A million bucks, for THAT? Did they use some of those $700 hammers and $83 nails?
Posted on 03/17/2008 10:01:57 AM PDT by SmithL
San Francisco should not have to spend $1 million on a wheelchair ramp in the Board of Supervisors chambers to assure equal access for people with disabilities.
There must be less expensive options than the 10-foot ramp that has been through 18 designs and consumed more than $200,000 in planning.
One alternative would be to do what the board has done for the past three years - seat its president near floor level, instead of the ornate, elevated podium that would require a significant retrofit of the historic room.
Board President Aaron Peskin said he would like to find a solution that's "not historically destructive, not discriminatory and not expensive." It's easier said than done, especially with the histories and passions involved.
Supervisor Michela Alioto-Pier, who has been paraplegic and has used a wheelchair since a skiing accident in her teens, said she resents having to carry the torch on this issue - as if there was something selfish about wanting equal access. She's right; it's not fair. She said the president's podium should have been made accessible "at significantly less cost" when City Hall underwent a $300 million renovation in the 1990s. She's right again.
But the reality is, the high podium has not been used since Peskin assumed the presidency in 2005. Alioto-Pier is overreaching to compare the "civil rights issue" of the podium stairs to segregated water fountains in the Deep South, laws against same-sex marriage and Rosa Parks being ordered to the back of the bus.
Mayor Gavin Newsom said the board's 6-5 vote against the $1 million ramp project was "morally, ethically and legally indefensible."
...Alioto-Pier is threatening to sue.
"If I need a judge to tell the Board of Supervisors they have to comply with the ADA, then I'll have a judge tell...
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Mayor Gavin Newsom said the board's 6-5 vote against the $1 million ramp project was "morally, ethically and legally indefensible."This, from Mayor Gavin "Any Twosome" Newsom, who understands nothing about morals, ethics, or legalities, in his management of the Special City.
for $1 million I will personally carry anyone disabled up the stairs and give them a foot masssage too...
For liberals:
numbers are not friends
science is not a friend
logic is not a friend
trial lawyers are friends
marshmallow college majors are friends
muslim extremists are friends
marxists are friends
hippies are friends
single parent households are friends
illegal aliens are friends
See a trend?
Another alternative would be to throw Supervisor Michela Alioto-Pier out office in the next election, but the good people of SF are much too stupid to do that.
I once heard a study that showed that instead of spending tax dollars on installation and maintenance of wheelchair lifts on city buses, every disabled citizen could receive free taxi service and the money saved would be enormous.
If they had brains, they’d take a fraction of that million dollars and buy this ridiculous woman one of those motorized wheelchairs that can go up and down stairs.
She also claims that when she was Al Gore’s advisor, she fought to make the White House wheelchair accessible. My question is, how the hell did FDR get in and out of the joint all those years?
Is there a pic of this thing? It sounds like they are trying to spend millions of dollars on building a ramp up to the perched-on-high THRONE of Ludwig Friedrich Wilhelm II, King of Bavaria.
public works equals public payola.
It is just a sanitized way of concealing corruption.
A million bucks, for THAT? Did they use some of those $700 hammers and $83 nails?
The design guidelines for ADA compliance are found in ADA Architectural Guidelines (ADAAG). For new construction and for the majority of renovations the required slope is 1:12 for certain structures such as historic buildings and where terrain makes that slope impossible a slope of 1:10 is permitted.
I can not imagine it having to cost 1 million dollars to meet this requirment. This is not a case of big old handicap code requirement burdening the little guy. This is a case of government having an orgy with taxpayer money.
Union Labor
You beat me to the punch!
Why not just spend a few thousand dollars and install a vertical wheel chair lift behind the podium?
I'd contribute for a catapult.
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