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Home / އަލްބަމްތައް / San Diego & San Antonio, Spring 1985 27
އުފެދުނު ތާރިޚު / 2013 / Week 28
- ADAPT (194)
San Antonio Express News 4/24/85 PHOTO by Joe Barrera JR: A very intense looking older woman (Edith Harris), hair pulled back in a woman's headband, determinedly grasps the windshield wiper of a city bus. A police officer in a motorcycle helmet with a gun on his hip, grasps her wrist in his gloved hand, trying to get her to let go. Behind them another officer in sun glasses watches them, and behind him you can see another policeman's arm. Caption reads: Edith Harris grabs on to a bus windshield wiper as police try to remove the protester. [Headline] Buses blocked by protesters by Gary Martin, Express-News Staff Writer Handicapped protesters rolled their wheelchairs in front of VIA buses Tuesday morning, demanding access to all public transportation and a meeting with Mayor Henry Cisneros. About 40 members of American Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation (ADAPT) - most from other cities or states - blocked buses at five downtown intersections, creating massive traffic jams. Police called to clear the streets had to remove some of the protesters, who clung to bus windshield wipers or bumpers. Police issued citations charging two protesters with blocking traffic. The misdemeanor charges were filed against a woman from Poughkeepsie. N.Y., and a man from Austin. The protest marked the third day of by ADAPT members. The group is in San Antonio to voice opinions at a conference of the American Public Transportation Association, which regulates interstate and intrastate public transportation. The conference closes Wednesday afternoon with a discussion in the Regency Ballroom West on serving the handicapped. Cisneros met with the protesters Tuesday afternoon at the Convention Center. “I think it's a productive thing you're doing in this city," he said. He told the group his father, who recently suffered a stroke, is a patron of VIAtrans, a system of 20 vans designed to carry people in wheelchairs. ADAPT members criticized the VIA system, saying it is inaccessible to the handicapped. They also denounced VIAtrans, saying service must be arranged 24 hours in advance. Cisneros said he favors l00 percent accessibility to public transportation. But he said the goal cannot be met immediately because of the cost of installing wheelchair lifts on all of the buses. He proposed adding lifts to buses on certain routes. But ADAPT rejected the proposal, saying it would amount to segregation. After hearing a list of demands, Cisneros promised to write letters to Texas congressmen and to the U.S. Conference of Mayors, seeking support from the group's cause. The protesters asked Cisneros to write to President Reagan asking for the reinstatement of federal regulations mandating wheelchair lifts on all buses purchased in the future. But Cisneros said he will not send the letter unless financial assistance is made available to local and state governments. The ADAPT members said they could not promise that they will not hold another street protest. During the Tuesday demonstration. protestors blocked buses from ll a.m. to noon. Police had to remove Edith Harris of Hartford, Conn., who refused to let go of a windshield wiper blade. They unhooked the battery on her motorized scooter and carried her to a sidewalk. Police directed traffic as people poured out of offices to watch. - ADAPT (199)
[Headline] PROTEST: VIA demonstration PROTEST/from B1 door-to-door service,” Cook said. “It’s an effective way to provide transportation. That’s why you don’t see a lot of San Antonians joining you.” But some people speculated the lack of local participation meant the San Antonio handicapped community either is afraid to speak out or did not have transportation to get to the demonstration by ADAPT members from other parts of the country, including Denver and New York. While yesterday’s demonstrators did not include San Antonians, a local handicapped man was summoned by Police Chief Charles Rodriguez to help mediate. "There is a definitely a problem here in San Antonio,” said Tommy Leifester, who calls himself a local leading handicapped rights activist. He said the city’s van system that transports the handicapped has several inadequacies, including a requirement that users must request service up to a week in advance. “If I don’t have a medical certificate and prior approval by VIA Transit, then I don’t ride,” he said. “There’s a judge and a jury who says you can ride a bus. A normal person doesn’t need a medical qualification to ride a bus.” ADAPT leaders said