Posted on 07/08/2009 9:00:03 AM PDT by rivercat
The owner of a tiny but famous Sacramento burger joint said a lawsuit about handicapped access could shut him down.
The Squeeze Inn, known for huge mounds of melted cheese on its burgers, violates the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the lawsuit alleges.
Kimberly Block, who says she has severly limited use of her legs, argues she suffered "embarrassment and humiliation" and that her civil rights were violated because of inadequate access inside the Fruitridge Road restaurant.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Sacramento area handicap activists are among the most obnoxious and most litigious anywhere in the US. They are costing the city hundreds of millions in frivolous, nonsensical expenditures that are of no benefit to anyone except weasel attorneys.
The free market adresses both...beautifully.
Do you feel that for instance, all print material should be required to also publish in braile?
I don't think there would be a way to make them so.
The stores are all one step up to the ground floor and only off the street by the width of the sidewalk. There is no room for a ramp.
Would it be right to shut down the whole town?
If I were wheelchair bound, and desirous of the religious experience of a squeeze burger, I would call the place, order my burger over the phone. I would explain that I am going to be coming by in my wheelchair, so please have someone bring the burger out to me, and collect the cash. Either that, or I would just go to the dining patio out back and let the nice waitress take my order.
No I don’t...I also think a business should decide on their own if they want to allow smoking in their establishment or not....or a person who is renting an apartment should be allowed to deny anyone they choose for application for any reason. I may have been hasty in my first response to this thread because I do agree with much of what has been posted, however, I know how frustrating it can be when you are wheelchair bound (like my cousin) and you cannot enter certain places...in my experience with him, almost everywhere is willing to make some sort of compromise to allow his patronage. I suppose that is all I am saying is required in this case....certainly not required is a lawsuit.
Why should other people be punished for someone's disability? That's what this law does. I can understand it applying to government facilities, but not private businesses.
I have used a wheelchair for the last 4 years and do not drive anymore. I use paratransit 5 days per week to go to/from work. The paratransit part of our bus system did not exist before the ADA was passed. Many big city buses and trains have also been made wheelchair accessible thanks to the ADA. So I am very thankful for that part of the ADA as I and a lot of other people with mobility issues would not be working without reliable transportation.
I have worked in IT for 20 years. I was still walking unassisted and driving when I started working for my current employer 10 years ago. Then I used a cane for a few years followed by crutches and then a wheelchair. My employer has been very supportive and I have never felt discriminated against in any way.
The 2 biggest problems with the ADA are that it defines “disability” too broadly and government exempts itself from it too much. Substance abuse is sometimes called a “disability” which is wrong. The ADA should be only for people with real handicaps.
I have found that government buildings are the least accessible. If the government expects the private sector to abide by their laws, they need to follow it too. The biggest instances of discrimination I remember most are with voting locations and jury duty. On the other hand, businesses use usually very accomodating. I could not vote in the voting location 2 different times because it was not accessible. On jury duty in just a municipal case, the attorney asked the judge to exclude me because I could not be seated with the rest of the jury. I am a college-educated native-born American that happens to use a wheelchair. I am entitled to have access to voting locations and sit on a jury.
Why couldn’t they have called ahead told them what they wanted and that they needed to send someone to the door with the order if there wasn’t a drive thought avaliable?
Thanks for your clarifications and I withdraw the flaming arrows I shot at you. ;-)
I hope you are wearing your asbestos suit as the flames will most likely keep coming.
sticks and stones my friend :)
I'm sorry for your cousin's terrible accident and the condition that is so hard now for the rest of his life, NME. I also want to say that please don't assume that wheelchair confinement and its endless difficulties is something that hasn't touched my loved ones lives. I pushed my little sister around in her end years of horrible suffering from brain cancer. I know from her that being wheelchair-bound is nothing less than hell much of the time.
But two wrongs don't make a right. A free market is a fair market.
Why not a drive up window with a wheel chair ramp?
Shouldn't have looked at the burger pic so close to lunch. Now I'm really hungry!
and I want an elevator for me to ride to the top of the Statue of Liberty...
and some free cheeze.
I actually did see someone complaining on another mailing list that the debit-card-swipers in the grocery were too high for her. I don't know if she meant a wheelchair or if she is a dwarf/midget.
My dad and my husband, working together, can make or mend near about anything. They refuse to quit until they have whatever it is working the way they want. Some of the stuff they come up with looks pretty weird (like my father's squirrel-proof bird feeder or my husband's cowboy gun cart) but it all works!
It's a great attitude.
An acquaintance of mine had a co-worker at MCI who he said had been through substance-abuse treatment three times and could not be gotten rid of due to the ADA. They finally managed to fire him when he stole another co-worker's purse.
And their contraptions (LOL) could help others in need if they could package and market them. ;-) You should see some of the welded messes some of my family members have come up with. They’re...um...embarrassing. ;-)
The problem, of course, is that private businesses are directly accountable while governments are not. If a business has a bad attitude and refuses to accommodate its customers, customers will go elsewhere and word of mouth will probably sink them if they're mean enough and make enough people mad. And a business will fire a bad actor who makes its customers unhappy.
But nobody ever fires a government employee, and meanness and refusal to accommodate customers is SOP (just look at the #(*&)&*^! Post Office! I hate dealing with them and avoid them whenever I can.) No consequences, no improvement.
A friend of mine, now deceased, worked for the feds for years. He was never promoted beyond a certain level, and his bosses were quite frank with him that it was because he was a polio victim and walked with crutches and braces. THAT's where the ADA would have really come in handy.
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