Posted on 04/03/2017 1:56:33 PM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
The city of Seattle is headed toward a federal court settlement that could cost millions of dollars to make sidewalks and curb ramps moreusable for people with wheelchairs and other mobility issues.
Three men with disabilities sued the city in 2015 to force the city to make upgrades. They alleged the city was violating federal law because many sidewalks didn't have curb ramps that were accessible.
Linda Dardarian, one of the plaintiffs' attorneys, told the Times that negotiations were "fruitful and ongoing," and that she hoped for a resolution by this summer.
Seattle has been working to improve sidewalks for people with disabilities even as settlement talks are ongoing.
The city hired a consultant to study more than 28,000 curb ramps in the Seattle. The $666,000 report last year mapped the condition andpresence of curb ramps throughout the city.
Seattle is building 500 to 1,000 curb ramps per year, according to Mike Shaw, the city's department of transportation's ADA coordinator.
(Excerpt) Read more at usnews.com ...
I wonder if President Trump can ever get to tort reform. He’s so busy.
“Let’s roll.” /S
Sounds like a handful of handicapped with a grudge and a parasitical lawyer.
We did this years and years ago....maybe 20 or 30 years.
Those damned curb cuts make it easier for cyclists to speedily travel along sidewalks.
.
Good grief.
Those curb ramps have been around for about forever now it seems.
If Seattle hasn’t managed to get around to taking care of them after all these decades, they are remiss.
Los Angeles modified all the curbs in the San Fernando Valley at a cost of many hundreds of millions of dollars. I have lived in the same house for over 35 years and have never seen a wheelchair going down the sidewalk. Not once.
You’re both mobile, no?
Perhaps if you had to live in a wheelchair, you might be of a different opinion.
For me, I think God I can get around on my own two feet without assistance.
Yep. Many “disabled” people and their creepy lawyers make a living by suing unsuspecting companies and governments that aren’t 100% in compliance with the ADA.
Government of all entities has a responsibility to provide accomodations for the people it serves — I can’t believe Seattle has not long ago provided the ramps required by law for every private business owner.
Telling people in a wheelchair that they cannot “walk” in your city because they can’t get off the street onto the sidewalk is absurd, but what do you expect from a liberal enclave?
Meanwhile, it is hilarious that they spend 2/3rds of a million dollars just to get a report about putting in ramps.
My city put in ramps years ago. It isn’t that hard, and doesn’t require a lot of study. If you have a crosswalk, you put a ramp onto the sidewalk, so your wheelchair people don’t get run over by cars when they fall off their wheelchairs trying to jump up a curb step.
FROM THE ARTICLE: The city hired a consultant to study more than 28,000 curb ramps in the Seattle. The $666,000 report last year mapped the condition and presence of curb ramps throughout the city. The $930 million Move Seattle levy, approved by voters in 2015, aims to build 250 blocks of new sidewalks by 2024, with corresponding ramp construction and additional ramp repairs.
It would seem the city is doing what it can, and the slip-and-fall lawyers are taking advantage of the ADA. PS: My brother-in-law was in a wheel chair for 55 years.
The remodel had to meet ADA standards - an elevator was added, doors enlarged and bathrooms upgraded for wheelchair access.
What's my beef? This was the second floor, living quarters for firemen on duty. Has anyone ever seen an active-duty firefighter in a wheelchair?
Seattle has 28,000 ramps which apparently isn’t enough. This is most likely about lawyers and so called “victims” reaching into the taxpayers’ pockets.
Liberal socialist are so subjective.
When states violate fed law liberals like, they sue the stste.
When states violate fed law liberals hate, they claim states rights.
FR: Never Accept the Premise of Your Opponent’s Argument
Noting that I am not trying to be mean to disabled people, and while I think that it would probably be a good idea to appropriately amend the Constitution, it remains that the states have never expressly constitutionally delegated to the feds the specific power to police the states to make sure that the states are making INTRAstate infrastructure user-friendly for disabled people.