they have asked transit association leaders to introduce a resolution to the full APTA membership proposing the handicapped be provided equal accessibility to public transportation. Ford told the demonstrators the APA board’s policy allows officials from various transit authorities to decide the best ways of serving handicapped people in their separate communities. “APTA has no power to force its attitudes on its members,” he said. “The local option makes sense.” Ford yesterday did grant ADAPT leaders their request to publish an article in APTA’s trade magazine by September. “We got one tiny concession out of the president, ADAPT leader Jean Stewart said after the meeting. “They are utterly in contempt of the needs of the disabled.” The protesters requested VIA officials endorse the resolution to provide public transportation to the disabled and to establish a forum in which the disabled community would be allowed to participate. Cook promised to plan a forum. Stewart said the local community has long supported ADAPT’s proposal of a multi-modal system with both lift equipped buses and door-to-door service. - ADAPT (201)
San Antonio Light Wednesday April 24, 1985 Front page Street Final [1?]04th year, No.93 The Largest and Best Newspaper in South Texas [Headline] Disabled Block Buses 50 protesters in wheelchairs clog downtown S.A. traffic. See Below. PHOTO by Roberta Barnes, San Antonio Light: On a city street a bare-chested man (Claude Holcolm) in a power chair sits in front of a GMC city bus blocking it. On Claude's left a man in a manual chair (Joe Carle?) rolls toward the back of the bus. On Claude's right a man on a scooter rolls down the other side of the bus. Inside the windshield of the bus is a sign that says "APTA." Caption reads: Stopping The Bus: Three Wheelchair-bound protesters block the path of a bus downtown as part of a protest over access for the disabled. - ADAPT (183)
San Antonio Light, 4/25/85 [Headline] Disabled protesters claim win After three days of public protests, members of the American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit said they believe they have accomplished their goal of drawing the public’s attention to the transportation problems they encounter. The organization called off planned demonstrations yesterday after receiving a pledge from Mayor Henry Cisneros that he would seek improvements in local transit services. More than 50 members of ADAPT, who were staying at The Convent of the Holy Spirit, were expected to leave San Antonio and return to their homes in other states. “We have raised the issue substantially," said ADAPT spokesman Wade Blank. “Our issue is a mobility problem for more than 10,000 people in San Antonio," he added. “They are a ‘hidden minority." Sunday, ADAPT members blocked the lobby of the Hyatt Regency Hotel where the American Public Transit Association was holding a regional meeting. Monday, ADAPT members moved into the VIA Metropolitan Transit offices on Myrtle Street and remained for several hours until they met with association officials. And Tuesday, the organization's members blocked VIA buses at several downtown intersections. Two ADAPT members were given citations for obstructing traffic, but no arrests were made. No disabled San Antonians joined the protests during which ADAPT members demanded that VIA buses be equipped with wheelchair lifts. VIA operates a special van transportation service for the disabled. Blank, who charged there is a lack of leadership and organization within the San Antonio disabled community, said it would be up to the people here to take up the issue now. The ADAPT spokesman said San Antonio police officers who dealt with the three days of demonstrations were the “most friendly, and, level-headed police in any city” in which the group has demonstrated. - ADAPT (198)
[Headline] Disabled Advocates Are Rolling on San Antonio This story is a continuation of the article in ADAPT 200 and the entire story is included in 200 for ease of reading. PHOTO: Two bearded, bare chested wheelchair activists (Jim Parker, and [I think] Mike Auberger) are in the foreground. Parker, his shoulder length hair tied back with a bandanna, sits with his foot up on his opposite knee, hands in his fingerless gloves. The two are facing away from the camera and talking with another man who is kneeling down beside them looking up at them. Caption reads: Jim Parker (center) of ADAPT-El Paso meets with a newsman during a picket of McDonald's. Many disabled persons objected to the fast food chain's refusal to immediately retrofit all of its restaurants so that they would be accessible to wheelchair patrons. Parker is currently involved in helping organize a demonstration at the Western Regional Convention of the American Public Transit Association (APTA) in San Antonio Oct. 20 - 24. - ADAPT (192)
