Seniors say sidewalks can be a minefield for them

A group of seniors is calling for safer streets in areas with high concentrations of elderly people, after a local 82-year-old woman claimed she was pushed by an unknown person and badly injured as she walked through a crowd of students huddled on a sidewalk between Netherland and Johnson avenues at West 235th Street.

“You like to think you’re safe walking down the streets,” said Joan Rock, 80, of the Social Action Committee, a group that works to improve the lives of seniors in Riverdale. “If you fell on your own, that’s one thing, but if you’re being pushed by someone, that’s not acceptable.”

At a meeting on Monday afternoon at the Riverdale Senior Services (RSS) on Netherland Avenue, members of the Social Action Committee discussed plans to draft a petition and reach out to Rep. Eliot Engel, Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz and Councilman Andrew Cohen this month. The activists are seeking a greater police presence during schools’ dismissals along with stronger traffic safety measures. 

Some of them said that they fear walking down the streets after leaving RSS around the time students get out of school. 

“This woman had this terrible thing happen to her,” said Maxine Kaplowitz, the committee’s recording secretary, who is in her seventies. “We feel like it could have happened to anybody. I got a little frightened only because I pass there quite often.” 

According to the senior citizens, after 3 p.m., students from the David A. Stein Riverdale/Kingsbridge Academy (M.S./H.S. 141), the Spuyten Duyvil School (P.S. 24) and Saint Gabriel School regularly block the sidewalk while gathered in front of Pizza Chef at 564 W. 235th St. and Dunkin Donuts at 568 W. 238th St. 

The activists said the students frequently engage in horseplay while pedestrians and shoppers are trying to pass. 

“In most cases, they don’t mean any harm,” said an 85-year-old RSS member who declined to give her name. “But you really have to cross the street and get out of their way because they’re [so] wrapped up in what they’re doing and horsing around that someone could easily get hurt.”

Stumble or shove?