Wheelchair Fight
Begins in
By JASON DEAREN, Associated Press Writer Tue Apr 8,
Wheelchair Fight Begins in
When
Michela Alioto-Pier was an
aide to Vice President Al Gore in 1992, she couldn't navigate her wheelchair in
some areas of the West Wing.
So
she threatened to sue, and the White House improved wheelchair access.
Now
a
"When
they voted against it, I looked at other supervisors and said 'Is this
The
perch is only reachable by walking up five stairs. Aaron Peskin,
president of the Board of Supervisors, said he hasn't used it in three years,
opting for a seat at a lower table that is wheelchair accessible. Yet he voted
against making the changes sought by Alioto-Pier,
saying the project's $1.1 million price tag is too much as the city faces a
$338 million deficit.
The
cavernous, oak-lined chamber is lit by gold chandeliers that hang from an
ornately carved plaster ceiling with images from the city's history. The
supervisors sit at one end of the rectangular room and the president's podium
is on a raised platform behind the other supervisors' seats.
Alioto-Pier, who was paralyzed in a 1981 ski lift accident,
promises to fight for accessibility in court. She said the actual cost of the
ramp and handrail are only $140,000, and blamed the project's high price tag on
complications of doing construction in a building that is designated a state
landmark. The city already has spent $230,000 on historical consultants and
architects.
Alioto-Pier said the project's cost ballooned to $1.1
million because of upgrades to the chambers' audio-video equipment.
To
sink the dais, workers would have to remove the flooring and foundation beneath
it, an expensive and time-consuming task. In addition, three panels of the
dais' rare, pricey Manchurian Oak would have to be replaced under the plan.
Gloria
Chan, a spokeswoman for the city's Department of Public Works, estimated that
the lowest the ramp project price could go was $780,000 by keeping work
"in house" instead of using outside contractors. Peskin's
proposal to rope off the area and make modifications to the existing ramps and
supervisors' desks would cost about $547,000, Chan said.
Peskin said he supports legislation that would permanently
make the upper president's podium off limits.
"The
president's podium would be a remnant of an earlier time in history," he
said.
But
Alioto-Pier and disability rights groups say
abandoning the president's podium misses the point that wheelchair users should
have access to the elevated perch just like everyone else has throughout the
city's history.
"The
promise was that (the city) would fix this by making structural changes, not
just roping it off," said Larry Paradis,
executive director of Disability Rights Advocates, a legal advocacy group that
has consulted with Alioto-Pier on a potential
lawsuit.
Alioto-Pier, 39, is the first supervisor to use a
wheelchair. When she was appointed by Mayor Gavin Newsom in 2004, the city
installed a temporary ramp so she could reach her seat.
The
ramp project rejected by the board in March on a vote of 6-5 spent four years
snaking its way through city bureaucracy, and was approved every step of the
way. The board vote was its final hurdle.
Newsom,
an ally of Alioto-Pier's, promised that the ramp will
be built as required by the Americans With
Disabilities Act.
"The
idea that a colleague in a wheelchair would have to sue her colleagues to do
the right thing, when all we're doing is fulfilling our legal responsibilities
to