “The only reason why it ends up working out is because I have to tell the driver step by step what to do.”

The MTA has previously said that fewer than 5% of calls from operators about mechanical issues on buses are centered around express bus lifts. Crichlow said Wednesday that the figure is now closer to 1%.

“It is an important population that we need to address,” he said. “And we want to make sure that this fleet — the great, accessible fleet that we have — is available to everyone to use.”

But a Transport Workers Union Local 100 official who represents bus operators on the express routes said he has received at least three calls in the last week about drivers struggling to help passengers in wheelchairs.

“I have operators complaining to the union that they’re not trained, that they don’t know how to use them,” said Mike Capocci, the union’s division chair for MTA Bus Company operators. “They couldn’t load up a wheelchair customer.”

The union official said the level of instruction to bus operators on how to work the lifts has been lacking.

“Handing out a pamphlet is not training,” Capocci said, adding that buses also have QR codes that can be scanned before offering step-by-step instructions for operating the lifts. “I’ve never seen training like that.”

Jones, the wheelchair user from Manhattan, said he feels for bus operators who struggle with the lifts.

“I do understand that if you’re an express bus driver, the odds of you seeing a wheelchair passenger are very slim — there’s not enough of us who ride the bus on a daily basis versus on the local bus,” he said. “However, that should not matter.”

Frank Farrell, executive vice president of buses at the MTA, sounded a similar note at this week’s transportation authority committee meetings.

“Accessibility is not a feature, it is a fundamental expectation,” he said. “Our bus system is fully accessible — when the lifts or the ramps fail, we fail the customer. That is unacceptable.”

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Property owners who failed to clear snowy sidewalks after two major winter storms in a month faced a blizzard of criticism Friday from people with disabilities who were then marooned at home.

At a City Council committee hearing, New Yorkers with limited mobility pointed to snow-clearing lapses from neighbors and the city in creating enough space for wheelchairs on sidewalks and at curb cuts, bus stops and bus shelters.

“It is so stressful to be stuck at home and not know when we will freely and safely be able to go where we need to go,” said Jean Ryan, a motorized wheelchair user. “We have spent weeks being stuck at home, like COVID time without the disease.”

Ryan, the head of Disabled in Action of Metropolitan New York, said she only was able to testify in person after a neighbor in Bay Ridge cleared a path on Thursday. 

“Thank you to whomever shoveled three days after the storm instead of four hours,” Ryan said.

Snowy obstacles shrunk how some with disabilities get around following a January winter storm that was followed by a bitterly cold, weeks-long stretch of subfreezing temperatures. Then came the city’s first blizzard in a decade, which dumped more than 20 inches of snow on the five boroughs.

Originally scheduled for Feb. 23, the hearing was initially set to focus on pedestrian and transit accessibility during the January storm, which hit the city with more than 10 inches of snow and led to 19 outdoors deaths. The blizzard pushed it to Friday, when temperatures hit 40 degrees, finally speeding a melt.

But some people with disabilities still opted to testify remotely, citing continued uncertainty over just how far they could travel before encountering lingering snowy obstacles that are supposed to be cleared by property owners.

Eman Rimawi-Doster, a double amputee who uses a walker to get around, testified remotely  that she “missed everything this week” as a result of being unable to leave her Harlem home.

“Getting to work isn’t just about transportation or workplace accommodations,” said Rimawi-Doster, a senior organizer for disability justice with New York Lawyers for the Public Interest. “It’s also about making sure streets, sidewalks and curb cuts are cleared for us in every borough.”

Councilmember Shahana Hanif (D-Brooklyn), who chairs the disability committee, said that New Yorkers with limited mobility face “persistent barriers” that only worsened during the dual winter storms.

“For many New Yorkers with disabilities, older adults and families with strollers, the question is not how the streets were plowed,” she said. “It was whether they could leave their homes at all.”

While some advocates praised City Hall for clearer pre-blizzard messaging emphasizing that property owners must clear areas near bus stops and carve four-foot-wide sidewalk paths big enough for wheelchairs, Councilmember Gail Brewer (D-Manhattan) said the message has clearly not sunk in enough with some.

She cited a chain restaurant near her Upper West Side district office that she said “didn’t do anything” to clear out space for pedestrians.

“People were stumbling over their mess and then the crosswalk was a mess,” Brewer said.

Javier Lojan, the acting Department of Sanitation commissioner, said more than 4,500 summonses were issued to property owners for not clearing sidewalks, fire hydrants, unsheltered bus stops and crosswalks within hours of the end of the January storm. 

