Twenty-seven years after passage of the Americans with disabilities act Joel Solkoff 2017-10-12 | This is what a “wheel chair accessible” restaurant looks like in segregated State College PACafe Verve received an operating license from Walt Schneider, head of code for the Council of Governments. To receive the license, the restaurant was required to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Specific enforcement of ADA in this instance was defined by Commonwealth building code which establishes public access requirements.As a restaurant seating 50 or fewer people, Cafe Verve was required to spend $4,000 to meet the disability-friendly requirements in the building code. The restaurant decided to spend twice that sum making the bathroom in the restaurant wheel chair accessible and paying for a sign saying so. However, the restaurant was not required to make the entrance wheel chair accessible.In February, I called Walt Schneider to ask for an explanation. On May first, I met him at a meeting of the Bellefonte Borough Council. There, Walt promised to get back to me in two weeks to explain why the Cafe received an operating license.On August 17th, Walt finally got back to me with the answer. On that occasion Walt promised to get back to me "soon" so I could institute a voluntary discussion with the owners to resolve the issue. Walt pulled a Waldo again.
Residential hotel for disabled guests: Bathroom sink Joel Solkoff 2020-12-16 | Williamsport Pennsylvania architect Anthony H. Visco Jr. critiques my disability unfriendly bathroom sink
Will this Park Hotel ( completed 1865 ) be the next US office for e-architect? Joel Solkoff 2020-08-05 | Don’t touch that dial.
Family history. Scandal. My Jewish grandmother married an Italian clarinet player Joel Solkoff 2019-10-18 | ...
Williamsport PA’s vital Golden Strip filmed without requisite morning coffee Joel Solkoff 2019-05-09 | Williamsport PA’s vital Golden Strip filmed without requisite morning coffeeThis morning’s Williamsport Golden Srip video contains two serious omissions of fact. 1. It was not Baby Boomers who returned from World War II which ended in 1945. It was the veterans who defeated Hitler and the AE pore of Japan.As with my Uncle Lou, who fought in the Battle of the Bulge ( and forever after had awful nightmares ), the veterans returned in a rush eager to have children and to make up for lost time by getting on with their lives. In Williamsport, PA the veterans, their wives ( who had helped win the War by working in defense and other plants and gave up their riveting, their jobs and became mothers and housewives ) and their booming progeny, the consequence was that by 1950 Williamsport gained its largest population ever: 40,000.By the end of the decade, their world had changed. The steel moguls at US Steel in Pittsburgh and throughout the Central PA rust belt failed to invest in the future.Buckminster Fuller, the visionary architectural genius ( and meshiniga) got it right. He said the Germans and Japanese were fortunate by having their decaying factories destroyed so they could start again with new and efficient equipment.Not so fortunate were the returning veterans who worked in Williamsport plants where their cheap bosses failed to invest in the future.Then, the country’s transportation system—the excellent transcontinental railroad which was instrumental in winning the war— was decimated by city planners who thought cheap energy would last forever.They built roads and highways and superhighways turning the population centers from cities to suburbs and further reducing the economic power of Central PA where Williamsport had dominated the region. My second big mistake was to say that one can not take a train from nearby Altoona. One can although if you are disabled like me getting off is a problem at Harrisburg, PA’s capital because the train station did not have a wheel chair ramp last year when I tried to ride my electric wheel chair off and instead had to crawl off and have a porter remove the wheel chair, pick me up and reseat me.One cannot take a passenger train to and from Williamsport.Consequently, jobs in decline and the local economy in shatters, families moved out leaving the elderly, disabled, and the jobless poor to fend for themselves.Meanwhile, Downtown Williamsport rotted and so did the Factory section to the West of Downtown. The suburban Golden Strip has kept the area vital as the urban center is recovering. By the time the 2020 census returns are counted, I predict that the revitalization of Williamsport will become manifest.Right now, the 2018 census estimates show Williamsport has a mere 28,000 men, women and children.
Farewell to State College Joel Solkoff 2019-05-02 | In the Borough of State College the low-Income Disabled and elderly are treated shamefully.
Why I mov d to Williamsport: Thoughts on leaving the hospital Joel Solkoff 2019-04-17 | It is 6 AM on Wednesday, April 17th. I am a patient at UPMC Hospital—not at all rested as I usually force myself to be. After three nights in the hospital, I am scheduled for discharge later this morning. For all of 2018, I was seriously ill in State College where I lived for 15 years. There in a Downtown de facto nursing home my daily view from the window was of the parking lot where once a week I watched my elderly and disabled neighbors be placed into an ambulance. Many never to return.My February first move to the Pajama Factory for an office and the Ginetti Hotel for a place to sleep until I found something permanent represented a commitment— an insistence that never again would I be warehoused neglectfully as I was in State College exclusively with the elderly, disabled, sick, and poor.I will emerge today with a step forward in dealing with a major health problem. The problem was caused by radiation burn to my throat, esophagus and GI tract. The burn was an unintended consequence of cancer treatment that saved my life many years ago. The burn is a more recent side effect of the radiation treatment that 25 years ago resulted in burning a hole in my spine this making me a paraplegic unable to walk or stand for longer than a minute or two.
