I have questions: little things like “why do 95% of black women vote Democrat?” and “why on Earth are we putting in wheelchair ramps at every intersection in the known universe?”
Now these are not things I am angry about. It is really that, e.g., it is almost impossible to get 90% of humans to agree on anything. So why do 95% of black women all agree to vote Democrat? And, why in tarnation do we need wheelchair ramps at intersections that have never seen a handicapped person in a wheelchair?
Well, I got an answer to the first question a day or so ago when I saw a video of a black woman at a microphone complaining about how all the government bennies that ought to be going to her and her kind were being spent on housing and rent and food for illegal migrants. I can’t find the video, but I remember her quoting million dollar numbers from rent programs and other programs going to migrants. And there was no doubt that, to her, this was going against everything that was right and just. She was facing about four black men. And then one of them asked her if she voted for Joe Biden.
OK. I know that you can’t get 95% of people to do something without scaring the pants off them. And clearly, our Democratic friends are careful to scare their black voters regularly about racist whites. But, watching this woman, I felt that I got something. If you are a black woman in a major city, the whole panoply of government programs is part of what you expect for your support. And the idea that the government might divert some of this money to illegal immigrants is an outrage.
The other thing I wonder about is all the wheelchair ramps at street intersections. Where I live, in Seattle, they are building ramps all the time. And not just downtown but in upscale neighborhoods brimming with Teslas. I don’t know about you, but I’d say that I’ve maybe seen a maximum of five people in wheelchairs navigating an intersection in my whole life.
And don’ get me started on bike lanes.
Today, I was eavesdropping some folks in a cafe in Edmonds, WA. And they were discussing Everett, WA, where the city got a federal grant to construct wheelchair ramps at city intersections. But hey, they said; let’s get more bang for the buck and put a single ramp on the diagonal at each corner rather than two ramps, aligned perpendicular to each other.
Good idea, I’d say. Wrong!
The Feds showed up and said that the ramps were not built to their specs so no grant money.
OK. Just what I’d expect the Feds to do.
But, now I understand what is going down on the wheelchair ramps front. It’s a federal program. No doubt ably assisted by various liberal NGOs and activist groups.
So I did a Google Search and found that in Ocean Beach, CA, they are redoing the handicapped ramps, because the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA).
They have to have the yellow pads with bumps because the bumps “serve as a detectable warning to unaccompanied blind citizens.”
The “curbs had to be replaced because they were one-eighth of an inch too high for ADA standards.”
Yes, but what agency is funding this? Well, if you do a Google Search it is clear that the ADA is a complicated thing that involves not just wheelchair access but employment regulations, wheelchair ramps for homes, architectural barriers, etc.
But here’s an article from the Idaho Business Review about how to get ADA grants for wheelchair ramps, etc.
State grants are available for projects “that improve the mobility and access in all of our communities, large and small, throughout the state.”
“Grant winners must use the most current version of the ITD-0288 inspection form to verify and document that each ramp conforms to ADA compliance. Any completed ramps that do not meet ADA requirements will require corrections at the local grant winner’s expense.”
“A trio of ITD, the Local Highway Technical Assistance Council and the Idaho division of the Federal Highway Administration evaluate all the applications.”
So there you have it.
Some years ago I read a biography of Calvin Coolidge. It said that he spent hours each day combing through the federal budget with the Secretary of the Treasury looking for programs to cut.
Those were the days.