New bar blocks ramp access, but at least they fixed some of it

[brigittefires]

This is the ramp access to a new bar in Portland, OR. If you aren't looking too closely, it's difficult to find, as it's at the back of the business on the side of the building that doesn't even have a sign above the door, and you can't see the door from the street to indicate that this side even has a non-kitchen entrance.




If you step up onto that porch area, there is a door on the right side, though you'd never know it was there. But bad structure when dealing with an historic building isn't as bad as actual human beings who put a pallet and a huge piece of plywood in the middle of the ramp.

I spoke to someone who works there and bless his heart, he didn't give me any funny comments when he got out after a long shift at work and I asked him to please inform a manager that their ramp access was blocked. He said it hadn't been like that a little while before, so someone must have just done it, and the manager said she'd get someone to move it (and all he did was say that the ramp was blocked and where would she like these things moved?). It was definitely gone the next day, and the owners have so far been receptive to feedback--I told them on opening night that they had missed putting purse hooks in the bathroom, and then mentioned they may want to put a second one a little lower in the wheelchair accessible one (since right now the only purse-hook option is the door hydraulics, 7 feet in the air).

All in all I understand this isn't the worst situation in the world, and they fixed it promptly. But it did illustrate and spark a conversation about access and privilege on the way home.

And now a little plug: Vita + Cafe on Alberta in NE Portland (NOT the bar in question above) has two bar seats that are regular chair-height, which they actually keep clear as usable bar seats! Unlike another bar in Lake Oswego (south of Portland) where my partner used to work where they have 4 bar seats at normal chair level which the staff is instructed are wheelchair accessible, but that section of bar is in the main pathway for the service staff and they use that section as a workstation. I once asked how long it would take them to clear it off for a guest to use, and they kind of looked at me like I was nuts and asked me where they would put the juicer and fold napkins? Pretty well answered the question.