I haven’t written an article since September 22nd and I feel guilty. The primary reason is that I’ve been tied up with other projects, and the secondary reason is that quite frankly I have not had the motivation.
Thanks to Time Warner Cable, I found the motivation this week.
While I am a very private person and I generally don't share much of what I do, even with friends, I thought this was important and worth revealing, as perhaps it would help others.
I recently began volunteering several days a week helping a disabled person; his name is Barry and he lives in my building. Barry also goes to the same dog run as I do so I have seen him frequently over the years in the elevator, around the neighborhood and at the dog run. Recently Barry’s condition has worsened, and he has been in and out of the hospital. He has substantial difficulty with his speech, as well as with walking, motor skills, and balance.
A little over a month ago I saw Barry in a neighborhood store. Actually, it was his dog that I saw and he was roaming freely around the store. I had not seen him for a while, and I had heard that he had been in the hospital and his condition had worsened. I immediately recognizing the dog (it’s a very distinct looking dog) and grabbed the leash.
I found Barry at the register, unaware the dog had wandered off as he was having difficulty keeping his balance and paying for his things; he had inadvertently dropped the leash and not realized it. I offered my help to him and took both he and the dog up to his apartment.
Shortly thereafter I left a note for Barry with the doorman that had my name and telephone number and I offered to help him should he need it, telling him to call me anytime. I was not expecting to hear from him as Barry is very proud, and in the past he has refused simple assistance such as picking up after his dog at the dog-run, as he would prefer to try and do it himself. To my surprise, about a week later he called me and said he needed help. Since that day I have been helping him as much as I can.
A few nights ago he called me at 10pm and told me he needed help and asked me to come to his apartment. I had left him only a few hours before after having walked his dog. On a good day it is difficult to understand him because of his speech disability, though I am starting to be able to figure it out and can usually get the gist of what he is trying to tell me.
The building Barry and I live in is a very nice (and fairly new) modern high-rise in Manhattan. Like most new high-rise apartment buildings built in the last decade, our building offers a percentage (usually 20% under the '80/20' program for developers) of their apartments to Low Income or Middle income qualified individuals and families in exchange for zoning breaks (which may allow them the right to build where they may not have been able to build otherwise, and/or to build out the building larger or higher than may be allowed under normal regulations), as well as low interest bond financing, tax credits and other benefits which make the program beneficial for the developer. In the case of Section 8 housing, a federally subsidized program, the developer receives the balance of ‘fair market rent’ versus the discounted amount the tenant pays, which is 30% of the tenant’s income. Low Income housing is generally for people who are on fixed/government income, while Section 8 and Middle income are for people who are able bodied and working, and meet various income requirements.
I spent 30 minutes sitting in Barry’s apartment speaking with him the other night and as we spoke he told me that his mind was racing and he was upset and didn’t know what to do. As I began to survey the apartment closer, I began to understand why; the walls were closing in on him.
Other than a brother in California and a friend who lives in another borough whom I have met once briefly, Barry has nobody to help him or to turn to. He has an aid from a city agency that comes five days a week from 2:30pm – 5:30pm, but as well intentioned as she may be, for the most part (I have seen her there many times), she sits and reads a book and makes sure he does not fall, and cleans up after him, which though I am uncertain, may be all that she is allowed to do.
The point of all this is that Barry has no Cable TV or Internet Service. This might sound funny to you, almost trivial - poor Barry - living in his government subsidized $3,000 dollar a month luxury high-rise apartment and he has no cable and no internet service , boo-hoo. There are so many bigger problems in the world. Well, let me tell you something, until you sit there with Barry (or any other disabled person who is dependent on government assistance) and experience it yourself, you are in no position to judge. And if you are disabled, this is a very big problem - for you. It is truly heartbreaking.
If you’re thinking, ‘Why doesn’t he just get one of the free digital converter boxes so he can get broadcast TV?”, well, he already has one, and if you have one, good luck to you, as you either need to live on Mount Everest or be a Ham Radio Operator to get a signal. They work only under optimal circumstances, and in New York City the architectural topography is less than optimal.
