Paths of Entry : Businesses Asked to Help Make Sidewalks Accessible to Handicapped

Ventura City Councilman Todd Collart has proposed that the city create an “adopt-a-curb” program with local businesses to make Ventura more accessible to handicapped residents and visitors.

The program, proposed Monday, would ask local businesses to pay for installation of concrete ramps in curbs at intersections in exchange for a bronze plaque installed at curbside recognizing the donation.

Some older areas of the city have no ramps, presenting the wheelchair-bound with an eight-inch-high obstacle that forces them into the street to compete with traffic.

The hazard is significant because wheelchairs are low to the ground and difficult for motorists to see, handicapped residents said.

“It’s not a problem for me in the daytime,” said Yolanda Orta, a 28-year-old Ventura resident born with a spinal defect. “But at night, it can get kind of dangerous.”

In addition, handicapped parking in city lots may be inadequate for the number of handicapped residents in the city, officials acknowledge.

Handicapped drivers and passengers need wide spaces that allow room for wheelchair lifts that fold out from side doors or for car doors to open wide enough to remove wheelchairs and other equipment.

The city’s largest public lot--the three-story garage downtown--has only two spaces reserved for the handicapped out of 300. Those two slots are in the underground section, where the 6-foot, 8-inch clearance is too low for the kind of vans that an estimated 80% of handicapped drivers operate.

The state now requires clearance of 8 feet, 4 inches.

Ed Simmons, president of Los Angeles-based Executive Parking, which manages the city garage, said Tuesday that he intends to write a letter to the city asking that more handicapped spaces be set aside.

Collart said Tuesday that he was unaware of the problems at the city garage.

“But if we can make things more accessible, we want to do it,” he said.

Like cities in the rest of the county, Ventura requires all new commercial and public developments to be fitted with bathrooms, sidewalks and parking spaces that are accessible to the handicapped, Ventura Redevelopment Director Miriam Mack said.

In addition, South Coast Area Transit bus service provides wheelchair lifts.

City Engineer Ron Calkins said Ventura has been gradually adding handicapped ramps in curbs, which cost $1,000 to $2,000 each. In addition, the city has budgeted $16,000 a year for the next two years for the ramps.

“But there are hundreds left to do,” he said.

Newer cities such as Simi Valley have fewer problems because the codes requiring access were in place when much of the city was developed, said Brian Gabler, assistant to Simi Valley’s city manager.

“And we are very aggressive in our permitting process in ensuring that builders comply with the handicapped-access codes,” he said.

Linda Galbraith, a board member of Independent Living Resource Center, which has offices in Oxnard and Santa Barbara, said Camarillo and Simi Valley stand out in the county for their handicapped accessibility. Ventura and Oxnard are improving their access to the handicapped, but still fall short of what is needed, she said.

“Our biggest difficulty is finding a place to park,” said Galbraith, who has used a wheelchair since a 1982 car accident. “I’ve almost been hit in a parking lot because I had to park a long distance from the store to find two parking spaces together.”

Galbraith, whose state-funded nonprofit agency helps disabled people live independently, has worked with the city of Oxnard to have 70 curb ramps installed.

She also helped the Ventura County fair board make the fair accessible to the handicapped two years ago. At her suggestion, the board renovated bathrooms, installed ramps to the bingo tent and removed parking lot barriers.

She applauded Collart’s plan to enlist the help of the private sector to make the city more accessible.

“We want to be out of our homes; we want to be a part of the community,” Galbraith said. “But without things like cuts in curbs, we are segregated from the rest of the world.”