The Kearny Mesa Swimming Pool is now much more inviting for disabled visitors.
Crews striped extra-wide parking spots to accommodate vans for the disabled, and a ramp was added for those who can’t climb the stairs.
Locker rooms have been gutted to widen restroom, shower and dressing stalls for wheelchair users. The outdoor shower area has been rebuilt to eliminate a step, and easy-to-turn handles will be installed on doors.
Throughout San Diego, a growing number of public buildings and streets are getting retrofitted as the city steps up spending to tackle a backlog of projects to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
San Diego used to spend about $1.5 million a year on such projects. Now it’s spending $10 million more per year on curb cuts, ramps, audible signals and detectable warning tiles at street intersections, among other improvements to remove barriers to access.
Mayor Jerry Sanders has committed to spending the additional $50 million over five years to improve access, in part by allocating proceeds from the sales of surplus city properties.
“Before the mayor came into the office, we were just doing a trickle of projects. We are doing a lot of projects now,” said David Jarrell, deputy chief operating officer for public works.
Advocates for the disabled said the improvements would help cut down the city’s liability. Cities across the country have been sued for failure to improve access. San Diego was sued in 1997 by disabled residents who claimed they had been denied equal access to Qualcomm Stadium. The lawsuit was settled after the city agreed to spend $5.25 million to equip the stadium with new elevators, ramps, parking spaces and seating.
Bill Harris, a Sanders’ spokesman, said the desire to do the right thing – not legal exposure – drove the mayor’s commitment to ADA compliance. “It’s not about avoiding litigation. It’s about ensuring equal access,” Harris said.
According to the city, more than 500 curb ramps were installed in the past two years. About $19 million of projects are in design stages and an additional $4 million in jobs are under construction.
Facilities being retrofitted range from police stations and recreation centers to branch libraries and teen centers.
Cindi Jones, director of the Center for an Accessible Society in San Diego, said improvements have been made, but the city still has a long way to go. She uses a scooter and her husband uses a wheelchair.
In South Park, where she and her husband have lived for 30 years, a curb cut was installed on their block about a year ago, Jones noted. She’s looking forward to more curb cuts in her neighborhood.
The city’s former disability services coordinator, Linda Woodbury, had said the city needed to spend $500 million on ADA compliance, but the mayor’s office has disputed that figure. Woodbury was fired in 2006, a day after Sanders first proposed spending $50 million more on access projects. The city later settled a wrongful termination suit.
Louis Frick, executive director of Access to Independence in San Diego, said the access features benefit society as a whole.
“You see people all the time with baby strollers, delivery truck drivers, where they are using the curb cuts to get up and down the sidewalks,” he said.