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Home / Albomlar / Tags Powell St
+ San Francisco City Hall 3
ADAPT (339)
Public transit officials lament riders defecting to suburbia By Walt Gibbs Of the Examiner Staff 9/27/87 More than 15,000 mass-transit officials from around North America have descended on Moscone Center to debate how bus and train agencies can survive in the age of suburbanization — the age of the auto. "Ridership is now at the level it was in the mid-1960s and half of what it was at the end of World War II," Robert Kiley, head of a national committee studying the future of transit, told members of the American Public Transit Association Monday. He also said transit systems are running further in the red than they did in the past. In 1965, he said, the average passenger fare covered all but 2 cents of the actual cost of a ride; in 1987, the fare is 90 cents short of paying for the ride, and subsidies make up the deficit. "We're at a critical point in our industry's history," said Kiley, chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority of New York. The reason is demographic change, he said. People used to live in the suburbs and work downtown, Kiley said. But as traditional industry wanes and the service economy booms, job centers are springing up in low-density suburbs served poorly by mass transit. Some major corporations in San Francisco, including Bank of America and Pacific Bell, have moved offices to the East Bay and Marin County. Golden Gate Transit, AC Transit and BART are all grappling with ridership declines attributed partly to such changing commute patterns. But these and other Bay Area agencies this week have shined up their buses and train cars and laid aside their local problems to serve as hosts. A prototype of BART's new "C" cars, which will help double the system's capacity, was on display. So was a model car of San Jose's new light-rail system, dubbed SCAT for Santa Clara County Area Transit. Glistening buses representing almost every Bay Area agency streamed past the entrance to the convention hall, where 425 exhibitors from 15 countries showed off the latest in transit technology. "The people of the Bay Area can be justifiably proud," said APTA Chairwoman Reba Malone of San Antonio, admiring everything from the cable cars to BART. Municipal Railway General Manager Bill Stead introduced a nine-minute film, paid for by Bay Area transit agencies, that he said made the regional bus and train network "look like Disneyland." In fact, he said, the 7,000-mile system is a "world-class work horse" serving 1.6 million passengers a day. Only New York and Chicago exceed the Bay Area in the percentage of commuters who use mass transit, he said. In the streets outside the convention, meanwhile, hundreds of disabled demonstrators continued protests demanding full access to the nation's transit facilities. A group called the September Alliance for Accessible Transit has been conducting civil disobedience protests since Sunday by blocking buses or the paths of convention goers. On Tuesday, about 25 demonstrators, mostly in wheelchairs, blocked the cable car line on Powell Street near Market. The transit line was left idle for about 40 minutes as a noontime crowd watched protesters block the cable car's path or get off their wheelchairs and lie on the cable Car turnaround. As of 1 p.m., at least 15 people had been arrested. Fifty-six protesters were arrested Sunday and Monday, mostly on charges of deliberately blocking sidewalks or streets. Demonstrators staged a noisy protest Sunday night in front of City Hall that ended with the arrest of 22 people, 16 of them in wheelchairs, for obstructing traffic. One protester, who was not in a wheelchair, was charged with knocking a police officer to the pavement. The first arrests Monday came after demonstrators, many in wheelchairs, blocked an entrance to Moscone Center where shuttle buses deposited delegates to the transit group's convention. Picture by United Press International displays Disabled protesters block shuttle bus carrying delegates to S.F. public-transit convention. Police charged 25 demonstrators with obstructing traffic and released them. Protest organizer Marilyn Golden said, "Great headway in public transit access for the handicapped has been made in a number of cities, but there is no coordinated national program. That's what we are seeking. If this convention adopts a national policy, we will go away quietly." Officials of the transit group have said they feel the access question should be handled on a local level. John D. O'Connor of The Examiner staff contributed to this report.
ADAPT (364)
San Francisco Chronicle WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1987 This story continues in ADAPT 365 and ADAPT 360 but the entire text is included here for easier reading. Title: Chains Halt the Cable Cars Photo by Jerry Telfer/The Chronicle: Two people in wheelchairs block a cable car. One sits in a manual chair with his back to the camera and another sits sideways to the camera (Mike Auberger) in front of the Cable Car door. They are chained with a long chain to the cable car. From inside, a man (Frank Lozano) stands in the stairwell talking with them. Caption reads: Handicapped demonstrators chained themselves to cable cars yesterday at San Francisco's Powell Street turntable, halting the system for more than two hours. Police arrested 75 people. The protesters have lobbied the American Public Transit Association convention at Moscone Center for improved access to transportation for the disabled. Story on Page A2 Title: Disabled protesters block cable cars; police arrest 78 By John D. O’Connor, of the examiner staff Chanting “We will ride!,” 78 disabled protesters used their wheelchairs and their bodies to block the Powell Street cable car line for more than two hours Tuesday before police moved in to arrest them. Urged on by at least 100 supporters who ringed the cable car turnaround at Powell and Market streets and cheered like fans at a boxing match, some of the demonstrators chained themselves to the cow guards of the little cars as bemused tourists looked on. Forty-three of the protesters wound up spending the night in the not-yet-opened $1 million-plus gymnasium on the seventh floor of the Hall of Justice, Sheriff Mike Hennessey said. “There’s nothing but generally pleasant feelings among them,” Hennessey said after inspecting the facilities for the wheelchair-bound demonstrators, who had refused to sign citations issued by the police. Hollyann Fuller Boies, an organizer with the September Alliance For Accessible