The Traveling Wheelchair

170 Water Street
Plymouth, MA  02360
http://www.villagelandingmarketplace.com/

Village Landing Marketplace, located on the Plymouth waterfront is right across from  East Bay Grille. Recently my family, friends and I had dinner at the Blue-Eyed Crab in Plymouth, located in the Marketplace. With all the times I’ve visited Plymouth, I never knew this Marketplace was here. My friends and I decided to check it out and found it is wheelchair accessible with some obstacles.

Parking is located in the rear of the Marketplace or directly across the street in a public parking lot. We parked our van in the public parking lot in a handicap parking space for free. We crossed a pedestrian crosswalk with safe and easy access from the parking lot to the sidewalk in front of Village Landing Marketplace.

Two entrances to the Marketplace are located on Water Street. The entrance on the right by Cranberry Wine is NOT wheelchair accessible for there are only stairs.

The entrance on the left has a set of stairs but also has a nice cement wheelchair accessible sloped walkway. This entrance leads to the Marketplace where Fedele’s Chocolates & Ice Cream outdoor service window is located.

Once inside the Marketplace you’ll notice it has 2 types of terrain; cobblestone and brick. The brick is easy to wheel on for it is nice and smooth. BUT the cobblestone walkways are difficult to wheel on; it is very bumpy and a very hard ride. I was in my manual chair when I was here so I’m not sure if the ride would have been smoother in my Permobil C350 Power Chair. The cobblestone type of walkway makes such a bumpy ride that it can cause some disabled persons in wheelchairs to be incontinent; and in some people it can even lead to seizures. I didn’t have these problems but have been told this type of walkway has been a problem for some other persons in wheelchairs.

We saw a beautiful Gazebo located here in the Marketplace but it’s NOT wheelchair accessible because there are ONLY steps leading up to it; my Mom and friend Amanda went up to enjoy it but I was left behind feeling lonely at the bottom of the steps. :<( A nice simple ramp here would have been great.

I saw a lot of great little shops and restaurants in this Marketplace. Some are wheelchair accessible but some have steps leading to their entrances. I will do an accessibility review of individual shops at a later date but am going over the general accessibility of this Marketplace for now. Keep checking back for the rest of the accessibility information on the shops and restaurants in this outdoor shopping plaza.

While I was having dinner at Blue-Eyed Crab, I needed to use the restroom. Because they did not have an accessible restroom, I used the public restroom in this Marketplace. Located right in front of the restroom is a coin operated horse customers can ride on. Our friend Ric decided to go for his own bumpy ride! He rode this little horsey as if he was part of a rodeo! ‘Go Get Em Cowboy’! Amanda and I had a good laugh at Ric’s “bumpy” horsey ride as he described it. LOL :>)

Anyway back to the public restrooms. There is a wheelchair accessible ramp leading to the entrance of the restrooms; this ramp is easy to wheel up; and is nice and wide which is always great for wheelchair users.  The entry door is not automatic so you will need some help with opening it; yet it is nice and wide and easy to get though. 

Once inside the restroom I was pleased to see it’s spacious and fully ADA complaint. The pipe under the accessible sink is even covered which is a new ADA requirement.

As we were leaving we noticed a Veterans Memorial located in front of the Village Landing Marketplace. It’s dedicated to the Men & Women who served in the Armed Forces during World War I, World War II, Korean War & Vietnam War. It reminded me of when I recently came to view the Vietnam Memorial Moving Wall in Plymouth. God Bless our Soldiers!

I give the Village Landing Market Place THREE STARS for wheelchair accessibility. In order to earn the other Two Stars they would need to make all the walkways smooth, similar to the brick walkways; install a wheelchair accessible ramp leading to the Gazebo; and install an automatic entry door at the restroom so a person in a wheelchair can enter the restroom independently. 

Amendment: July 26, 2009

Parking:

Recently I parked in the rear parking lot of Village Landing Marketplace. There is one handicap parking space located close to the wheelchair access to the sidewalk.

Wheeling onto the sidewalk is difficult here due to a crack in a pavement that created a rough lip to wheel over. I was in my manual chair and Kevin had to wheel my chair backwards to get over this crack.

I suggest parking in the public parking lot across the street for customers seated in wheelchairs for access is easier.