While Cable TV and Internet service may not be considered ‘necessary services’ such as heat and telephone, I assure you that to a disabled person who is either homebound, has limited mobility, or limited speech or hearing, it is essential, and it is their only link to the outside world.
Imagine for a moment that you are disabled – permanently. You have no wife, no family in the area, and you have restricted mobility, walk with a cane, it takes you 5-10 minutes to walk a city block and you frequently fall down with nobody there to help you up. Now imagine that this scenario causes you to not want to leave the house, primarily because you are afraid of falling but also because you have nowhere to go, and even if you did, you can’t afford to do many things because you are on a fixed income, which in Barry’s case is a little less than $1,200 a month, from which his rent and utilities must be paid. Thus, you sit in the house twenty four hours a day, awake eighteen or more of those hours. What would you do? I can tell you from my experience with Barry that you would sit and stare at the walls – literally. Why? Because though you have a television and a computer that were given to you, you cannot afford Cable TV or Internet service, because there are no discount or subsidized programs for disabled people (or for low income or senior citizens for that matter). Since you are disabled, you have a working home telephone from Lifeline, which is a subsidized and nearly free and you might qualify for a subsidized energy program.
According my conversation with Time Warner today, the cheapest services for Basic Cable (which is Channels 1,2,4,5 and 7) and Basic Internet (Not Dial up, but not high-speed) is approximately $53 a month ($19 for cable, box, remote, taxes and fees + $20 for Internet, taxes and fees). If you want Standard Basic Cable (channels 1 – 82), this is an additional $41 a month ($59 a month), bringing to total monthly bill to approximately $85 a month with taxes and fees. Bear in mind, this is not a fancy setup; no DVR, no HD box, no sports , movie or premium channels, minimum internet speeds of 768k up and 128k down, it’s just the most basic services, which on the $53 dollar a month plan means just channels 1,2,4,5 and 7. This is not exactly luxury by 2010 standards.
Now let’s assume that you, like Barry, are on a fixed income of Social Security/Disability, Medicaid and other government aid and unable to work. Since you are struggling to pay for groceries and basic necessities, $85, or even $52 a month is just not in the cards for you; it’s simply out of reach.
With all of the people out there suffering, starving and who have other problems which are equally or more severe, this may not seem like a priority or a tragedy, however, I can tell you from my own privileged experience, if you think it’s not, please come over with me one day and sit for 15 minutes in Barry’s apartment and speak with him, and then tell me it’s not one of the most important things in the world… to HIM.
Shame on Time Warner, whose 2010, 3rd Quarter profits were up 34% to $360 Million dollars, and whose revenue for that same quarter was up 5.2% to $4.73 Billion. That’s correct; those numbers were for the quarter, NOT the year.
I am not a proponent of forcing private companies (meaning non-governmental) to provide free or discounted services to anyone, even if they are publicly owned, and while Time Warner Cable is technically not a utility such as Con-Edison, they serve the public and provide what in my opinion in 2010 is now considered to be an essential service. And while I also do not advocate Time Warner or any other company being legislatively forced into doing something, I would like to think that perhaps with their over a billion dollar profit in 2010, as well as their approximately 3 corporate jets (Time Warner Inc. owns those), they can have a heart and created a program for the disabled that will provide discounted service, for which I am certain Time Warner would also be offered generous City, State, and Federal Tax Breaks and incentives, as well as millions of dollars in good will and free publicity. Though perhaps the ability to sleep at night might be the least thought of but most significant benefit of all.
Please email Time Warner and tell them to, ‘Have a heart and help the disabled and provide discounted services’:
TIME WARNER CABLE
Jeff Simmermon
Director, Digital Communications
jeff.simmermon@twcable.com
Twitter: @jeffTWC
Director, Digital Communications
jeff.simmermon@twcable.com
Twitter: @jeffTWC
PS. Apologies to Jeff Simmermon for putting his info here, but from my research he is the ONLY Time Warner Cable Exec to have the balls to put his contact information out there online (props to Jeff for that), so I had no choice. From what I have read about Jeff it also appears that he may be the only TWC Exec who has a heart. I guess we shall see…
