Ramplifier

"What costs more: a home in San Francisco's Sunset District, or a wheelchair ramp in the Board of Supervisors' chambers? If you picked the house, you're wrong."

Matier & Ross' column castigates the SF Supervisors for the ongoing drama about a ramp to be built to accommodate Supervisor Angela Alioto-Pier and other wheelchair users in the chambers.

Alioto-Pier, who is paraplegic, threatened to sue over this ramp back in '08, when the Board initially rejected the $1.1 million price tag. The ramp, now costing more than most homes - even in the Bay Area - has become an economic embarrassment, some say.

SFist anklebites with coverage of the 300-plus cranky comments on SFgate's website.

One comment sums it up: "This is not about access or ramps. It is about the super bloviated hot air and global warming that is local government in San Francisco."

Follow the Trail

I find all kinds of news articles relating to the lives of my characters in Every Time I Think of You. Mostly, I've been researching the historic facts relating to their lives during the time of the novel. But here's an example of the hopeful vision of Reid come true. I'm kind of giving away a bit of the ending, or, more precisely, Reid's potential career goal after the book ends.

This Times Leader article focuses on accessible ramps in state parks in New Hampshire; pretty neat.

One of the interviewees, 55, had his disabling accident in 1980. At 55, he had to wait decades for this goal to become a reality. Hopefully, my fictional characters will not have had to wait so long.