Wednesday, March 05, 2008

WHO LET THE GROWNUPS IN?

Hallelujah!


The Board of Supes turned down the million dollar wheelchair ramp!

So Michela says she’s gonna sue the City.

I guess the reason given by the 6-5 majority—too expensive—didn’t satisfy.

It’s like, the City wastes money on all sorts of things. It’s discrimination to not waste money on the disabled. We demand equality of waste!

Anyway, for visitors here who aren't familiar with Fog City Journal, please look at their coverage of yesterday’s Board of Supervisors vote, especially the photographs. It’s a great example of what FCJ does best.

I love Luke Thomas’ photography. The ramp vote story contains political portraiture that’s a cross between Rembrandt and Diane Arbus, group-documentation as heavy as anything by Franz Hals, and epic (or mock-epic) storytelling ala Jacques-Louis David.

What I’m trying to say is they’re really, really good.

The copy is superb, but Fog City Journal is like Playboy. No matter how interesting the articles, I look at the pictures first.

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3 comments:

Kathryn Hill said...

Being disabled myself, I'm usually for funding of disability access, but $1.1 million for a 10-foot wheelchair ramp seems excessive in the first place, especially for ONE person. Especially one person who's been criticized by her constituents for not being in the City much and not attending enough meetings. She owns a condo in her district (Pacific Heights) and claims it's her primary residence, but many sources (voting records, public records) claim her primary residence is St. Helena, up in Napa. Although she'd probably counter that if she could get on the speaker's podium she'd go to more meetings, I still think that's b.s. and not having access to the speaker's podium shouldn't keep her from attending BoS meetings at City Hall.

http://sfist.com/2007/07/10/michela_aliotop.php
http://www.fogcityjournal.com/news_in_brief/kirshenbaum_061117.shtml
http://www.sfbg.com/entry.php?entry_id=5111&catid=4

I mean, seriously, THIS is what she's asking $1.1 million for:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?o=1&f=/c/a/2008/03/05/BA8MVDPI5.DTL

That's $100,000 per FOOT. What's that thing made of, GOLD? I agree that the boardroom should be accessible, and there are more practical, affordable ways to do this.

sfwillie said...

Thanks, kosmonaut,

What you say about Michela's residency is one part of what makes her an ineffective advocate.

I wonder if one of the votes agaist the ramp was against her.

Civic Center said...

Have you seen the latest? Mayor Newsom is encouraging businesses who had to construct disabled access to sue the city because, well, just because he's so mad that Michela didn't get her ramp. These little self-entitled princes and princesses are really getting out of control. It's time for a recall.