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Woman rides wheelchair in street, requesting accessible sidewalk ramps

7 years 1 month 1 day ago Wednesday, February 15 2017 Feb 15, 2017 February 15, 2017 5:26 PM February 15, 2017 in News
Source: WBRZ

BATON ROUGE - A woman living downtown is requesting sidewalks have handicap access around her home.

Lee Landry is in a wheelchair and cannot navigate over the tall curbs. She once asked for help years ago, but her request has not been granted.

"We don't have a handicap ramp to cross the street," said Landry.

If she wants to get stamps, Landry must enter the busy street and travel along with the cars and trucks to the post office. If she needs to make a trip to the grocery store, Landry risks her life to cross traffic and drive with the flow of the other vehicles three blocks to the bus stop.

Landry used to catch the bus outside of her home with no issues, but the bus stop is no longer operational.

"We have to go over to Florida Street to catch the bus," she said.

To take the bus or go anywhere else, she rides in the street.

The 8-inch curbs pose a big problem.

"There's no where to go, except turn around and go back," she said.

Landry lives on North Street at North 7th Street. It's been home for over 20 years. She remembers asking Metro Council member Tara Wicker about making changes to the intersection about eight years ago and has been waiting ever since.

As time goes on, Landry says traffic has gotten worse. She's worried about the danger, especially after almost being hit by a car.

She contacted 2 On Your Side and WBRZ connected Landry with a Department of Public Works engineer. Landry says the two met Wednesday afternoon to discuss making some improvements to the intersection. This could include re-striping and creating handicap ramps near her home.

She expects to hear more next week. This story will be updated.

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