So-Called "$1 Million Dollar" Ramp in San Francisco City Hall

From the San Francisco Chronicle (February 27):

Wheelchair ramp will cost $100,000 a foot

By Phillip Matier & Andrew Ross

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 Mizner, director of the mayor's Office on Disability. "But this is just the price of doing business in a historic building."...

...Read more.

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UPDATE (3/12):

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted against inputting a ramp in the supervisors' meeting chamber for Supervisor Michela Alioto-Pier, who is paraplegic, despite the requirements of the ADA... Read more.

Comments

[Scott Ricker]

It's amazing how many individuals & agencies put there hands out for a piece of the pie! If it wasn't for Alioto-Pier being part of the function of this facility, the access issue may have never been addressed or would have taken twice as long or longer. Facilities managers will create better work space for the general public/employee without being concerned about the cost, but when it came to access for an individual with a disability, there was and continues to be a high level of resistance! It is truly ashame that even after 15 or so years of the Federal Act for The ADA, Americans continue to discriminate against individuals with disabilities!

[Jerry Costley]

Another testament to the wisdom of following the ADA and doing it right the first time. While still expensive, I imagine they would have saved a lot of time and money incorporating an accessible design into the initial remodeling job. We see this all the time with developers who want to cut ADA corners up front, then complain bitterly about the cost of making it right after the fact.

[Ric]

We are installing a lift in a 200 year old historic home that will retain the historical integrity and not interfere with the usability of the steps. Such a lift as one that would address the 3-4 steps would cost less than $10,000 installed. They are made in Indiana. See them at http://e-z-glide.com/

[Liz]

""It's crazy," admits Susan Mizner, director of the mayor's Office on Disability. "But this is just the price of doing business in a historic building.""

I seriously doubt it is the cost of building a ramp in a historic building. It is the cost of not rewriting building code and reconsidering existing bureaucratic procedures to take the ADA into account. Take the ADA seriously in the first place, how about.

This really burns me up. To think of this BS dragging out for YEARS... in San Francisco, where hundreds of disabled people engaged in serious civil disobedience at the sit in in the Federal Building.

I'd like to back in time and slap some sense into someone.

Access is important, more than Manchurian oak panels.

[rip program]

I finally got around to fixing the errors that were in this blog caused by using MS Word as my editor, (I finally got around to looking at my blog and seeing them). It seems, and I should have known this, that the curly double close quote isn't compatible in here, it leaves a box, and gives validators a headache and ruins my RSS.