“All New” Plumas Street

The “all new” Plumas Street renovations are an absolute joke. The person who was in charge of the renovations had no consideration for those with disabilities. Yuba City Public Works Director George Musallam is “not aware” of ADA requirements for handicap parking? I find that hard to believe. = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” />

Instead the city put spaces for the disabled on side streets as close as they could to Plumas Street, which is no where near enough, I’ve been there and checked. The ramp access is also poor, there are only ramps at the end of the streets, and the double steps pose a hazard to anyone who might use a wheelchair, walker, or are blind.

This all is within ADA limits, that may be true, but it’s way out of the limit of common sense. People in wheelchairs can not go anywhere near steps without being in danger, nor can anyone else with a physical ability that affects their movement for that matter.

You would be thinking with all the recent letters and articles that something would be done about the problems created by the all new Plumas street, businesses are not doing well either.

What were they thinking? Who’s brilliant idea was it to make sidewalks with two large steps? Granted they’re wide sidewalks, but still, two large steps? Hazard anyone? How about the idea of only putting parking access along side streets close to Plumas street? What about only putting ramp access along the corners of the blocks?

Alright so there is one ramp in the middle of the sidewalk areas but still no handicap parking near these spots, and the roads are so slim that it puts anyone in danger if they try to use these ramps because they have to go around parked cars to get to any ramps. Couldn’t they have done away with the steps and just made the whole sidewalk evenly ramped? The roads are not wide enough for safe driving. It’s a simple idea to understand, wider roads means safer driving which means pedestrians aren’t at risk. It must have gone against their blueprints.

This will all be shed to light as best as possible soon enough. I just wonder why the disability community around here hasn’t thrown a fit about this yet. The disability community is indeed small but seems to be rising as of late, so we’ll see what happens.