Only in Amerikah!

[Steve]

One of my main Brit hangouts to watch soccer' date=' the Cock and Bull in Santa Monica was hit by one of these guys. I thought the place looked wheelchair accessable although the bathroom would be a tight fit.

 

The pub was struggling financially as it is. To be fair I only got one side of the story but what I was told and what I saw, I thought it was very, very petty. In any business stores try to be accomodating to the physically impaired. Its not about regulations but the 'human' thing to do. A customer if not a store clerk gladly gets things off a top shelf or whatever. The impaired know this. I've seen it. If I were impaired I would be angry at these guys. Their actions, legal perhaps, are frivilous by society standards based on how much we all as a people try and help them and accomodate them.

 

[b'][color:red]These guys alienate the impaired from society and makes us unsympathetic.[/color][/b] You have no idea how much anger I have when I see Rev Al or Jesse file frivilous, extortionary lawsuits. I feel tainted by the animosity that these acts generate. I would probably feel the same were I physically impaired.

 

 

One time I went to a court to file a judgement against an individual who owed me money. The clerk at the court was an 'old hag' who acted the role. After returning to the court for the 3rd time, I told her [color:red]"I have said before please tell me exactly what I need to file the judgement... I just can't keep coming back."[/color] She reached down an pushed a button that summoned the cops. When the cop arrive, I told her and the cop what they did was wrong and they would hear about it.

 

The Justice Department in Washington handled the case. The court was on the second floor. Their was an elevator in the building but the sign said it was for [color:red]"Police Use Only".[/color] Therefore I had to use the stairs. I was on crutches. The [color:red]'Old Hag'[/color] made me go up and down the stairs way too many times. All she had to do was tell me the first time exactly what I needed to bring to the court instead of busting my balls. Her calling the cops did not help matters neither.

 

The Justice Department had a Field Day with these people.

 

From what I have seen, the real [color:red]'enemy'[/color] is lazy governemnt employees, especially Code Officers who get paid but forget to do their job.

 

 

The American Disability Act is an okay Act but is rarely enforced. As an example, how many times do you see cars without handicap plates or placard parked in a handicap space and nothing is done about it? What is even more pathetic is when you point the issue out to a cop and they refuse to do anything about it.

 

I let just about everything slide. I like to think I'm generally good natured and forgiving but when I get angry, I'll go to any means. With the technology available today, I'd probably secretly video (and audio) my ordeal and do what ever I needed to get re-dress. Hard to argue with a visual and audio recording of everything.

 

I once went to one of one those spy stores for such a device to prove some one was being biggest dick since John Holmes.

[unit731]

Building Codes.

 

Now there is talk about mandating all new home residential construction - all homes have sprinkler systems.

 

And this sounds all fine and dandy. Except where I live - we are all on wells and septic systems. No electricity - no water. So if the power goes out in a fire - sprinklers do no good.

 

The bureaurcrats that come from the cities don't quite comprehend all this.

[Steve]

Santa Monica once proposed imposing handicap laws on residential homes. Your own private house was going to have be accessible to handicapped.

 

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/elder071201.asp

 

The measure under consideration requires at least one handicapped accessible ground-level entrance, 36-inch wide hallways and at least one bathroom with a 32-inch wide doorway. This applies to all new Santa Monica homes, as well as those undergoing extensive renovation. Alan Toy, a proponent of "visitability" who sits on the Santa Monica Rent Control Board, suffers from polio. Toy quite bluntly said, "I'm one of those people who thinks community rights supercede property rights." Double-oh, comrade.

 

 

And consider the "plight" of "handicapped" Santa Monica resident Mary Ann Jones. Confined to a wheelchair and crutches for 32 years, Jones, the executive director of the Westside Center for Independent Living, considers the proposed requirements vital "because we can't go see our friends."

 

 

[Bangkoktraveler]

 

The zoning offcers are suppose to make sure businesses ar in compliance' date=' but they don't.

 

Buissnesses are suppose to get an Occupancy Permit but in many cases, they don't.

 

Nobody enforces these laws so all that is left is to file a suit - stupid way of doing things. Once a person sees how much money they can make, they go for the money.

 

 

[/quote']

 

They sure enforce them in NC and SC. I should know. I've owned two. Sheezzzz!

 

 

You might be surprised how lax enforcement of handicap parking is. But then...... there are cops that dish out tickets to everyone, even people with handiap plates. I got a ticket for parking in a handicap parking space and I have a permanent handicap plate. I wanted to go to trial but the agency who gave me the ticket sent me a letter to put on my dashboard so as not to get any mor tickets. Figure that one out, I never could.

[USVirgin]

I think all these things depend (as Corinthian suggested) on the state, county, city and enforcement agency. On handicapped parking, there's a huge enforcement variance between places I frequent all in the same county. LAPD, LBPD, LA County Sheriff, other municipalities' police (see city of Bell scandal) Airport Police, Park Police, Campus Police, Military Police and combinations thereof. I suppose they're all capable of enforcement.

 

As for ADA code, my original link says inspectors are stretched too thin, at least here in California.

[Bangkoktraveler]

I think all these things depend (as Corinthian suggested) on the state, county, city and enforcement agency. On handicapped parking, there's a huge enforcement variance between places I frequent all in the same county. LAPD, LBPD, LA County Sheriff, other municipalities' police (see city of Bell scandal) Airport Police, Park Police, Campus Police, Military Police and combinations thereof. I suppose they're all capable of enforcement.

 

As for ADA code, [color:red]my original link says inspectors are stretched too thin, at least here in California[/color].

 

 

For a business to open, it is suppose to be inspected. Code Enforcement officials are suppose to be doing their job instad of just being on the public dole.

 

But look at the bright side, because of lack of enforcement, several people are adding on to their homes, etc. without building permits.

[LizardKing]

More than likely that the inspectors have been slashed because those greedy GOPers fail to want to pay for civilization, yet bitch when it all goes wrong...

[Flashermac]

Yeah, those damned GOP'ers always do that ... especially in those big cities with Democratic mayors and councils, who are invariably impeccably honest.

 

 

[Hugh_Hoy]

 

HH

[LizardKing]

Yeah, those damned GOP'ers always do that ... especially in those big cities with Democratic mayors and councils, who are invariably impeccably honest.

Hmm, so you're telling me that Dems are both "tax & spend" and "no tax and no spend" all at the same time? No wonder you GOPers are so fucked in the head...