Written by Julie Kent / President@flnow.org

Sometimes I need to celebrate the small successes.

Back in January, when I went to Tallahassee, I spent a day running around with a representative from Equality Florida named Chris. Chris had previously been an intern in Tallahassee and seemed to know all sorts of people. I ran into Chris again in Orlando when we participated in the Dragon Parade in February. I mentioned to Chris that for years my husband and I had been complaining about the inability to walk from the Cady Way trail to the Herndon Post Office without walking in the street. See the picture below from the Cady Way looking towards the post office. Chris suggested contacting my new city commissioner for District 5, but then realized the aide for the commissioner was a contact. I tried emailing the commissioner, but I had more success emailing the aide. I sent in the picture showing the exit of the post office and another just a little further along showing where the post office driveway exits into the street. This is the street where we have to walk to get into the post office. It is not a busy street or a dangerous street, but there are absent-minded or distracted drivers. The pedestrians on the Cady Way include mothers with strollers and people in wheelchairs, so it seems odd that this trail no longer connects to the post office. It did 20-odd years ago, but the trail was shifted, a retention pond added, and new apartments built. I received via email a link for submitted disconnected sidewalks, and I submitted my request in March.

Nothing happened. Well construction increased, and there were several reported incidents of cars driving on this stretch of the Cady Way, but nothing happened about the sidewalk. I became distracted with other things, like my husband’s retirement. Then we went to Scotland, and when I came back, I drove to the post office to pick up the mail prior to the NOW conference. I did not notice any difference. However, after the week after the conference, my daughter and I walked over to the Post Office, and we found this sidewalk where no sidewalk had been before. Not only did they connect the Cady Way to the post office, they ran the sidewalk in front of the Post Office so pedestrians can walk all the way to Colonial Drive without walking in the street. This may not seem like a big success, but it makes life more pleasant for some.