I am a refugee from a nursing home Joel Solkoff 2019-04-15 | View from the cardiac ward of Williamsport PA’s hospital. Two and a half months ago I moved here as a refugee from State College’s Downtown nursing home. Isolating the elderly and disabled in a ghetto of neglect ought to be a sin. http://www.joelsolkoff.com/dr-kings-1963-letter-from-a-burmingham-jail
e-architect UK exclusive interview with an unlikely city planner in down-and-out Williamsport PA Joel Solkoff 2019-02-03 | Mark Winkelman drives three hours to Williamsport from New York City to manage his nine-building domain in the portion of central PA where pockets of poverty have remained since the US 1930s Depression. NYC architect Mark Winkelman talks about his early career working for Phillip Johnson and about the architectural design lessons learned during an extended stay in Japan. Joel's column returns shortly with this and other startling news about Anna Keichline, Pennsylvania's first female architect who also served as a spy in World War One, Bellefonte's 1850s Centre County Courthouse, and how local government entities on the sub-county level have led to chaos at Penn State's bedroom town of State College.
2019 New Year’s Dangerous Electricity Blackout for Over Three Hours Joel Solkoff 2019-01-13 | The 89 low-income elderly and disabled residents of Addison Court experienced a sudden loss of electricity which endangered our lives. Twenty residents are incapable of taking care of themselves. Several on dependent on electricity to breathe. As a paraplegic, I am incapable of getting from my bed to the bathroom without an electrical charge to my electric wheelchair.Shamefully, the electric company and the State College police failed to make contact with us or with ambulance and Alpha Fire Company. A call to 911 resulted in the emergency operator promising to send a police officer to us. No police officer ever arrived.Shame on the electric company, the Borough of State College, the State College Police, and the 911 Emergency System.
Heather Jones is the Libertarian heroine of the Disabilities Rights Movement in State College PA Joel Solkoff 2018-10-23 | Consider that for my 70th birthday, I had to crawl into Cafe Verve because in PA the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)—that much vaunted dream of access—is a dream not fulfilled if one is in a wheel chair and one wants to enter a State College restaurant.youtu.be/dlC6iVJ7M1gThe Borough of State College Human Resources director told me flatly that there was no public accommodations ordinance for the disabled, So, I brought her Joann Tost-Vasey who wrote the ordinance. She handed the HR director her draft of the ordinance. HR director said she would look it up again. Voila. There is a public accommodations ordinance “ protecting “ the disabled. The effectiveness of the ordinance is just as weak as the consciousness on the part of one who enforces it of the ordinance’s existence.Here is a video showing the difficulties of getting into a restaurant that Code Enforcer Walt Schneider has certified as accessible:youtu.be/kzK8RZrtiBAI waited two years of my life trying to find out from the County’s enforcer of Code how Walt Schneider could certify a restaurant as compliant with PA disability requirements when I could not get my electric wheelchair in through the entrance. The answe: The bathroom is wheel chair accessible. That is good enough under Schneider’s hear no evil, see no evil code enforcement practice. Walt’s stance: The entrance does not need to be accessible as long as the bathroom is wheel chair accessible. Then, after I picketed her restaurant, Heather Jones went out and bought a ramp for less than $300.https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pIIX0oCDAs0
Director’s cut: Admittance and exit Joel Solkoff 2018-09-17 | Encompass Health ( née Health South) Pleasant Gap PA US
Addison Court Oral History Project @ segregated State College PA US Joel Solkoff 2018-09-10 | http://www.joelsolkoff.com/an-appeal-to-the-global-disability-community-close-down-downtown-state-college-pa-us-at-7am-october-12th-2018
Joch Harris reads a portion of his rejected letter to the editor of the Centre Daily Times Joel Solkoff 2018-08-19 | ...
An autocratic PA agency is violating my First Amendment right to pray to God Joel Solkoff 2018-08-05 | ...
Making it difficult for the disabled and elderly from attending Arts Fest across the street Joel Solkoff 2018-07-16 | ...
The Borough of State College certified this restaurant is accessible for the disabled Joel Solkoff 2017-11-28 | ...
