Posted on 02/27/2008 7:52:59 AM PST by SmithL
Where else but San Francisco City Hall could a 10-foot-long wheelchair ramp wind up costing $1 million?
Thanks to a maze of bureaucratic indecision and historic restrictions, taxpayers may shell out $100,000 per foot to make the Board of Supervisors president's perch in the historic chambers accessible to the disabled.
What's more, the little remodel job that planners first thought would take three months has stretched into more than four years - and will probably mean the supervisors will have to move out of their hallowed hall for five months while the work is done.
"It's crazy," admits Susan Mizer, director of the mayor's Office on Disability. "But this is just the price of doing business in a historic building."
Supervisor Jake McGoldrick said Tuesday that the issue went to the heart of liberal guilt that often drives the city's decision making. He also choked on the price tag, and asked that the board take some more time to come up with an alternative, like maybe just getting rid of the president's elevated seat.
The root of the problem dates back to when City Hall got a $300 million makeover in the 1990s that made just about every hallway, bathroom and office accessible to the disabled. The exception was the board president's podium, which is reachable only for someone who can climb the five steps from the chamber floor.
The understanding was that the room would eventually be made fully accessible. But no one worried about the podium until 2004 when Supervisor Michela Alioto-Pier, who uses a wheelchair, joined the board.
City architect Tony Irons and representatives of the state Office of Historic Preservation - which had to be consulted to make sure the city was sensitive to the building's designation as a state landmark - were called in...
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
liberal guilt at work
There’s an intrinsic insanity about liberalism that reminds me of a dog chasing it’s tail.
Go to places owned by the federal government, like Moro Rock - Sequoia National Park. The federal government is immune to laws like easy access for the handicapped.
They should make it gold-plated. Sure, it would drive up the cost a bit, but the increase, as a percentage of total price, might not be too noticable.
The analogy that comes to my mind is of a dog that eats its own feces.
Nothing more certain in life than death, taxes and bureaucratic stupidity.
Is the People’s Republic of San Freakcisco positioning for its own BIG DIG ???
I’ll build it for $90,000 per foot and save the state a great deal of cash!!!
Liberals can’t build a 10 foot ramp without it taking over 4 years and 1 Million dollars and they want us to let them run the federal government?! Now that is a textbook definition of insanity.
Seriously, could they have put in something like a wheelchair lift that some handicapped vans have? Five steps is only going to be about three feet. That shouldn't be difficult at all for a relatively cheap peice of equipment.
And these people want bureaucrats to make the health system efficient?
Your tax dollars at work SanFran.
I am reminded of the cartoon in Playboy (I read the articles) years ago of lovers leap with a wheelchair ramp to the edge of the little rock wall and a handicap sign next it.
-- $3,500 for an electrical consultant.
-- $68,000 for the Bureau of Construction Management to oversee the construction and various consultants.
-- $12,000 for Department of Technology and Information Services oversight.
I don't know much about construction scheduling, but how can it possibly cost $28,000 to schedule a contractor and some subs to build a ten foot ramp? Then again, I have a distinct feeling that all of these "consultants" are the relatives, friends, lovers, etc. of the Board of Supervisors.
My mother was a big-time Liberal. She marched against the Vietnam War when I was a kid, and all that. But I do remember that there was a bridge two towns over (here in MA) that was being fixed. It was a very small bridge. It pretty much crossed a stream. It was shut down for 7 years while the state government worked to fix it. My mother used to rant and rave, "We won WWII in less time that it takes to fix that bridge!"
But she still thought government could fix problems better than real people. Sigh.
Where can my commercial construction company get in on a bid like that? I’d build it for half that cost! -Wb
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