Beaches with blankets, sunscreen, umbrellas and access for all

Hello, folks. Welcome to the blog.  This post is part of a series in which I try to report news as if I still had a paid job. In some posts, I show readers a few fundamentals of basic journalism and "how we used to do it in my day. I tell ya."

Today, my new column on issues related to disabilities makes its debut. I do not have a name for it yet and it will become separate from Stamford Ink. My journalism career began about 48 years ago when I started writing in a student newspaper about disability topics and campus accessibility at the University of Connecticut in Storrs. 

 Let us fast forward to 2025.

People with wheelchairs, crutches, canes and walkers now can traverse the sand close to the high-tide mark at Stamford's three major beaches.

In May,  the city's Department of Parks and Recreation installed heavy-duty plastic mats at Cummings, Cove and West beaches. 

West Beach and East Beach at Cove Island Park have one mat each. Cummings Beach has one mat on the left side of the rock sea wall near the pavilion. The other is on the right side of the wall. That beach's non-swimming area lies to the left of the wall and the swimming area is on the right. Lifeguards patrol only the swimming beach to the right of the wall.

 The city placed the first beach mat, which went by the brand name, Mobi-mat, in August 2017 on the left side of the Cummings sea wall. Then-Mayor David Martin, other city officials, people with disabilities and news reporters attended the unveiling. Eight years later, the city added mats at all three public beaches.

The original Mobi-mat, however, had at least one drawback. Power wheelchairs, which can weigh up to 600 pounds, sank into the sand underneath them, including mine. A couple of summers ago, several beach-goers at Cummings pushed my wheelchair back to the sidewalk after I get bogged down in the sand. 

I and other members of Stamford Mayor Caroline Simmons' ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) Advisory Council suggested that the Parks and Recreation Department switch to a thicker, more firm mat, such as the one at Oakland Beach in Rye, N.Y. Stamford's new mats lead to rectangular plastic platforms that can support several hundred pounds. 

Stamford is part of a local and nationwide trend. Greenwich installed a $6,000 beach mat at Tod's Point beach in 2019.  The city of Norwalk installed a $7,800, 82-foot long beach mat at Calf Pasture Beach six years ago. The Connecticut towns of Old Lyme and Westport also have beach mats. 

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