Richard H. Bernstein

After spending everyday in court, I don't have the energy afterwards to be able to fight crime.

This is an important question and I greatly appreciate you asking it.

85% of the blind community is currently unemployed, this is not because people are not hard working, talented and extremely dedicated. The reason that such an unemployment rate exists, is due to the fact that many disabled people have not been blessed with the resources I have been given.

If I had been born into a different family, there is no question that I would not be doing the work that I am currently able to do. The reason that I have dedicated my entire professional career to represent people with disabilities is because I know how lucky I have been.

I consider myself so incredibly blessed is because I have been given the opportunity to understand challenge, difficulty and hardship because of my blindness but at the same time, due to my financial situation, I am able to dedicate myself to hopefully improving the lives of those disabled people who haven't been given the resources I have.

The ability to know challenge while at the same time given the opportunity to do something about it. is why I am so dedicated, focused and so passionate about the rights of the disabled.

That's one of the nicest things anyone has ever said, and it is always on the difficult days that comments like that are what allow for you to keep going.

I love it! How about just "blind justice?"

Unfortunately this is an issue that has yet to be enforced. What is even more remarkable about Central Park we are talking about new construction that wasn't even done remotely correct. When dealing with a curb ramp, there are very specific federal requirements for curb rants and cuts that are designed to ensure that wheel chair users with poor dexterity will not injure themselves. The slope gradients within Central Park for curb rants and cuts are double the incline which is allowed for by federal standards.

This causes tremendous danger because wheel chair users who believe that a curb rant is safe get catapulted into traffic when not done correctly.

The reason they are getting away with this is because they are very expensive and costly cases that are not being enforced.

The blessing I have as being blind is that I don't have to see or watch them.

The purpose of the lawsuit is to allow for pedestrians and bicyclists to share the park. Ultimately, the way that this is going to work, is that there simply has to be one or two access points where pedestrians can cross the loop the encompasses Central Park in a safe manner.

We simply need to have one or two access points, where the cyclists will come to a stop allowing for the pedestrians to navigate in and out of the park safely.

The reason for this is because in order to access the great lawn, the band shell, Shakespeare, you have to get across the 6.2 mile loop that encompasses the entire park.

The automobiles stop for the lights, the bicyclists don't. The reason people are getting injured is because when tourists are attempting to cross when the WALK sign is lit, they are not aware that the bicyclists are NOT going to stop for them.

We must come up with a system where as said before, there will be one or two access points for when pedestrians cross in and out of the park, the bicyclists will come to a complete stop allowing for safe passage.

There are simple solutions that can be put in place with minimal costs that can prevent catastrophic injury from continuing to occur.

I think for me it was the ability to become an attorney was the thing I am most proud of because that was the greatest struggle.

This leads to a very interesting conversation. Blind people are unable to distinguish what colors are. If you have never seen a color, you have no appreciation of it. For example, how you define what blue is unless you have had an opportunity to have seen it at one time. I always like to share the story of Beethoven who as everyone knows was an incredible composer as well as being deaf. The critical thing about Beethoven is that he could hear when he was a child. Had he never heard, he would not have been able to appreciate or understand what music was. The same concept it applicable for blind people. There are simply certain things that having never seen them before, renders it impossible to have an understanding of how they look. In the movies, they always have a blind person touching someone's face. Even after touching someone's face the only knowledge you gain is how it feels. You still will have no understanding or appreciation for what a human face looks like having never seen one. For all intents purposes, blind people live in a different world from the sighted. It is a world without distraction. Most distractions of the material nature come from vision. Blind people are able to experience people and the world at a hightened level.

Thank you so much for your incredible kindness and comment. This is why I was hoping that perhaps my team could meet with members of the Parks department.

If we could just meet with the Park's department I am confident we could come up great solution to this. The challenge so far is that under the Bloomberg Administration is that no one in the City was willing to haev a conversation on this matter.

In my years of practice, I have never come across a defendant like the Bloomberg Administration who wasn't even willing to have a single meeting, a single discussion and a single opportunity to find ways to make a situation that is currently dangerous a little bit better.

To be clear, I was never asking to meet with the Mayor or high up officials, I was simply requesting an opportunity to meet with ANYONE in the parks department that was willing to work on this matter in a positive, constructive, COST EFFECTIVE way.

What is remarkable about what has happened in the case so far, is that NYC under the Bloomberg Administration has spent more on legal fees than what it would've cost to find a positive resolution.

I was able to find private foundational support at no cost to the City who would help to provide staffing for Central Park to make the situation safer.

The Bloomberg Administration refused to even discuss such a proposal which would've been at no cost to the City whatsoever.