Kevin McCarter says he's been trying since last July to get someone to fix what he considers a public hazard. It's a stall in the parking garage of the Risser Justice Center, where he works as a janitor. When cars are parked there, as is usually the case, they block wheelchair access to an exit door. Once, when a SUV took the space, a pregnant member of McCarter's cleaning crew could not get past.
McCarter has contacted everyone from the building's managers to the fire department, to no avail. So when Isthmus ran an item on disabled access two weeks back, he called the paper. Isthmus contacted Madison Fire Marshal Ed Ruckriegel, who on March 31 looked into it and reported back that the stall would be closed, to preserve the required 42 inches of clearance.
Ruckriegel also praised McCarter for raising the issue: "It takes all of us, looking out for each other; that's what makes a safe community." Ain't it the truth?
The only problem is that nothing has changed. The stall remained occupied all of last week and into this week. For most of this time, the same vehicle - a crimson Acura - has blocked the exit.
Jeez, people, what will it take? Mass demonstrations? Self-immolating monks? How about a fire in which a person in a wheelchair gets trapped?
