Comments

1
Not that I'm a big Romney fan or anything, but I'm not sure I really see the connection between these two events besides "elevators are involved" and "Romney is a wealthy dick."
2
What's more relevant is the bit in the article about how he kept an elevator in the statehouse locked for his personal use. It was reopened to the public after he left office. That was a government elevator that he tied up at all times so only he could use it. Yet, he did not think finances for elevators for use by the public were as important.
3
@1: If you examine Romney's platform purely in terms of its elevator-friendliness, he's wildly inconsistent. Sometimes he green-lights elevator projects, other times he tells people to take the stairs. One can only speculate about what drives these seemingly arbitrary decisions.

And imagine how this must feel to those in the business of elevating people!

I'm with Paul - either you support elevators or you don't. Romney can't have it both ways.
4
I'm pro-elevator access for those that require it, but pro-stairs for others. How does one court my support? We can't have the escalator party splitting the vote.
5
$40,000 for AN elevator? As in one? It's a little silly to imply "Romney hates disabled people" based on something so silly. Maybe a little more in depth on what this is and why he vetoed it?
6
You can't take a top off of a homeless person but Romney might put the family dog on one and drive him to Canada.
7
Because cars are people, you know!

For those who see no connection between Romney fixating on the necessity of private elevators for himself and his autos (one of which the taxpayers subsidized) but not for the disabled: I have to ask you, why not just add "Bah humbug!" to your post and be done with it?
8
I dunno. It seems like Romney might be just the sort of person to humiliate the homeless by paying them to remove their shirts and give him a horsey-back ride.
9
Yes, $45,000 for an elevator to serve the disabled public, does seem extravagant compared to Mitt buying his own private lobbyist for $23,000 to wrangle an elevator out of the planning commission for the Romney cars.

Why didn't the disabled just hire a lobbyist of their very own? Silly disabled.
10
From my second-hand or third-hand experience, work on elevators is often very expensive and slow; apparently there's a lot of custom work involved.
11
@5: do you know how much an elevator costs? that's not outrageous.
12
so at this point i think you people at the stranger have been paying enough attention to realize that the republican candidates are all a fucking joke and will be steam rolled by obama without any effort.

with this in mind, can we tone down the political posts for a while? maybe start a politics themed blog?

i am so fucking sick of hearing about how shitty everyone in politics is. we get it: the world sucks, the people who run it hate you, and you should kill yourself as soon as you're out of money.

message received.
13
For what it's worth, the dude just started pulling permits for a major vacation home remodel. Even for those with near-endless resources, remodels like those tend to be fairly all-consuming. It's almost as if either he, or is wife, are pretty much expecting to have 2013 freed up.

http://mobile.laist.com/2012/03/27/a_pai…

Elevator access TBD.
14
"Cars are people too, my friend!"
15
@12:

Here ya go:

http://kittentoob.com/blog/
16
Romney is the worst candidate since Dukakis; in fact he might be worse than Dukakis.

There is no way that America elects a man who "earns" $60,000 a DAY doing absolutely nothing.
17

So, let's see, "improving elevators" means some Kleptocrat didn't get the high bid contract he was salivating over?
18
The new "Whitehouse West" needs that elevator for securtiy. It's much safer and far more discreet if one's cronies can visit unseen.
19
@judybrowni:
Being a liberal means being brave, intelligent, and open-minded. It doesn't mean parroting the party line and showing your ignorance. That's what conservatives do, be they on the left or the right.

First, the disabled have a HUGE POWERFUL FUCKING lobbying agency. It's called the ACCD, and our country spends billions of tax dollars every year complying with the ADA regulations they've pushed through congress.

Second, the $40,0000 wasn't being spent on a new elevator, it was "for improvements to an elevator to meet the standards set in the ADA." You know, braille buttons, a bell that sounds when the elevator arrives, wider doors for easier wheelchair access, that sort of thing.

Maybe that's money well spent. Or maybe we should ask the small number of disabled people who use this elevator to forego these conveniences so that we can spend the money sending poor kids to college.
20
@12: Yeah, it sucks that The Stranger forces you to visit their site, click on and read articles you do not want to see, and then go down to the comments to post about it.

Assholes.

We are in a political season dude, and politics are the news of the day. if you don't want to read it, stay away from political news.
21
@12 & 16- this election is NOT a foregone conclusion. Never underestimate (misunderestimate?) the stupidity of the 'mercan electorateor how $$$$ dominates politics.

Faux News will keep harping on death panels or socialism or gay marriage/baby rape ceremonies, in order to get their candidates elected. this is how they get the main stream media to pick up stories.

It is important that the liberal media keep beating the drum pointing out hipocracies to ensure that people understand just how these policies affect real peoples lives.
22
Pointing out here that complying with ADA has been a requirement since, oh, the seventies. Architects have generally been on board for a while, public agencies are still lagging too far behind.

There is no excuse right now for building a sidewalk, or an elevator, or something else that does not comply, especially when federal funding is involved.

What's at issue is retrofitting substandard facilities. Like this elevator. Things that were built long after the ADA rulings, but were not built to standards. The law is that such facilities must be upgraded if any alteration is performed.

For too long the DOJ was overlooking the fact that so much was done not in compliance, and now they are strictly enforcing it.

Had these facilities been built correctly the first time, in compliance with the Federal codes, this would not be happening. But they weren't, so now we have $40,000 elevator retrofit projects.

Expect to see Seattle replace a great many sidewalk curb ramps this summer.
23
@19,

And what if those poor kids are disabled and can't get to their college classes because there aren't enough elevators at public universities?

Basic access to public amenities isn't too much to ask for. If you were disabled, you would be enraged about how impossible it can be to get around.

Please wait...

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