Sanitation has so far issued more than 600 summonses for the latest winter blast, when the department pressed 2,600 workers, 700 salt-spreaders, 2,200 plows and 1,500 emergency snow shovelers into service.

“Together, these two storms demonstrated what we already knew — that no two storms are alike,” Lojan said. “And that our response must be tailored to certain conditions.”

He added that the city would prefer not to issue violations for property owners that don’t hold up their snow-clearing requirements.

“That might be necessary in certain situations where there’s certain chronic property owners [who are] unresponsive,” Lojan said.

But Jonathan Hanon, whose mobility is limited by genetic disorders known as Ehlers-Danlos syndromes, countered that the city needs to do more enforcement.

“The Department of Sanitation needs to do more for people with disabilities … it’s just not acceptable,” he said.

Joseph Rappaport, executive director of Brooklyn Center for Independence of the Disabled, said there is a “disconnect” on who clears what.

“You can point fingers at the property owners,” he said. “But even if the property owner does their job, the Department of Sanitation often does not.”

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City transportation and sanitation officials slid off the hot seat Monday when a City Council hearing on the much-maligned response to a January winter storm was postponed — by another major snowfall that dropped close to 20 inches of snow across the five boroughs.

But the prospect of a second postponement for Friday’s rescheduled oversight hearing at City Hall was scratched Wednesday, after New Yorkers with disabilities who plan to testify about accessibility shortcomings during the dual storms had requested for it to be pushed back again.

Advocates sent a letter to the City Council asking for a two-week delay, noting that still-limited access to sidewalks, curb cuts and bus stops could keep some people with disabilities from attending or testifying in-person. 

“We still had problems getting around last week and that was four weeks after the last storm,” said Jean Ryan, a motorized wheelchair user and head of Disabled In Action of Metropolitan New York. “And just the fact that there were 16 to 20 inches of snow in the city after the blizzard means there’s going to be a lot of snowpiles, even if the temperature is a little bit higher.”

Councilmember Shahana Hanif (D-Brooklyn), who chairs the committee on disabilities, called for the hearing on accessibility and snow removal after criticizing snow-clearing efforts in the wake of the January storm, which left sections of sidewalks off-limits to people with disabilities and mounds of snow at bus shelters and bus stops.

“Since the first snowstorm, I haven’t been able to travel too much,” said Dustin Jones, a wheelchair user who lives in Manhattan. “Then, just when I just started getting comfortable, Mother Nature takes a dump on us all over again.”

The January storm belted the city with more than 10 inches of snow. It was followed by a long run of sub-freezing temperatures that continued to make getting around treacherous for people with disabilities, as some property owners failed to clear areas near bus stops or make four-feet-wide sidewalk paths that could fit wheelchairs and strollers.

“If they do it, it’s exactly the width of the shovel and that’s not wide enough for the wheelchair to go through,” Susan Scheer, who uses a motorized wheelchair, told THE CITY. “They just don’t think about it.”

Then came the city’s first blizzard since 2016 from Sunday night into Monday afternoon, extending the unwanted lockdown for New Yorkers with disabilities. 

“I’m going completely stir crazy,” Scheer said. “It’s been weeks of this.”

The fresh piles of snow barred Scheer, who has spina bifida, from being able to travel by bus from her Lower East Side home to a mandatory every-four-weeks infusion treatment on the Upper East Side.

“My husband, who is ambulatory, went out and came back and said, ‘No, it’s not going to happen,’” she said.

Scheer said she was able to travel to her infusion-treatment appointment after the January storm — but not without a series of obstacles.

“It was bitterly cold and I couldn’t get [the wheelchair] on the sidewalk,” she said. “So I was riding in the street in the very narrow space where the cars were between the snowbanks.”

Scheer, who was central to establishing the MTA’s Access-A-Ride service for people with disabilities more than three decades ago, said she has long been flustered by sidewalks and ramps on street corners not being cleared of snow or slush.

“I brought up this problem in 1986, ‘87, ‘88 and I’ve brought it up every year since then,” she said. “And it’s like a surprise every year that it snows and that everybody has to think all over again about how they’re going to do this.”

In briefings and social media posts prior to the blizzard that started Sunday evening, city officials repeatedly emphasized the responsibility of property owners to clear sidewalks, fire hydrants and unsheltered bus stops. 

Advocates credited City Hall for the shift.

“Before the other storm, the four-feet width on the sidewalk was kind of buried,” Ryan said. “I only saw that once before the [January] storm, but before this blizzard, it was there in all the messaging.”

A City Hall spokesperson said that DSNY has issued close to 18,500 summonses this snow season for failure to clear snow and ice.

