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Home / Albums / Tag Moscone Center 10
- ADAPT (345)
Contra Costa Times, Monday, September 28, 1987 Serving Central Contra Costa County (This article is continued in ADAPT 343, but the entire text is included here for easier reading) Photo Title: NO TAXATION WITHOUT TRANSPORTATION Staff Photo by Brad Mangin: A solid mass of mostly wheelchair using protesters fill a park. Above their heads you can see palm trees and a monument, on which a couple of camera people are standing. The protesters are chanting, mouths open, and some are raising their fist in the air. A man in the front is holding a sign that reads "No taxation without transportation." Caption reads: DAN O'HARA of Walnut Creek, left, participates in Sunday's demonstration in San Francisco. Title: Disabled arrested in SF protest By Donna Hemmila Staff writer SAN FRANCISCO — Protesters in wheelchairs, chanting "If you can take us to jail, take us to work," were arrested Sunday at City Hall where they disrupted the opening of a national public transit convention. More than 35 disabled people were hauled into special wheelchair-lift equipped vans on charges of disturbing the peace. Groups of demonstrators blocked the entrance to the City Hall rotunda where delegates from the American Public Transit Association kicked off a five-day convention Sunday. As San Francisco police officers pushed the wheelchairs into the waiting vans, other wheelchair riders parked in front of the vans to keep them from driving away. Captain Michael Pera said the demonstrators would be given citations at the Hall of Justice and released. "The situation was getting out of hand," Pera said. "My understanding was by the demeanor of the crowd, they wanted to be arrested." More than 150 disabled protesters and their families had marched from an afternoon rally at Union Square. The parade of wheelchairs had stopped traffic on downtown streets and demonstrated in front of the Hilton Hotel on Powell Street, where convention delegates are staying. The five-day transit convention is expected to bring nearly 15,000 representatives from transit agencies across the United States to the Bay Area. Disabled organizers have vowed to disrupt the convention, being held at the Moscone Center, to call attention to the transit organization's policy on access for disabled people. Disabled organizers say the APTA is responsible for weakening federal laws that require public transit agencies to equip their buses and subways to carry disabled passengers. A successful lawsuit brought by APTA changed federal law to give local transit agencies the right to decide what type of accessible transit to provide. Many transit districts have chosen to carry wheelchair passengers in dial-a-ride-type vans rather than equip their regular buses with wheelchair lifts. Members of the American Disabled for Public Transit and the September Alliance for Accessibility are demanding to ride the same public transit system that able-bodied passengers use. At the rally in Union Square, the protesters heard pledges of support from Lt. Gov. Leo McCarthy, feminist Eleanor Smeal, the Rev. Cecil Williams from Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco and labor leader Jack Henning. During the rally the protesters chanted curses against APTA and waved signs with slogans such as "No Taxation without Transportation." The songs and chants were punctuated with the clanging bells of passing cable cars, a San Francisco attraction none of the wheelchair riders can board because the cars lack lifts. McCarthy said he backed the disabled community in its fight for independence. Many disabled rely on public transit to go to work and are being denied opportunities because they don't have transportation, he said. "There is no footnote to the Constitution that says everybody gets these civil rights except the disabled," McCarthy said. Disabled speakers fanned the crowd's anger with accounts of their morning meetings with APTA representatives at the Hilton Hotel. Disabled representatives said the wheelchair-accessible door to the hotel was barricaded and they were told to exit through the garage. "The backdoor entrance went out in the '60s with the civil rights movement," said Judy Heumann, of the September Alliance. "We're not going to go through the back door anymore." Albert Engelken, deputy executive director of APTA, denied his organization had ordered the hotel barricaded. "This is not a happy situation," Engelken said as he watched wheelchair users demonstrating on the streets below from the fourth floor window of the Hilton. "Obviously it's a sore spot. Nobody likes this." APTA's executive board has agreed to set up a task force to study their policy, but Engelken said the organization is not ashamed of its stand on disabled access. Only