Can we PLEASE run our Businesses???

[surfflite]

On a sidebar. Have you ever parked in the "Expecting Mother" space at Walgreens?

I have to laugh at these signs, it's not illegal. I guess people think if you put up some sign that gives orders, EVERYONE should obey it (like our laundromat sings, haha). Besides, nothing is more healthy for an expecting mother, than to get some exercise.

[silver56]

Originally Posted by surfflite

On a sidebar. Have you ever parked in the "Expecting Mother" space at Walgreens?

Haven't done that but one time at the airport I parked my big ol' Chevy Tahoe HYBRID in a special parking spot reserved for hybrid cars only. Some jagoff in a Prius pulled up and started giving me lip about parking there as clearly, having a tank like a Tahoe parked in these prime spots was *NOT* what the environmental ninnies had in mind when they had those spots put in.


As for the topic at hand, could not agree more on the attacks on small business. My folks still own a furniture store that back in the day was a huge $$ earner. However, the local gov't all but blocked every single attempt by my parents to expand and/or improve their business. The tactics were simple but effective - call for environmental study after environmental study, and get consultant reports assessing the "impact" of such plans. Not only are these costly but they also end up opening up cans of worms that no sane business owner wants to open.

Long story short, this local gov't has decimated the local business district with this red tape over the last 25 years and now my folks are hanging on by a thread.

[DaveLevenson]

Before I begin, let me say that I am not attempting to defend government red tape or fraudulent use of resources intended for handicapped people. I have never been handicapped, but I have been close to some who are.

My mother recently passed in her mid 90's. For the last few years of her life, she used a cane, than crutches, then a walker, and for the last year or so, a wheelchair. At some point during this process, she was issued handicapped plates for her car. She gave up driving after she once "got lost" and drove "all over the county" trying to find her way home from what would have been a one or two-mile trip. When she stopped driving and sold her car, she no longer had special plates -- so the state issued a hanging permit. When I visited, she'd always want to go out for a ride somewhere. She'd bring the hanging tag and put it in my car, or in the rental car I'd use if I didn't drive to her place. I could then park in a handicapped spot where we had room to unload the wheelchair, help her out of the car and into the chair, and then reach our destination without having to travel very far on the sidewalk. She was also issued a non-driver ID card which resembled a driver license, and documented her disability. I don't know that she was ever asked to produce it. She enjoyed going out to restaurants -- and we'd always call ahead to verify that the place was accessible.

On one occasion, she spent some time remembering her mother's final years -- back before the ADA. My grandmother mostly stayed at home because almost any kind of travel or entertainment was unavailable to her. Almost no place was accessible - public or private. Public transportation was unavailable. There was no place to eat when she was not at home. There was no place to find a rest room. Even the city parks in Chicago, where she lived, were mostly inaccessible. She brought her WDF load to the local mat, but she'd call ahead and have the attendant meet her outside, as the building itself was not accessible.

ADA, today, is overly demanding and is amended too often, becoming a constantly moving target, apparently designed to remain slightly out of reach for most small businesses. It could accomplish its purpose without being a way for lawyers to get rich. But let's remember that we're all growing older, a day at a time. Some of us will benefit from ADA one day. Life is far better with ADA than it was without ADA.

[jh]

Dave,

This is a good point. I never thought about this. When I saw the handicapped parking spots, which were vacant most of the time, somehow, the pictures in my mind were car accidents...

[Adamski]

Guys,

My mother-in-law is about 85 years old, legally blind and requires full time oxygen due to a poorly funtioning heart (not a former smoker). She doesn't get around very well and lives in an assisted living facility about 5 miles from our house. My wife takes her to the doctors, dentist and out to eat.

At the doctor's office, my wife must push her wheelchair through a double set of doors (air chamber style setup) while pulling an oxygen cart. The receptionist there is obviously not tuned in to helping patients as she does not jump up off her seat to at least hold the doors open for my wife.

Wouldn't you think that all medical facilities and doctor/dentist offices would be required to have automatic doors? This doctor is currently building a brand new office and, hopefully, he will include automatic doors.

The truely handicapped do struggle just to live. That's why they eventually get to a point where they just give up on life. Many of the elderly do not have the strength to operate a wheelchair on a surface that is even slightly off level. A handicap parking space near an entrance allows someone pushing a wheelchair to arrive at the door without expending too much energy. Have you ever pushed a person in a wheelchair? It's harder than it looks.

The ADA needs to pay more attention to regulating facilities where the handicapped actually go and reduce the regulations where they don't go.