But Scheer said it’s clear some property owners do not grasp the extent of their required snow-clearing duties.

“It wouldn’t occur to me to necessarily go over to the bus stop and start shoveling it out, unless it’s made clear to people by their landlord when they sign their lease,” she said.

Janno Lieber, chairperson and chief executive of the MTA, said Wednesday that transit officials were “very appreciative” of Mayor Zohran Mamdani for getting the word out to property owners about their role in clearing bus stops.

“He has a big microphone and he used it and we appreciated that,” Lieber said.

The MTA also used some of its buses to move sanitation workers and emergency snow shovelers to problem spots at blocked bus stops.

“Progress was made, but there’s always a lot of room to make it better,” Lieber said. “We’re still looking at some bus stops that are tough to navigate.”

As for the Friday hearing, people with disabilities will have the opportunity to testify remotely. 

Advocates contend that is a non-starter and that they would much prefer to be at City Hall in person. 

“The disability and senior communities have people who want to testify, but can’t remotely,” Ryan said. “So their voices will not be heard.”

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A new report flags how the shortfall of wheelchair-accessible vehicles from the app-based ride-hailing giants subjects New Yorkers with disabilities to longer wait times.

The “Left Behind Across New York” report from New York Lawyers for the Public Interest notes that just 7% of nearly 106,000 for-hire vehicles licensed by the city’s Taxi & Limousine Commission are wheelchair accessible — a figure they say highlights disparities faced by customers with limited mobility who book rides through Uber and Lyft.

“It honestly feels disrespectful,” said Stefan Henry, a quadriplegic customer who uses a large powered wheelchair. “It just feels like they don’t think that people with disabilities need to go to work.”

Meanwhile, the city’s yellow taxi fleet last summer met a years-overdue legal mandate to make 50% of the in-service cabs wheelchair-accessible by equipping vehicles with ramps. It came years after the city blew a 2020 deadline that came about as part of a landmark settlement of a class-action lawsuit approved in 2014.

TLC data shows that of the 10,694 licensed yellow taxis in service in November, 56% were wheelchair accessible.

“There have been some gains after years of litigation and settlements in wheelchair accessibility in the New York City taxi fleet,” said Justin Wood, NYLPI’s director of policy and author of the report. “But we have not seen the same commitment from these giant and much more profitable corporations.”

The 22-page report notes that the dearth of wheelchair-accessible vehicles from the app-based companies can add to wait times for those who need specially equipped transportation.

Henry, who lives in Manhattan, said trying to book trips through Uber or Lyft often ends in frustration.

“I’ve had to literally not take a ride when I needed it and had to get on the train because it was just impossible to get one,” he said. “Because there’s simply not as much as there would be for able-bodied people.”

A spokesperson for the TLC pointed out that the overall number of accessible for-hire vehicles for the app-based companies has boomed since 2019, when there were only 570 such vehicles in service. There are now close to 7,600 on the road, according to the TLC.

“As the most accessible fleet in the nation, we will always work to ensure that people with disabilities have the same access to transportation as everyone else,” said spokesperson James Parziale. “Since 2019, we’ve seen a 1,200% increase in accessible Uber and Lyft vehicles and implemented rules that have significantly brought down wait times for accessible trip requests.”

The study strikingly points out how Lyft customers had an average wait time of nine minutes for wheelchair-accessible vehicles — more than double the 4.1-minute wait time for its non-accessible rides. According to TLC numbers, Lyft vehicles accounted for 28% of the trips taken in for-hire vehicles in November, the most recent date available. 

The report notes that Uber customers waited an average of 4.3 minutes for wheelchair-accessible service, compared to 2.3 minutes for non-accessible vehicles. Uber was responsible for nearly 72% of for-hire vehicle trips in November, TLC numbers show.

“People are constantly waiting and waiting and waiting,” said Eman Rimawi-Doster, a senior organizer for disability justice at NYLPI and a double amputee.

Uber spokesperson Josh Gold said that more than 10% of all trips on the platform last year were done in wheelchair-accessible vehicles (WAV) — more than double since 2019. He also countered the report’s conclusions on wait times.

“While a difference exists, we also reject the premise that a roughly two-minute difference in reported wait times is significant,” Gold told THE CITY in a statement. “WAV trips often require additional time for safe boarding and proper securement before a trip is formally started in the app — a step that does not apply to non-accessible trips and can influence how wait times are measured.”

Since January 2025, TLC wait-time rules have required dispatchers to meet at least 90% of requests for wheelchair-accessible vehicles in under 10 minutes — a change from the previous mark of 80% in under 10 minutes.