California and Michigan have laws that mandate full accessibility on public buses and rail systems. "You folks in California chose Artie you want and APIA thinks that's great," Englenken said. "We just wonder if the people in California should be telling the rest of us what to do." APTA has estimated it would cost $13 billion to make every public transit system in the United States accessible to the disabled. Staff Photo by Brad Mangin: A woman, Paulette Patterson, surrounded by protesters and signs, has her mouth wide in a chant. She is holding a sign on a stick that reads "We Will ADAPT". Beside her another woman, Maryann Collinsworth, holds onto her chair. Behind them another sign that reads "Transit Access Now" is visible. Caption reads: Paulette Patterson of Chicago waves a sign during Sunday's demonstration demanding better access for the disabled on public transportation. - 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 (768)
San Francisco Examiner TITLE: Disabled protest for more funds for home attendants Subheading: Entrances to downtown Marriott are blocked By Wylie Wong of the Examiner Staff, October 19, 1992 About 300 demonstrators in wheelchairs blocked the entrances to the San Francisco Marriott, calling for more funds to allow the disabled to live outside of nursing homes. Sunday's protest was designed to drew attention to the 16 million disabled people who have no choice but to live in nursing homes, said the Rev. Wade Blank, a co-founder Americans Disabled for Attendant Programs Today (ADAPT). The protesters targeted the American Health Care Association, a nursing-home trade group whose members are staying at the Marriott on Fourth and Minion streets while attending a convention at nearby Moscone Center. ADAPT wants 25 percent of the $27 billion paid to nursing home operators under the Medicaid program to be used to help disabled people pay for personal attendants. But the Bush administration and the health care association, which represents about 10,000 nursing homes, oppose the plan. Only $600 million of that money currently is used for in-home attendant care, said ADAPT co-founder Michael Auberger. Police escorted the protesters on the eight-block trip from their Market Street hotel, and watched as they barricaded themselves at the Marriott's entrances. The protesters chanted. "Down with nursing homes, up with attendant care.” Police were able to keep some entrances open for hotel guests. No arrests were made. Kimberly Horton, who lived in a nursing home from age 6 to 21, described her experience as “living in a prison." "They take away your personal dignity," she said. "You had to eat what they put in front of you. They'd get angry at me for wetting my bed, but wouldn't help when I had to go.” Protester Blane Beckwith, a Berkeley resident, has a personal attendant who takes care of his everyday needs, from taking a bath to preparing food. But state budget cuts have slashed eight hours of care per month. As a result, he has only half an hour per week for grocery shopping with his attendant. "No one can shop for groceries in half an hour, My mother helps me, but she's 62 and can't do it forever." he said. Horton, who wants to take writing classes and become a free-lance writer, fear that more budget cutsar will force him to live in a nursing home. "A nursing home is stifling," he said, "You have no social life. You can't work." Conventioneers who walked past the protesters were unimpressed. "I have no argument with wanting more attendant care,” said John Jarrett, who runs a 79-bed nursing home in New York. "But they shouldn't take it from the elderly,” who would be hurt if ADAPT funding plan were implemented, he said. The demonstrators plan to protest the convention through Friday. A police commander said 90 police officers were on hand. “They haven’t been violent,” he said. “They’ve been very cooperative.“ Last week, officers took two hour classes at the Police Academy to learn how to arrest and search disabled people without harming them. PHOTO by Michael Macor, Examiner: The front of the ADAPT group marching down a downtown street and in the background the line of marchers goes out of sight. Paulette Patterson, Julie Nolan, Carla Laws, Brooke Boston? and Bob Kafka among those leading the march. Photo caption: Disabled people from the group ADAPT make their way down Mission Street to the Marriott Hotel. - ADAPT (752)
