The City of Bellingham: Separate but Equal

Bellingham, a beautiful city situated between the Puget Sound and Mt. Baker, is one of few cities in the United States where someone could easily travel from snow capped mountains to white capped waves in about an hours drive. On top of the diverse geography surrounding Bellingham, the green vegetation is also a wonderful attribute to this city. There are so many emerald giants that tower over the people and when it is sunny, the hidden beauty of Bellingham shines through. I could go on with what I love about Bellingham for many pages, from the farmers' market to all the fun shops in down town Fairhaven but instead, I will be exposing the frustrations that a disabled person may experience and what I have encountered in Bellingham.
I have lived in Bellingham a total of 13 years. In 6th grade, one of my first negative experiences with the City of Bellingham occurred. Just one half block from my house, there was a drop-off at the end of the side walk and the city refused to put in a curb cutout. They did not explain why they refused to help make the walkway a safe place.  The next summer, we found out that a stop light was going to be put in (about nine months later). This means, for me (or any other person unable to step off the end of the sidewalk), I had to exit the side walk by a driveway, travel for about 50 meters including traveling through the intersection and then merge back onto the sidewalk through another driveway. One day, I almost caused an accident as a car thought I was going to cross the street, they stopped and another car almost smashed into the back of them. Fortunately, a girl from my school witnessed this and went home and told her dad. Her dad happened to be a contractor and he arranged for a curb cutout to be put in so I nor others would be put at risk. He donated his time and money to put in the curb cutout even though nine months later the city tore it up to put in the stoplight.
When my parents found out that the stop light was going to be installed, they called the city and asked them to put in chirpers as I am legally blind and it is not easy for me to tell what the crosswalk symbols say. Unfortunately, the city claimed that the chirpers would be an annoyance to the residences by the stoplight. If city planning took the time to stand on Lakeway or any road in need of a stoplight, they would realize that these types of busy streets tend to be loud enough to block out the chirping sound. And, how many people are going to be crossing the street in the middle of the night? Bellingham would definitely win The Lame Excuses Award, if such an award existed.
The city also blatantly discriminates against the handicapped when it comes to equal access. Every single handicap parking spot along Railroad Avenue and Cornwall in downtown Bellingham do not have curb cutouts at the end of the stripped area of the handicap parking spot. Instead, anyone unable to step up the curb has to go behind their car and into the street, to get to the curb cutout. This same situation can be experienced even at a place as new as Barkley Village. Here it is not as bad as I only have to go through the parking lot to get to the get to the curb cutout.

 

This handicap parking spot is right outside Starbucks in Barkley Village in Bellingham, Wa. 

Here is the way to get up onto the curb.

Another way this beautiful city discriminates is not making it possible for a person unable to step up and down curbs to travel safely up Indian Street, the main route to WWU. When asked, the city planning department said I was to to just use High Street (one street over) instead. However, even though High Street has curb cutouts all the way up the side walk, it does not have a crosswalk at the Chestnut intersection. This means to get to my destination, I have to go from High Street, up to Indian, cross Chestnut at Indian, go back down to High and the continue on my way. I am expected to travel two more blocks than anyone else. The extra time is not what what bothers me, it is the fact that the city is not courteous enough to put in curb cutouts and therefore allows for a Separate but Equal route for disabled people.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. fought for and helped to end "separate but equal access" for people of color. Now it is time to end separate but equal access for the disabled.  The City of Bellingham needs to stop discriminating against disabled people and get up to standard with regard to equal access.