According to TLC, 95.5% of Uber requests for accessible vehicles had a wait time of under 10 minutes in November, while Lyft met the mark 93% of the time.

Among the report’s recommendations is establishing a “modest per-trip surcharge” to help incentivize drivers into buying new wheelchair-accessible vehicles or retrofitting their existing rides. Since 2015, a surcharge on yellow taxi rides that is now $1 per trip has gone to the Taxi Improvement Fund, which annually distributes millions of dollars to medallion owners switching to accessible vehicles.

“There is no equivalent accessibility fund for the for-hire vehicle side,” Wood said.

Proposed legislation in Albany would create a state authority to finance driver purchases and retrofits of accessible electric vehicles and oversee the investment of those funds.

Gold said the idea of adding surcharges on trips is a non-starter for Uber.

“Additional fees on rides in the highest-taxed market in the country are not necessary as WAV drivers are already paid more by law to offset the higher costs of operating accessible vehicles,” he said.

Rimawi-Doster said NYPLI’s push to get more wheelchair-accessible vehicles into service is part of the organization’s to hold the tech companies accountable.

“It’s far too late,” she said. “But it’s still very necessary.”

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A North Bronx subway station is finally on track to have elevators installed — more than a decade after the MTA opted against adding them during a $22 million station renovation.

Transit officials broke ground Friday at the Middletown Road stop on an elevator project which grew out of a federal lawsuit that charged the MTA with violating the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The work at one of the northernmost stops along the No. 6 line is supposed to be completed by the fall of 2027.

“I get tired just walking up these stairs,” said Ramon Gonzalez, 78, who leaned on a cane as he entered the station Friday morning. “Elevators will make a big difference for someone like me.”

The Middletown Road station closed from October 2013 to May 2014 as the MTA replaced track structures, ceilings and staircases. But the authority chose not to install elevators at the time.

The MTA held that the stair-replacement work at Middletown Road was not enough to trigger federal accessibility requirements and that adding elevators would have been too costly. The authority regularly does station enhancements that do not require making stops ADA-compliant.

But the authority’s decision to not add elevators at the North Bronx stop led to two New Yorkers with disabilities suing the MTA in 2016. The Justice Department joined the lawsuit two years later, and a federal judge sided with the plaintiffs in 2019.

“It should have been done from the start,” said Rodolfo Diaz, one of the original plaintiffs in the case.

The 42-year-old Bronx man, a lifelong wheelchair user who has spina bifida, said that the lack of access to the station closest to his home had complicated his ability to travel on mass transit.

“I had to take different routes, so it would take longer to get to my destination,” he said.

Now riders at the Middletown Road stop — which, according to MTA data, averaged just 1,380 commuters on weekdays last year, the 399th busiest of 472 stations — will eventually be among those benefiting from an accelerated rollout on increasing accessibility.

MTA officials said those projects are now moving four times faster than previously. Janno Lieber,  the authority’s chairperson and chief executive, noted that 18% of Bronx subway stations were ADA-compliant prior to the current five-year capital plan, adding that six more have since joined that list, with another nine accessibility projects now under construction.

“The MTA of the past moved at, at best, a moderate pace in complying with the ADA,” Lieber said in response to a question from THE CITY. “And we’re going at light speed, that’s what this capital program and this MTA are about.”

Funding for the projects is being driven, in part, by congestion pricing, the Manhattan vehicle-tolling program that started in January. The MTA is also pushing to meet a legal mandate brought on by the landmark settlement of a lawsuit that requires 95% of all stations to be fully accessible by 2055.

The more than $68 billion 2025-2029 capital program calls for making at least 60 more stations accessible, a sum that would put the entire subway system past the 50% mark.

Dustin Jones, a wheelchair user who formerly lived near the Middletown Road stop, said he would have welcomed having elevators added there during the previous renovation. 

“It was a slap in the face not only to me, but the whole entire neighborhood,” said Jones, who instead rode multiple buses during his commutes.

He said the station’s coming renovation — which will add a pair of elevators moving riders directly between the street and the platforms while bypassing the station mezzanine — is “better late than never.”

“It’s going to be huge for the neighborhood,” said Jones, who now lives in Manhattan. “They’re going to be able to reap the same benefits that I’ve been asking for for almost 10 years now.”

After walking down a station staircase with her suitcase in hand, Paola Ramirez said the elevators will be life-changers for many in the neighborhood.

“Just like I’m carrying this suitcase, you could have a mother with children in a stroller or older people with canes,” Ramirez, 27, said in Spanish. “This work should have been done a long time ago, but I’m glad it’s finally going to happen.”

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