My candidacy for Commonwealth Senate running as a Democrat against dynastic Jake Corman Joel Solkoff 2017-11-14 | One week after my 70th birthday, my good friend E hired Elaine MW—whom I have yet to thank with extreme fullness (with the marvelous assistance of April and David)—to cater my party. Attending were my best and brightest. On this occasion, I announced my candidacy for the Commonwealth Senate running against Jake Corman. If Webster’s stuffed mushrooms with nuts are an omen of things to come, my quixotic campaign will do more than simply tilt at windmills. Meanwhile videographer Emily Hartsay has promised to film another announcement speech where I will attempt to achieve eloquence.
From Health South’s, parking lot, I can see the mountains Joel Solkoff 2017-10-02 | From HealthSouth, Pleasant Gap, PA, I can see the mountains
How State College Council Members segregate our town Joel Solkoff 2017-09-16 | Today, the ambulance again arrived outside my window. My window is a well-managed eight story ghetto Here at Addison Court a variety of informal and formal rules and regulations conspire to keep the disabled, elderly and poor in our place.State College Police records reveal that an ambulance arrives at Addison Court once a week on average.Emily Hartsay, my health aide, went outside to see what was happening. Heather, her colleague at Centre County Homemakers, asked, "Is it Joel?"I have been in the gurney several times in the past. My trips to the hospital would have been greatly reduced if the community where I lived cared enough. Details available. Suffice it to say, "J'accuse!"
Todays brunch at segregated State College PA Joel Solkoff 2017-09-10 | The back door of a restaurant represents the BEST my liberal all Democratic Borough Council members can do to provide disability access to public facilities.
Not much is happening Joel Solkoff 2017-08-26 | It is 7 AM in State College outside Sheetz on Pugh Street.
Excercise to keep hands from stiffening Joel Solkoff 2017-06-25 | Exercise to keep hands from stiffening
Housing for the blind Joel Solkoff 2016-12-24 | "Why building projects require an understanding of blind and visual disability concern" is the subject of Joseph Fagnani's seminar to the graduate and postgraduate students at Penn State's Department of Architectural Engineering. November 7, 2016
Terry Stewart, Addison Courts Talented Piano Player, Memorialized Joel Solkoff 2016-10-23 | Saturday October 1, 2016. State College, PA: At the memorial service for Terry Stewart (who played the Wurlitzer upright piano for us fellow residents of Addison Court) Deborah Monroe sang his favorite hymn. Terry and Deborah made beautiful music together here at the bingo parlor across the narrow hall from my apartment.In August our talented piano player died in his apartment on the eighth floor. He was 62 and was the victim of a heart attack. "God has welcomed Terry home," Deborah said.See: http://www.joelsolkoff.com/fatal-heart-attack-shooting-piano-player-another-name
Smoke will kill you faster than you think Joel Solkoff 2016-09-09 | Alpha Fire Chief Steve Bair addresses the Penn State Department of Architectural Engineering Graduate students on the new fire challenges State College PA's skyscrapers pose to firefighters.
The smaller Russian Baptist Churc Joel Solkoff 2016-09-04 | State College, Pennsylvania, a swinging Commenwealth
7:01 A.M. State College PA Joel Solkoff 2016-09-04 | Sunday morning. The research group is in better or getting ready for church
Tomorrow morning I will find you some more trucks Joel Solkoff 2016-09-02 | Labor Day Special: Honoring the memory of Jimmy Hoffa, the greatest labor leader in my lifetime Prequel Please support this fledging effort at honoring Jimmy Hoffa's memory. Please contribute $18 at your PayPal account. Send to jes535@psu.eduMay your tribe increase.
Mistake Joel Solkoff 2016-08-20 | 1. Initially (to seek admittance) laudatory unasked assistance2. Once ensconced, sloth3. Curiously coupled with generosity 4. Promises unkept amidst declarations of intent5. Gone when the ambulance arrived6. Rules for health care providers ignored
The magnificent Carolina Inn where my younger daughter Amelia Altalena will marry Javier Blanco tom Joel Solkoff 2016-08-05 | Built in the 1920s, The Carolina Inn presents itself as magnificence. The Roaring Twenties were an age of optimism. To my way of thinking Amelia and Javier represent optimism redux.
Saturday morning service at Congregation Brit Shalom Joel Solkoff 2016-07-09 | Brit Shalom is a Reform/Conservative synagogue in State College PA. My rabbi and spiritual adviser is David Ostrich.Earlier this year I attended the regular 10 AM service. This is my preferred because of its Hebrew content. Rabbi Ostrich was out of town visiting his grandchildren. I asked the prayer leader to consent to my filming. Even so, I have delayed publishing because doing so would shock the Orthodox Jews who provided my elementary education.The song here translates "from generation to generation. The song is a liturgy staple. Generations were at the top of my mind because my daughter Joanna had just told me she was expecting.
