ROCHESTER — From a patio seat on Peace Plaza, Chris Mathews smiles as he hears children playing in a nearby water feature. He pauses for reflection as mist comes over the plaza signaling a birth or death at Mayo Clinic. The water feature and the mist are recent additions to the plaza as part of the city's $19.
4 million Heart of the City project. "I love the ideas behind everything that was put into each step of it," Mathews said of the updated plaza. Still, Mathews, who is legally blind, can't help but shake his head.
While the new installations offer a more immersive experience, they do not make up for what he views as the major flaw of the redesigned space. "The execution of all this really turned into something that isn't accessible," he said. Mathews is among disability advocates who have expressed concerns about mobility issues on the plaza ever since it reopened to the public in 2022.
They point to wheelchairs and walkers getting stuck in the raised letterings on pavers that make up a poetry installation by artist Ann Hamilton. And increasingly, they point out bricks on the plaza that have begun to shift and sink — creating tripping hazards for the mobility-impaired. But mostly, they question why in a city that draws more than 1 million health care visitors annually — many of them using crutches, canes and walkers — more consideration wasn't given to individuals with accessibility challenges.
"We are in a place that should be the beacon for the country, if not t.