Editorial: Access or excess?
March 19th, 2008From the San Francisco Chronicle:
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.
… It’s time for City Hall to do what any sensible homeowner would do when faced with a project whose cost is soaring beyond rationality. Take another look at the design and the line items. If this group of leaders cannot resolve this access issue for far less than $1 million, then the building’s deficiencies are the least of our worries about San Francisco City Hall.
Related item:
Suddenly there’s a ramp crisis, by columnist C.W. Nevius in the San Francisco Chronicle.
As much as you’ve heard about the fuss over building a wheelchair ramp to the president’s podium in the Board of Supervisors’ chamber, there’s one point that hasn’t been made. This isn’t about the project’s $1 million cost, nor the construction, nor the principle of the matter.
This is another case of those bickering supes. Because if the six supervisors who voted against building the wheelchair ramp wanted to stop it, they had ample time months ago. And they didn’t say peep.
Earlier item: Ramping up her cause in San Francisco


