Chaifetz Arena Reduces Accesibility at Compton & Laclede

As we make changes to our city I have the expectation that accessibility for the disabled (and able bodied) will improve. When public money is involved in the project and changes are made to public sidewalks this expectation only increases. But adjacent to the entrance of Saint Louis University’s new Chaifetz Arena accessibility has been significantly reduced following the construction. What was an accessible crossing at Laclede & Compton is no longer accessible (map). From the St Louis Post-Dispatch on Aug 4th:

Tipster Arthur Perry recently complained to On Your Side that there are no curb cuts on the northwestern and southwestern corners of Compton and Laclede avenues, near the main entrance to St. Louis University’s new Chaifetz Arena.

The sidewalk there was rebuilt when the arena was under construction. Apparently, no one thought to make it easy for disabled people to cross Compton.

Perry said the oversight seems especially glaring because the sidewalk on the east side of the intersection, adjacent to the Harris-Stowe State University campus, is accessible to the disabled.

Perry, a part-time pharmacist who lives in the Central West End, first noticed the problem in May, when he attended a colleague’s graduation at the arena. Perry said his wife was recovering from surgery, and she was having a tough time walking.

“I thought if I pulled up close enough to the arena, I’d find a safe place to drop her off,” said Perry, 70. “But there isn’t one.”

After Perry helped his wife climb the steep curb, he noticed a woman in a wheelchair who was stuck in the street. Perry said he helped the woman’s relatives pull her chair onto the sidewalk.

The sad reality is that there are probably hundreds of St. Louis street corners lacking curb cuts, and that there are thousands more inaccessible corners in suburban areas where even sidewalks are a rarity. But you’d think the intersection of Compton and Laclede would be different.

The new arena and a nearby bus stop ensure that the sidewalks there are going to get a lot of traffic, and plenty of those Billiken sports fans are bound to walk with a cane, use a wheelchair or push a stroller.

As a disability-rights activist, attorney David Newburger said he’s filed his share of complaints over pedestrian crossings. Now Newburger runs City Hall’s Office on the Disabled, the public watchdog office that, among other things, is supposed to make sure development in the city is accessible. He said curb cuts aren’t legally required near the arena because, technically speaking, there’s no officially designated, painted-on-the-pavement crosswalk at Compton and
Laclede.

Clayton Berry, a spokesman for St. Louis University, said there is an area on Compton that is designated for dropping off visitors. “We believe this drop-off area accommodates the needs of our disabled patrons,” Berry said.

Because there is no ramp or curb cut in this drop-off area, university employees will be stationed there during events “so someone is there to personally assist individuals with drop-offs,” Berry said.

WTF? No painted crosswalk so its OK to ignore accessibility? Sorry but the majority of our intersections lack a formally painted crosswalk, that doesn’t relieve the need for accessibility. From the Missouri Statutes:

(8) “Crosswalk”, (a) That part of a roadway at an intersection included within the connections of the lateral lines of the sidewalks on opposite sides of the highway measured from the curbs, or in the absence of curbs from the edges of the traversable roadway;

(b) Any portion of a roadway at an intersection or elsewhere distinctly indicated for pedestrian crossing by lines or other markings on the surface

A crosswalk need not have painted markings to be a crosswalk, an intersection suffices. Laclede & Compton has been an intersection for over a century. Prior to the construction of the arena the intersection was accessible. Now, after construction it is no longer accessible. Someone screwed up! Time to get Biondi out there with a jack hammer to bust out some concrete and correct this mistake.

As for the drop-off area is is nothing more than a no-parking zone on Compton. A proper drop-off/loading zone would have a ramp area permitting a wheelchair easy access. Getting out of a car and into a wheelchair up on the sidewalk can be a real challenge. It is typical to exit a vehicle to get into a chair on the pavement at the same level as the vehicle. But that isn’t an option at Chaifetz.

We must remember to that people use this intersection daily, so its not just for events at the 10,600 seat venue. People going to Harris-Stowe, Sigma and Wachovia may use this intersection to cross Compton. It ludicrous to think nobody would cross at this point because there is no painted crosswalk lines. Its even more ludicrous to expect those that need curb ramps to go all the way up to Olive or down to Market. Again, somebody screwed up and it needs t be corrected. Maybe the Architect’s Errors & Omissions Insurance needs to cover the cost? Certainly the city shouldn’t.

Click here to view all 42 pictures in my Chaifetz Arena set on Flickr.