Comments on: Baleful brownstones: serial ADA complainant hits Upper West Side

By: HFB

HFB — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 22:47:46 +0000

There’s a train station near my house that is up on a hill about 2 stories tall. It has a massive wheelchair ramp to accomodate the difference in height from the parking lot to the landing all in a covered but open concrete pavillion that includes the stairs. The ramp is easily 4 times the size of the stairs. For the number of people who need to access the terminal that would need to use ramp, it would seem to make more sense to follow the gradual burm that was created to make the parking lot, put the handicapped parking right there and just pave a sidewalk up to the landing. Then we could get sued because we “treat” them different.

Frank, you forgot to mention the Nazis….

By: DensityDuck

DensityDuck — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 22:07:34 +0000

Frank: Just in case you were serious, the other difference is that it’s not as though disabled people are entering places and being told to leave; or that there are signs in the windows saying flat-out “no disabled persons welcome”; or that a shopowner would ignore a disabled customer who asked for assistance.

By: McKee

McKee — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 16:12:12 +0000

She is doing a service for people with disabilities. The businesses should be useable by all! Two thumbs up to you Ms. Slone!

By: Jim Collins

Jim Collins — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 15:11:45 +0000

The main problem with the ADA is that there is no hard definition for “reasonable accommodation”.

By: DEM

DEM — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 15:43:20 +0000

Right on schedule, we have someone comparing the ADA lawsuit mill to the civil rights movement of the 60s. If you are against ADA lawsuits run amok, well, you are pretty much a racist!

By: Jim Collins

Jim Collins — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 15:14:32 +0000

Frank,

Several years ago the City of Pittsburgh started demanding that restaurants become handicapped accessible. Several of the downtown restaurants applied for permits to build wheelchair ramps from the sidewalk. These requests were turned down because the City said that the ramps would restrict the flow of pedestrian traffic. So several of these restaurants put ramps in the back of their buildings and setup tables that had room for wheelchairs. Many also setup free handicapped parking spaces. Things were fine until, somebody said that it was demeaning to have to come in through the back entrance and sit near the kitchen and filed a lawsuit. So the restaurants removed the ramps and the free parking spaces per the settlement and now just pay the City a $250 fine per day.
By the way, both of my parents were confined to wheelchairs for the last several years of their lives. I was responsible for getting them in and out of places that they wanted to go.

By: boblipton

boblipton — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 15:10:55 +0000

The difference, Frank, is that it didn’t cost huge gobs of money to comply with equal access for Blacks. Heck, it may have wound up cheaper, given the costs of sign and separate (albeit usually inferior) facilities for Blacks.

Everything is reasonable when some one else is paying the tab.

Bob

By: Frank

Frank — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 14:41:38 +0000

That’s right fellas. Screw the disabled. if they can’t get in to a dozen places, there’s probably a dozen elsewhere that they can access.

They’re like the damned blacks back in the 50s and 60s trying to get in to places. And you see what that led to – now they have equal access with you and me. How is that fair?

By: John Burgess

John Burgess — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 03:07:34 +0000

I see a great future for bulldozers. Flatten all mountain and hills; fill in every valley and gulch. Then we can move onto paving the rivers and removing sand from the beaches.

By: Canvasback

Canvasback — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 02:12:37 +0000

Hell, she’d get more traction if she’d move to Alaska and sue the Feds for access to Mt. McKinley. (Though Mark Inglis, a double amputee, has climbed Everest) That’s no more than what she thinks she deserves. Every building in every city all across the country. Linda, you should run for President.