Disability Access News

Wyatt Buchanan, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, March 7, 2008

Mayor Gavin Newsom said Thursday that businesses in San Francisco should sue the city in response to a vote by the Board of Supervisors earlier this week against a project to build a $1.1 million wheelchair ramp in the board chambers.

Newsom said it was "unconscionable" that the city forces private entities to comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act and yet voted down the ramp leading to the podium used by the board president.

"If I were the private sector, I would sue the city and county of San Francisco right now," Newsom said, adding that hundreds of businesses have had to pay thousands of dollars to make such improvements.

The Board of Supervisors voted 6-5 Tuesday against the project, which would have lowered the podium and added a 10-foot-long ramp to it.

Audio and visual cables throughout the chamber also would have been reconfigured.

The project would have been forced to adhere to strict construction guidelines because of the historic nature of City Hall.

Supervisors opposing the project said they believed it could be done at a lower cost, though the Tuesday vote was on the appropriateness of the work, not the funding of it.

Supervisor Michela Alioto-Pier, who is paraplegic and uses a wheelchair, said Tuesday she planned to sue the city to force immediate compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act.

Newsom said he would "get it done" and Alioto-Pier would not have to follow through on the threat of a suit, though he said both she and the private sector in the city should be furious.