Transit, said the group selected the cable cars as the focus of their protest because they symbolized the general inaccessibility of all public transit vehicles. "This is a problem that needs attention now,” Boies said. “It’s not just the cable cars, it’s almost every form of public transportation, and nothing is being done to remedy the situation.” But MUNI spokesman Tom Rockert said the protesters’ wrath was misdirected. “A cable car is just the very last thing we could modify to accommodate a handicapped person,” he said. “It has no power. We’d need an awful lot of batteries to power a lift of the type they’d need. Besides, we’re committed to making our rubber-wheeled fleet more accessible to the handicapped.” Rickert said MUNI’s Elderly & Handicapped Advisory Committee, which is made up of elderly and handicapped people, decided “that cable cars could not be modified to be accessible and that from a technical point of view such a proposal is not feasible, practical or safe.” Boies said the people arrested were willing to stay in jail to draw attention to their cause rather than sign the citations offered by the police. By 5 p.m., most of those arrested appeared ready to do just that. Lt. John Gleeson of the police Tactical Detail said 48 of the 78 arrested had refused to sign and were preparing for a night in jail. Henessey said 43 were housed in the new gym. He said the rest were let go for a future court date because they had no prior arrests in the three days of demonstrations. Hennessey said he and his staff, knowing about the demonstrations in advance, had planned for the protesters to be housed in the gym by borrowing cots from San Francisco and Laguna Honda hospitals and other city-operated medical facilities. “Actually, we anticipated 75 to 80 persons,” Hennessey said. Outside the Hall of Justice on Bryant Street, 75 wheelchair-bound sympathizers held a candlelight vigil Tuesday night and chanted, “Let our people go.” The protesters, who also staged noisy demonstrations outside a convention of American Public Transit Association members at Moscone Center Monday and on the steps of City Hall Sunday night, said that they hope their actions will force APTA to adopt a national policy regarding handicapped access to public transit. Photo by Examiner/Katy Raddatz: A little girl in a wheelchair (Jennifer Keelan) leans forward resting her head on a heavy rope barrier. Behind her, holding a push handle of her chair, a woman (Cyndy Keelan) in an ADAPT no steps/we will ride T-shirt stands among a crowd. All are watching something beyond the camera. Caption reads: Cynthia Keelan and daughter, Jennifer, of Tempe Ariz. From behind cable car rope, they watch protest of disabled.
ADAPT (367)
San Francisco Examiner 10/1/87 Photo by Examiner/Gordon Stone: The frame of the picture is filled with people in wheelchairs, and people standing. All are protesters and in the center a woman wearing glasses raises her hand in a power fist with a piece of paper in it, above her head. In front of him is a woman laying back in her chair (Laurie ___ from Chicago). Everyone is facing forward. Caption reads: CAROL RAUGUST, WITH FLYER, IS AMONG WHEELCHAIR ACTIVISTS They have a quarrel with public transit officials, convening in S.F. Title: Handicapped activists get day in court By John D. O'Connor OF THE EXAMINER STAFF The Hall of Justice resounded with victory whoops and the whirl of motorized wheelchairs as 43 'handicapped activists arrested for blockading the Powell Street cable car line got their day in court. Protesters used their arraignment Wednesday before Municipal Court Judge Philip Moscone as a platform for a new attack against the American Public Transit Association, which they say has not done enough to provide the handicapped with access to public transit. Moscone allowed designated speakers to address the court after each group of blockaders entered no contest pleas to charges of obstructing a public thoroughfare. The $50 fine the charge carried was dropped as Moscone credited the night the 43 demonstrator spent in jail as "time served." A second charge of failing to disperse was dropped "in the interest of justice," according to Deputy District Attorney Randall Knox. Jane Jackson, who spoke on behalf the first group of 14 wheelchair-bound demonstrators arraigned Wednesday, seized the opportunity to charge APTA with denying handicapped citizens of their civil rights. "It is for this reason that we believe Jack Gilstrap (APTA executive vice president) should be asked to resign or should be forced to resign," Jackson said. "APTA is not acting in good faith." More than 15,000 public transit officials from around North America attended the four-day convention. Officials of the transit group have said they feel the access question should be handled on a local level. Jackson also said the coalition of handicapped-rights `groups`, which captured national media attention with four days of protests and blockades across the city, was pulling out of a scheduled meeting with APTA officials Thursday. "It's the only move left open to us," Jackson said later while members of the September Alliance for Accessible Transit and American Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation cheered her and the other blockaders as they exited the courtroom. About 75 wheelchair-bound protesters lined the hallway outside the courtroom, chanting and clapping in approval and support as each group of blockaders were arraigned and allowed to leave. "They're our heroes," said Connie Arnold of San Rafael. "They're standing up for us." During the arraignments, police, sheriff's and emergency medical personnel stood by as defendants were wheeled in or entered the courtroom under their own power. Jennifer Keelan, a 6-year-old girl from Tempe, Ariz., whose bouncy enthusiasm and apparent unconcern over her handicap captivated the press and boosted the resolve of protesters, was wheeled in by a sheriff's deputy and sat writing her name over and over again in a small notebook. Unlike the group's earlier demonstrations, Wednesday's action was peaceful and there were no arrests. Protesters had staged noisy and sometimes violent demonstrations outside the APTA convention at Moscone Center Monday and on the steps of City Hall Sunday night. Handicapped-rights group organizers said Wednesday was their last day in The City as the APTA convention at Moscone Center ended a four-day conference and transit officials left town. But protesters declared the string of rallies and blockades a success. "We made our point," said Marilyn Golden of Oakland. "Now maybe they will listen."