Residents Up In Arms Over Wheelchair Ramp Outside Of Lower Manhattan Building
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- New Yorkers want their packages to arrive quickly, but as shipping companies set up shop in the city to make that happen, they're hitting some bumps in the road.
As CBS2's Elise Finch reported, there is a FedEx fight brewing. People have been walking single file on a stretch of sidewalk in the Financial District ever since FedEx constructed a large ramp on the side of a building.
"I bump into people quite a bit walking through this alley. It's like an alley," one pedestrian said.
The ramp is on Nassau Street near Pine, and residents of the building at 20 Pine are not happy.
"It's 77 feet long. It's 7 feet high," resident manager Gregory Capizzi said.
"It's a delivery ramp masquerading as an ADA ramp. I fear for anybody going up or down it in a wheelchair," Bernard Urban said.
There are 408 condominiums housed at 20 Pine Street and four commercial spaces.
The FedEx facility has yet to open, but the ramp they built to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act is already up.
There are plazas on two sides of the building and the main entrance on a third, so the ramp was placed on the same side of the building where the trash is put out, reducing sidewalk space in an already congested area.
"Well it's been taken away by, in my opinion, Federal Express from the citizens, tax payers of New York. They came and just took sidewalk away from us in the interest of building an industrial shipping center," Urban said.
Residents told CBS2 that the ramp's location is a problem and they want the people from Fed Ex to sit down with them to remedy the situation.
"We would like the ramp to be indoors. They could have used a conveyor belt type system or a lift in there or a ramp inside their space. It didn't need to be outside the building," Capizzi said.
Pedestrians and residents said they're hopeful the ramp can be re-located since the facility isn't open yet.
A FedEx spokesperson told CBS2 that the ramp was constructed by the building's landlord in compliance with city codes.
FedEx also said the location on Pine Street will serve as home base for foot couriers who deliver packages to a small number of buildings.