San Francisco Chronicle S.F.Police Being Trained How To Arrest Disabled Protesters San . Francisco police are bracing for a demonstration this month in which they may arrest dozens of wheelchair-bound protesters, an event that poses special problems for officers. Groups of officers have been taking a two-hour class at the Police Academy aimed at teaching them how to arrest and search disabled people and prevent wheelchairs from being used as weapons. The demonstration is planned in conjunction with the October 1'/-23 [sic] annual convention at Moscone Center of the American Health Care Association, an organization of nursing home and residential-care facility operators. A Denver group that goes by the name ADAPT, an acronym for Americans Disabled for Attendant Programs Today, plans to have 400 protesters at the convention, said Michael Auberger, its organizer and co-founder. ADAPT wants some of the federal money that goes to nursing homes and residential-care facilities to go for attendant care for disabled people who live on their own. “Over the years, we've used various tactics in different situations," Auberger said. “We're very confrontational, and we're going to make sure we get in their face." The Police Academy courses are being taught by Paul Imperiale, the mayor's disability coordinator. He said officers are learning how to search a -person they have arrested without harming the person. Police also are being warned that some protesters may have life-support devices that must be handled with care. Vans with special wheelchair lifts will be available to take away arrested demonstrators. - 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." - ADAPT (358)
SF Chronicle 9/29/87 PHOTO: BY SYEVE RINGMAN/THE CHRONICLE Four police hold down Lonnie Johnson in his manual wheelchair. They are dressed in dark uniforms, he is in white shirt and pants. His very thin body is lying on his chair, his legs somewhat extended and arms out to the sides in a crucifix-like position. The policeman behind his head has his arm around Lonnie's neck in a choke hold. Caption reads: San Francisco police officers subdued on unidentified demonstrator outside Moscone Center. Title: Transit Demonstrations Cops Bust Disabled Protesters By L. A. Chung Thirty-four disabled people, deliberately blocking streets in a bitter demand for better access to public transit, were arrested yesterday by San Francisco police officers. Twenty-five protesters, many in wheelchairs, blocked Howard Street yesterday morning outside the Moscone Center where the American Public Transit Association is meeting through tomorrow. Then. in the afternoon, nine more disabled people blocked the street outside the downtown Hilton Hotel, where the transit officials are staying. On Sunday 22 protesters were arrested making a total of 56 cited in two days. Calling themselves the September Alliance tor Accessible Transit, the disabled wheeled themselves a mile to Moscone Center, under police escort, to protest, chanting, "Up with Access! Down with APTA!" For more than 10 years disabled people nationwide have pressed for wheelchair access to local buses and trains. However, APTA, in 1981, managed to overturn a federal mandate requiring wheelchair lifts on all new buses. APTA, instead, got a “local option" allowing each transit organization to determine the best way to serve the disabled. At yesterday morning's protest, Judy Heumann of the Berkeley-based World institute on Disability, said, “It‘s a very emotional issue for disabled people to have to come out here and do this." She was not arrested. Police gave the protesters outside Moscone Center three warnings to disperse, then started arresting them. They were taken to the Hall of Justice in a specially equipped Municipal Railway bus that had a wheelchair lift. A special police van with a lift handled the protesters outside the Hilton Hotel. All those arrested for blocking a street and falling to disperse were cited and then released. The protesters said they will be back demonstrating until the convention ends tomorrow. More than 11,000 public transit officials from across the United States and about 50 countries are attending the convention. - ADAPT (355)
Photo by Tom Olin: Four people in wheelchairs, (left to right) Cindy from Mass., Bernard Baker in back, an unknown person with back to camera in motorized wheelchair, and Greg Buchanan, block a wheelchair accessible shuttle bus on a downtown street. In the front window of the bus is a sign that reads Moscone Center. Bernard has his fist raised in the power salute and he and Cindy's mouths are open chanting. Jane Jackson is sitting on the sidewalk behind them near the bus. - ADAPT (344)