”From the accepted doctrine that the United States is a government of delegated powers, it follows that those not expressly granted, or reasonably to be implied from such as are conferred, are reserved to the states, or to the people. To forestall any suggestion to the contrary, the Tenth Amendment was adopted. The same proposition, otherwise stated, is that powers not granted are prohibited [emphasis added].” —United States v. Butler, 1936.
Federal involvement in this disability-related issue is another example why Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, Madison generally regarded as the father of the Constitution, had warned patriots to be on their guard against the already unconstitutionally big federal government unconstitutionally expanding its powers in subtle ways imo.
”I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.” —James Madison, Speech at the Virginia Convention to ratify the Federal Constitution (1788-06-06)
”To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress, is to take possession of a boundless field of power, no longer susceptible of any definition.” —Thomas Jefferson, Jefferson's Opinion on the Constitutionality of a National Bank : 1791
”The system of the General Government is to seize all doubtful ground. We must join in the scramble, or get nothing. Where first occupancy is to give right, he who lies still loses all.” —Thomas Jefferson to James Monroe, 1797.
Drain the swamp! Drain the swamp!
Remember in November ’18 !
Since Trump entered the ’16 presidential race too late for patriots to make sure that there were state sovereignty-respecting candidates on the primary ballots, patriots need make sure that such candidates are on the ’18 primary ballots so that they can be elected to support Trump in draining the unconstitutionally big federal government swamp.
Such a Congress will also be able to finish draining the swamp with respect to getting the remaining state sovereignty-ignoring, activist Supreme Court justices off of the bench.
In fact, if Justice Gorsuch is approved but turns out to be a liberal Trojan Horse then we will need 67 patriot senators to remove a House-impeached Gorsuch from office.
Noting that the primaries start in Iowa and New Hampshire in February ‘18, patriots need to challenge candidates for federal office in the following way.
While I Googled the primary information above concerning Iowa and New Hampshire, FReeper iowamark brought to my attention that the February primaries for these states apply only to presidential election years. And after doing some more scratching, since primary dates for most states for 2018 elections probably haven’t been uploaded at this time (March 14, 2017), FReepers will need to find out primary dates from sources and / or websites in their own states.
Patriots need to qualify candidates by asking them why the Founding States made the Constitution’s Section 8 of Article I; to limit (cripple) the federal government’s powers.
Patriots also need to find candidates that are knowledgeable of the Supreme Court's clarifications of the federal government’s limited powers listed below.
“Congress is not empowered to tax for those purposes which are within the exclusive province of the States.” —Justice John Marshall, Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824.
”State inspection laws, health laws, and laws for regulating the internal commerce of a State, and those which respect turnpike roads, ferries, &c. are not within the power granted to Congress [emphasis added].” —Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824.
”From the accepted doctrine that the United States is a government of delegated powers, it follows that those not expressly granted, or reasonably to be implied from such as are conferred, are reserved to the states, or to the people. To forestall any suggestion to the contrary, the Tenth Amendment was adopted. The same proposition, otherwise stated, is that powers not granted are prohibited [emphasis added].” —United States v. Butler, 1936.
Given how hilly Seattle is, I’m kind of surprised the Feds haven’t demanded lifts or tow ropes for the sidewalks.
I think they are paralyzed by the possibility of climate change, and those pet projects demand funding before anything a Bush signed into law.
Considering it’s libs, a likely scenario.
No, but I once was behind a contractor's truck on Fitzwatertown Rd in Montgomery County that had about a three foot high stack of ladders on it's roof and a handicap designation license plate on it's rear bumper.
For as long as wheelchair ramps have been around, I’m actually surprised that there are non-compliant areas.
I haven’t seen a non-ramped curb in longer than I can remember.
That’s why I don’t get that Seattle still has so many curbs to address yet.
So much for progressive liberalism.
It certainly isn’t like they haven’t had enough time to take care of it by now.
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