It seems that every summer here in HRM people have to put up with being rerouted when using public sidewalks or even some streets, due to construction or window washing or whatever, supposedly under the guise of safety. As a wheelchair-bound person, it affects my ability to get around. In the case of construction, the sidewalks do not need to be shut down during non work hours, like overnights and on weekends and holidays. It’s time for these idiots to use common sense and stop this practice and to the fuckwads at HRM that OK this and endorse it, fuck you all to hell for your inconsiderate attitude about this.. I, and folks like me, have the right to get from A to B without having unnecessary obstacles being placed in our paths and I’d like to see others like me get more proactive about this and put pressure on the city to be less rigid and at least accommodate us during the off hours at these sites. I can’t imagine how tourists see this insidious practice.. Such an inconvenience can’t be good for tourism.. —Tired of Being Rerouted
This article appears in Jul 16-22, 2015.
The signs I’ve read say: “Sidewalk closed. Please use other side.”
I’ve never seen one that says: “Sidewalk closed. Go home and stay there.”
They just don’t want you to get hurt around the work they’re doing. Fuck them right?
You must come to Montreal.
Or the states.
Just got back and the amount of construction there is bananas.
Really? The wheels on your chair go round-and-round but the wheels in your head, not so much. The use of ‘idiot’ and ‘common sense’ is laughable in this context.
I just go down the sidewalk anyway if it’s closed and I’m too lazy to cross. Just put your scooter on overdrive and push through the signs. If you get stuck in a hole or something then you’ll know why the sidewalk was closed at least and then I can look forward to laughing at you all over again when you post another bitch.
This is a valid bitch and you people poke fun of the disabled? What kind of messed up forum is this? I’m appalled at the sheer callousness of the replies to this bitch.
Yes the ‘use other side’ signs. Really helpful when you come across one halfway or more along a sidewalk, as then you are not at a crosswalk to get to the other side. Often in this burg there may not even be a sidewalk over there anyway. Also, in most cities when there is construction next to a sidewalk there usually is a walkway with overhead protection and wooden walls to protect pedestrians Very rare here but I read recently that HRM staff will be looking at this situation in future. Don’t expect speed though but it is a start. One that should have been looked at ages ago. But there has been so little real construction here for years they forgot what was what with it.
AN ASSESSMENT
While those in wheelchairs rightly deserve both our sympathy and respect, this in itself cannot obviate the necessity for an assessment of the quality of the bitch itself. In other words, we must distinguish the bitch from the bitcher. So, what can be said about “Enough with detours?”
STRUCTURE
Where structure in a bitch necessarily involves conflicting views on the issue at hand, “Enough with detours” clearly lacked any engaging structure at all. Indeed, the bitch was little more than a one-dimensional litany of complaint which, in the absence of a countervailing perspective – what defence would the city mount in respect to sidewalk construction – became wearisome, the mark of the absence of structure.
CONTENT
One normally hopes for a layered content to mirror a layered structure but, since the latter was lacking, so was the former. This points up the centrality of structure. It functions as the skeleton while the content functions only as the flesh on the bones. The first is primary but the second, um, is only secondary.
LANGUAGE
Language, or articulation as it is also known, cannot by itself redeem a bitch lacking structure and content. While not sub-literate, the language of “Enough with detours” can only be described as functional. It did not carry the reader away on the wings of delightful metaphor.
PHILOSOPHY OR THOUGHT-CONTENT
While reference was made to the right of people like the bitcher to get from A to B such a right was not developed nor, for that matter, were the countervailing rights of the general public to the possession of hazard-free sidewalks. Indeed, no mention was made of the latter at all resulting, once again, in a one-dimensional narrative.
MARK: C
I have several acquaintances, young and old, who have mobility issues. The problem is that accessibility for people with mobility issues is usually not top of mind. It is an after-thought or not considered at all.
The city needs to have someone on staff to act as an accessibility advocate. And it should be someone with specific training such as an occupational therapist.
The advocate would be responsible for helping to plan for reasonable accommodation for people with mobility issues. That would include ensuring safe access to public buildings in bad weather as we had this past winter, ensuring that there is an accessible route and clear signage to guide mobility challenged people through construction zones, and so on.
It’s not really that difficult. It just requires that it be someone’s responsibility … rather than nobody’s.
The biggest fucking ass is you, buddy. Have a little respect and patience!!
Oh FFS, this should only take you by surprise once. Once you have travelled this route and encountered construct ion, take a different route until the construction is finished. Having a sidewalk shut down is a nuisance for everyone including able bodied people. Stop using your disability as an excuse to whine and complain like a little bitch. Use your common sense and avoid construction areas, fuck, its really not that difficult.
Wow MM, you’re taking the time to GRADE the comments now?
You have taken our LTWWB Summer School to a new level of seriousness. (And I had thought of it as more of a “workshop” kind of thing rather than an actual class.)
Gosh, well, just let me get a coffee and slip into the back row of the giant lecture hall here and hopefully not be too noticed if I am a few minutes late.
By the way, does spelling count?