Cheyenne Tribune 9/27/87 Title: Disabled to Protest for Public Transit Access SAN FRANCISCO (UPI) - Hundreds of disabled activists say they will demonstrate for more access to public transportation during the American Public Transit Association's four-day meeting, which starts Sunday. Organizers of the protests, aimed at making a point to 4,000 delegates from 400 public transit systems, expected more than 600 handicapped and disabled people from all over the country to participate. Groups including the September Alliance for Accessible Transit have been trying for years to get the APTA, the nation’s public transit lobbying arm, to declare a national policy giving disabled people the same access to buses and trains as able commuters. “If it were women or blacks who couldn't get on the bus, it would clearly be a civil rights issue," said Kitty Cone of the Berkeley, Calif., group. Her organization and Denver-based American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit threaten to block city streets, hotel lobbies and entrances to the Moscone Convention Center to show delegates how it feels to be denied access. Some demonstrators also promised to invade banquets and cocktail parties attended by delegates. “We are not going to allow these people to have a good meal,” said Bill Bolte of the Denver organization. He was arrested earlier this year for a demonstration at a transit meeting in Phoenix. The transit group's policy is that questions of access should be left to local transit districts. “Mainstream access may work well in the Bay Area but don't tell systems in Akron, Ohio, or Buffalo, N.Y., that they have to do the same thing,” said Jack Gilstrap, executive vice president of the association. He said many systems in smaller areas cannot afford to renovate buses and trains or to purchase new vehicles, so have chosen to provide door-to-door van service for the disabled. He also said that protests or no protests, no major policy changes were expected to be adopted during the meeting. Federal regulations approved in 1986 give local agencies the option of using mainstream or so-called paratransit services, such as the door-to-door vans. - 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 (375)
San Francisco September 30,1987 S.F. Independent PHOTO (right middle of page) by Rick Gerharter: At least nine wheelchair users (among them, Rick James, Stephanie Thomas, Woody Carlson, Cathy Thomas or Julie Farrar and others) fill the front of the frame blocking a bus with a sign with the APTA logo and Hotels written on it. Most of the blockers are facing toward the bus, away from the camera. Police stand on either side of the bus. Two protesters have Proud and Disabled bumper stickers on the backs of their wheelchairs. Caption: Disabled protesters blocked a SamTrans bus Monday at the American Public Transit Association convention taking place this week at Moscone Center. [Headline] Bitter Protests at Transit Meet By: Carol Farron [This story continues on a second page we do not have at this time.] Disabled people from throughout the United States are angry and have gathered in San Francisco this week to protest the lack of accessibility on public transit systems throughout the nation. The protesters are hoping to force transit officials who are convening at the annual meeting of the American Public Transit Association to change their thinking on transit accessibility for the disabled. APTA, public transit's biggest lobbying group, took the lead in the early 1980s in convincing Congress to overturn federal regulations allowing full transit accessibility for the disabled. What resulted from that decision was a "local option" plan. This allowed individual transit agencies to decide if they would provide accessibility for the disabled on fixed route service or an alternate van/taxi service. Many disabled `groups` are unhappy with that outcome, charging that the local option denies them their civil rights and impedes or prohibits their ability to attend school or hold down jobs because of a lack of transportation. Additionally, many disabled say that paratransit is a paternalistic system that segregates them from society, and users are made to feel helpless. APTA members contend that full accessibility is expensive and unworkable. They say that equipping buses and trains with lifts is too expensive given the number of disabled riders. The disabled, however, say that transit's estimates of disabled riders are low, and accessible transit can work as cities like Seattle, San Francisco and Denver have proven. More than 200 wheelchair bound men and women said last Saturday at a press conference that because the current regulations deny them their civil rights they came prepared to be arrested - and that they were. Thirty-four people, most in wheelchairs, were arrested at a City Hall protest last Sunday, and another 22 were arrested in for blocking a Samtrans bus at Moscone Center on Monday. Many more arrests are expected until the convention's conclusion this Thursday. "This is a militant bunch of protestors," said Jack Gilstrap, executive vice president of APTA. "These people terrified and roughed up some of our members at city hall. "Just because someone is in a wheelchair doesn't mean they're nice." Marilyn Golden of SAAT, the September Alliance for Accessible Transit, said her group is "far from militant." see Rides, page 2