PHOTO by unknown person: A large GMC city bus sits on the street in front of the Three Americans Building. It is blocked by Claude Holcomb sitting bare chested and in shorts and hiking boots, in his motorized wheelchair in front of the center of the bus. To Claude's right, Joe Carle in his jean vest and cowboy style hat moves toward the right front corner of the bus. To Claude's left, another man on a scooter wearing a cowboy hat is rolling along the left front side of the bus. The bus appears empty, aside from the driver who is in shadow, but on the right front windshield is a sign that reads "APTA Western Conference." - ADAPT (181)
[Headline] Buses for handicapped S. A. Lighht 4/25/85 There shouldn't be anyone who does not support the cause of the members of American Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation (APTA), that of providing the fullest available mass transit facilities for handicapped people. Ironically, San Antonio has done far more than most other major American cities in trying to meet that need. The para-transit, door-to-door handilift system which VIA Metropolitan Transit has devised is used to a greater extent by handicapped persons in San Antonio than is used by handicapped citizens in Seattle, where the city spend a phenomenal sum of money putting lifts on each city cus. Yet, in San Antonio, APTA chose to bring is national traveling corps of protesters (none from San Antonio) and demonstrate at the meeting of the American Public Transit Association and to disurpt business at the VIA offices here for four hours. Those are valuable hours wasted in serving not only handicapped, as well. Wayne Cook, VIA's general manager, has handled the protests well. He has agreed to establish any type of forum for both handicapped and non-handicapped bus riders to discuss what more might be done to serve bus customers here. The door-to-door system VIA uses for handicapped citizens is not perfect, and Cook recognizes that. He wants to make it better. San Antonians can do that without the intervention of APTA members who have no concern for San Antonio. - ADAPT (182)
[Image] HOTO p.8 June 1985 (photographer and source not identified) Looking down from above, a large group of people with disabilities in wheelchairs sit in a loose set of concentric circles in front of a hotel desk. Two people work behind the counter, apparently ignoring the group. Standing in front of them, leaning on the counter is a TV camera person and his colleague. The folks in the circles hold papers in their laps and many have signes with messages like "We will ride", "...Give a damn", "Access Forever", "No More Segreg..", "APTA discriminates". From the central circle in a clockwise direction, starting at 3 o'clock, is Mark Ball, someone in a hat squatting beside him, a quad who drives with his joy stick in a box in front of his mouth (Mickey Rodriguez?) and his hands laid on his knees, a man with a pony tail in a power chair - Mike Aubeger, two man seated in regular chairs with their legs crossed (apparently APTA spokespeople), someone in a manual sports chair in overalls and with dark hair and holding papers in his lap (maybe Bob Kafka), a man in a cowboy hat in a power chair, a man in a scooter in a fishing type hat with his hands crossed in his lap (maybe Jack from Ohio?), another cameraman standing pointing his camera at two of the ADAPT spokespeople, Laura Hershey sitting in her power chair facing directly at the APTA people, and Jean Stewart in a manual chair turning slighting and looking over her shoulder. Behind Jean sits Ken Heard in his power chair with it's left footrest drive, several women are standing around him. Behind Laura is George Florum and to his left are three other people one sitting on a table and two in armchairs. Behind the cameraman isa lanky person in a manual chair (Jim Parker?). More people in wheelchairs sit behind them but their faces are shadowed so it is difficult to see who they are. - ADAPT (185)
The contents of ADAPT 185 are included in ADAPT 186 because it is a continuation of that article and by combining, reading is easier. - ADAPT (190)
This article is a continuation of the one in ADAPT 191. The text and description of the photo are included there for ease of reading. - ADAPT (220)
continued from ADAPT 222, and starts on 223. The entire story is contained in 223 for reading ease. - ADAPT (222)
This is a continuation of the story in ADAPT 223 and is contained there in its entirety for reading ease.