The Phoenix Gazette
Monday, April 6, 1987

Photo by James Garcia, The Phoenix Gazette: Woman stands with arm raised, chanting. Behind her people in wheelchairs form a picket line in front of a large building.

Caption: JoAnn Brown of Colorado Springs leads a protest by wheelchair-bound activists at the Hyatt Regency Sunday.

Title: Wheelchair activists block restaurants
Compiled by The Gazette

About 100 members of a militant group of wheelchair-bound activists blocked the roads and entrances to a restaurant Sunday night in an attempt to keep people from attending a steak fry put on by the American Public Transit Association.

Phoenix police arrested 27 protesters. They were taken away in handicapped-accessible vans, cited for trespassing and released, police said.

Police were continuing to monitor the American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit groups today, with a command post at the Civic Plaza. Adams Street, next to the Hyatt, remained blocked and about 20 officers were stationed there.

Chanting and carrying placards Sunday, members of ADAPT lined up across two roads, a stairway and the doors, including the handicapped entrance to the restaurant at The Pointe at South Mountain resort.

The 450 people attending the APTA convention arrived in six Phoenix buses. Some were forced to scramble up a steep gravel incline and enter through the kitchen. Others walked up the back driveway.

“We plan to be here all week and to inconvenience you as much as we can,” called out one protester, who was blocking the stairs.

Earlier in the day, protesters had picketed at the Hyatt Regency, where the conventioneers are staying.

The protesting group, known for demonstrations on behalf of the handicapped, wants all public transit to be accessible to the wheelchair-bound.

“I think they have a just cause, but I think they are carrying it to an extreme,” said Bob Hocken, general manager of the Phoenix Transit System, who walked up the hill from the lower parking lot because the stairway was blocked.

After speaking to the restaurant’s manager, the group agreed to let staff, supplies, and the restaurant’s shuttle buses pass. The restaurant sent a waitress out to serve ice water.

Richard Worth, a spokesman for the Regional Public Transportation Authority in Phoenix, said all of the buses currently on order “will offer wheelchair accessibility.”

Of the 54 bus routes in metropolitan Phoenix, eight offer wheelchair accessibility, Worth said, and 49 of the city’s 350 buses, or 14 percent, are wheelchair accessible.

Handicapped ridership on Phoenix’s routes is estimated at 509,000 per year, or 3 percent of total ridership, he said.

Created on

Thursday 11 July 2013

Posted on

Monday 18 September 2017

Tags

ADAPT - American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit, APTA - American Public Transit Association, arrests, blocking roads, blocking stairs, Phoenix, Phoenix Transit, picket line, Regional Public Transportation Authority, Rustler's Rooste, wheelchair bound

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