The Curb Cut Report - The Whole Gradebook

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THE WHOLE GRADEBOOK
Every place I've graded since February, best to worst

Back to the Front Page · The ADA in Plain English

Grades are for the day I went. Places change, so if you know one has fixed things (or broken things), write me and I'll go back and re-grade. I LOVE re-grading up.

Place	Grade	In one line
The branch library near my house	A	Low checkout desk, wide stacks, a librarian who knows my name.
Paper Moon Books, J Street	A-	The yellow ramp. See the front page.
Big warehouse grocery, north side	A-	Wide aisles, a low checkout lane that's actually open. The top shelves are a lost cause but people help.
Casa Delgado, a family Mexican place	B+	They pulled out a chair for me without asking. Best chile verde in town, too.
My own office building (state)	B	Great except when the one elevator on my side goes out, which is monthly.
The multiplex out by the freeway	C+	Everything's perfect except where they make us sit.
Old Sacramento, the whole neighborhood	C	The old wooden boardwalks are charming and they rattle every bolt in my chair. Some shops have a step, some don't. Go with a buddy.
Neighborhood grocery, the little one	C-	Level entry but the aisles are stacked with sale displays. I knocked over a pyramid of paper towels. Nobody was hurt.
A brewpub in Midtown	D+	Fourteen steps to the restroom.
Fancy grocery, east side	D	The accessible spaces are the cart corral now. I have a letter out.
My old dentist	F	Second floor of an old house. No elevator. They offered to carry me. No thank you. I found a new dentist (B+).

Longer Stories

The fancy grocery (D), visited Sunday, July 11, 1999. Two accessible spaces right by the door, very nice, except both of them had shopping carts parked across them, and the striped aisle between them had the big cart corral sitting in it. I went in and asked nicely. The kid at the service desk said he'd tell a manager. Two weeks later, same thing. I wrote the store manager a polite letter on Monday, August 2, and a less polite one to their main office on Monday, August 23. I will let you know. If I go back and it's fixed they jump straight to a B.

My old dentist (F), visited in March. I'd been going there since before my accident, and they just moved. I didn't know the new office was upstairs until I got to the bottom of the stairs. The receptionist came down and said two of the hygienists could carry me up. They meant well. But I am not a sofa, and I'm not going to be carried up a staircase by two people I've never met, and then what about my chair? I went home and found a dentist in a medical building with an elevator and a big bathroom. My teeth are fine.

The branch library (A), visited all the time. I want to give some love here. When they remodeled in 1997 somebody sat down and thought about it. The checkout desk has a low section, the aisles are wide, the computers are on tables I can roll under, and the door has a push button. The children's librarian lets my niece read to me in the beanbag corner and the beanbags are pushed back so I can park right there. That's what an A looks like.

Old Sacramento (C), visited Sunday, June 20, 1999. I took my parents for Father's Day brunch. It's a historic district, so I get it: they're keeping the old look. The street is rough and the boardwalks bump. About half the shops we tried had a way in, and half didn't. The big restaurant we ate at had a lift around the side that worked great once a busboy found the key. Tip: go on a weekday when it's not crowded, and wear gloves if you push yourself.

Know a place I should grade? [email protected]

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