[Howard]

Originally Posted by Adamski

Guys,

........The ADA needs to pay more attention to regulating facilities where the handicapped actually go and reduce the regulations where they don't go.

Come on Larry, its obvious you don't understand the function of our government if you really expect that -- it just makes too much sense. The function of government is redistribution and this is just another law designed to take from the small business person (the evil group) and give it to the trial lawyers (the Democrat's funding machine).

[bo]

There is a saying my Dad used to describe the gov't intrusion in small business. " Don't worry about the mule, Just keep loadin the wagon". Translation is that gov't neither understands or is concerned with the affairs of small business. An example is the local turnover of businesses that locate in our small town , just long enough to take advantage of the tax incentives provided to lure them here. Then when the incentives mature ( usually 5 year property tax offsets ) they disappear, typically in a bankrupt condition , only to reappear two counties over in a new building erected with tax payer dollars and again with property tax offsets. My business gets the burden of paying for all this in the form of higher taxes and new fees.
On the topic of ADA compliance, local resorts have been all over the news lately with reports on the hoists they now have to provide at poolside to lift handicapped persons out of the piss filled cesspools at the local hotels. Those things run 4 to 6K each and the law is one lift per pool or jaccuzzi. No sharing.

[MrMachine]

Originally Posted by bo

There is a saying my Dad used to describe the gov't intrusion in small business. " Don't worry about the mule, Just keep loadin the wagon". Translation is that gov't neither understands or is concerned with the affairs of small business. An example is the local turnover of businesses that locate in our small town , just long enough to take advantage of the tax incentives provided to lure them here. Then when the incentives mature ( usually 5 year property tax offsets ) they disappear, typically in a bankrupt condition , only to reappear two counties over in a new building erected with tax payer dollars and again with property tax offsets. My business gets the burden of paying for all this in the form of higher taxes and new fees.
On the topic of ADA compliance, local resorts have been all over the news lately with reports on the hoists they now have to provide at poolside to lift handicapped persons out of the piss filled cesspools at the local hotels. Those things run 4 to 6K each and the law is one lift per pool or jaccuzzi. No sharing.

Now they require hoists? My God, will this never end???

[Adamski]

Originally Posted by bo

..." Don't worry about the mule, Just keep loadin the wagon". Translation ... gov't neither understands or is concerned with the affairs of small business. An example is the local turnover of businesses that locate in our small town , just long enough to take advantage of the tax incentives provided to lure them here. Then when the incentives mature ( usually 5 year property tax offsets ) they disappear, typically in a bankrupt condition , only to reappear two counties over in a new building erected with tax payer dollars and again with property tax offsets. My business gets the burden of paying for all this in the form of higher taxes and new fees...

Bo,

I question the property tax relief that municipalities offer to outsiders with the latest HOT idea that will supposedly provide hundreds of local jobs. They get the 50% tax discount and build a plant and hire the initial workers but within a few years it's all shut down and they never did hire "hundreds of employees".

These flash in the pan schemes are just a drain on society. If the property tax rates are too high for a new industry, then they're too high for everybody. If they're not too high for everybody, then the new industry should pay them too. I've employed people for over 40 years and nobody ever gave me a property tax discount.

[STOUT]

Guys;

I had a wake up call about Handicap parking. When I first purchased my mat we were doing some upgrading. We obtained an old metal office desk, probably 1950s era. These things are large and heavy. I backed the pickup in front of the doors (which is the spot designated for handicap) and unloaded it into the office. Then went out to re-park the vehicle. The whole process took less than 10 minutes. It was also later in the evening and there was no one else in the parking lot or in my mat.

In the meantime a citizen, who had been designated by the city police force to help in parking problems, was passing through and put a parking ticket on my vehicle. I never saw him it was done very quickly with no warning.

Any way I went to the judge and explained my situation to him told him I was the owner of the property and what had happened. He told me this was a federal law and that the fine is $300.

He told me that they have had some public outcry with this person and told me about another situation previously.

A lady we knew was the manager at one of our local banks. She had placed her Christmas presents for her family there and on Christmas day in the morning she went to retrieve them. As we all know all banks are closed on Christmas. She parked in the closest spot to the door which was the handicap area and rushed in to get them before her family awoke.

This same individual was out and also gave her a ticket for parking in a designated handicap area, just like me.

I was shocked at that. Since then I have told my customers that story so if they get a ticket it is not me that gave it to them or called it in.

I am sure the fine is more than $300 now-a-days. So even if you own the property you are also in violation.

Oh... and by the way... the judge forgave the fine and cancelled the ticket.

It nice to have friends in high places.