Bummer in the Barb City

And so ends another winter week in the Barb City (they invented barbwire in DeKalb dontcha know).

This week featured my City of DeKalb Advisory Commission on Disabilities meeting. It was a bit of a bummer. The city is having financial problems. This is not a shocker. You see, like many cities, DeKalb has had years of growth by giving developers and businesses big tax breaks and no impact fees. As my friend Sarah pointed out, if you play Sim City enough, it should be obvious to you that eventually you will pay the price. We are there. The infrastructure isn’t in place to support a city our size. The general fund was $500,000 short last year, and the city manager is eliminating 20 jobs to compensate.

This is a bad thing. It seems that one of the commission’s biggest allies might be part of the forced retirements. This person was instrumental in us getting anything done for people with disabilities. These financial problems also make the future existence of our commission a bit cloudy. I am not happy about this.

We’ve done some good things while I’ve been a member. The commission was able to get most of the city to change the accessible parking sign fine amounts to reflect the changed state law. Businesses had been ignoring it until we started going business to business. We’ve also been able to make sure that new building plans comply with ADA. Additionally, we started working with the Park District in order to bring more accessibility to the parks and playgrounds. My daughter can now swing during recess because of this.

Hopefully, the commission will evolve and continue to do good works. It would be a real shame if couldn’t because of poor planning. People with disabilities need a voice. My daughter and everybody like her deserve a city that complies with federal, state, and local law.