LISBON, PORTUGAL

 HISTORIC ELECTRIC TRAMS

Lisbon’s trams retain original 1930s features, including polished wood interiors, brass dials and yellow paint.

In other cities, they would be in a museum. In Lisbon, they are an integral part of the public transport network.

THE VIEW FROM THE BACK OF THE TROLLEY

ISOLATIONIST POLITICS

By Heidi Johnson-Wright

Trolleys are making a comeback. Not the trolleys on tracks like you see in old black and white photos of American cities from the early 20th century. You know, the ones bought up by the American car companies after World War II in order to increase dependency on the automobile.

 

No, I'm talking about small circulator buses designed to look like classic trolleys, right down to the uncomfortable wooden bench seats. They make frequent stops along short routes to give folks more transportation options. 

I'm all for options, as many as possible. Choice is good. But if you're a wheelchair user and you want to hop the sort of trolley I'm referring to, well, your options are fewer. As in, only one. There's only one spot onboard where you can sit, and that's at the back. Behind the last row of seats. And it gets worse. 

You see, I thought that 25 years after the passage of the ADA, we had worked out some of the issues. It appeared that newer buses were being designed to let people in chairs board in front via a ramp. And the driver could easily deploy the ramp at the touch of a switch without having to exit the bus. This is not true for the new trolleys.   

No, the trolleys require the driver to exit the vehicle, manually open a rear door, deploy a lift (not a ramp that remains stationary while you're on it), get the chair user on the lift, raise the lift up, manually close the rear door, board the trolley, walk all the way to the back, tie down your wheelchair, then return to his/her seat. All while your fellow passengers look at their watches and sigh.

But it doesn't end there. Once the trolley starts up again and hits the first small bump or pothole, you realize that the wheelchair seating is located behind the trolley's rear wheels. You know, the bounciest part of the vehicle: the spot that whips riders up and down. And on hot days -- and we have a lot of them in Miami -- the rear A/C unit mounted on the ceiling drips, drips, drips big drops of unpotable water down onto the wheelchair-using trolley rider.

After taking a ride on one of these trolleys, I wasn't sure which part of the ride motivated me the most to never want to ride one again. Was it the discomfort I felt at inconveniencing the driver or delaying my fellow passengers? Was it the slight vertigo from riding on a lift instead of a stationary ramp? Was it the big wet spot on my dry-clean only dress, courtesy of the A/C unit? Was it the bouncing that imperiled my tail bone?

No, it wasn't these things. It was sitting dead last behind everyone else onboard. Not because I think I'm better than anyone and should sit up front. But because of the way it made me isolated. And those of us who are disabled already get a bellyful of isolation, day in, day out.

Invitations to the homes of friends and family that have to be turned down because houses are rarely built without steps. Entering buildings at the side or the rear because even newly built facilities often have steps at the main entrance. Sitting in the "special wheelchair section" behind the last row of seating at a concert. Happy hours spent sitting three feet below and out of earshot of your friends because all of the seating at the bar is on stools at raised tables. And on and on...

A quarter century has passed since George H.W. Bush signed the ADA. Yet society still insists on constructing minimally inclusive, isolating built environments. On denying that disability is part and parcel of the human experience. On looking the other way when the largest minority group is told -- in so many words -- to either pass as non-disabled, or go sit in the corner.

It's time to come out of the corner and plant ourselves in the middle of the room.

http://earthboundtomboy.blogspot.com/2015/04/isolationist-politics-view-from-back-of.html    

 

 

MEDELLIN MAGIC -- EXPLORING COLOMBIA'S REMOTE METROPOLIS 8

MEDELLIN: SEE IT LIKE A NATIVE, SLEEP CHEAP AT PIERS' PLACE IN LA LAURELES

To stay in Medellin for less than $25 US per night, go to AirBnB and search for Laurales Estadio 23 (Calle 46 #70A) and email Piers.

Pros:

Tremendous price.

Laureles is safe, quiet, secure.

Apartment is very short walk to Estadio station for dirt cheap metro train access to entire city.

Nightlife, restaurants, street vendors and true flavor of Medellin within crawling distance along famed La Setanta but somehow, the apartment is very quiet -- so best of both worlds location.

Cheap nearby eats.
Crawling distance of the stadium if you want to catch a soccer, errr, futbol game.

Bathroom/shower kept super clean.

Funky blend of longer term and short term guests at this funky single family house.

Full kitchen plus washer to use for free.

Balcony to catch the mountain breezes while drinking in the sounds of a real neighborhood.

Taxi ride to centro about 6 mil COP (about 3 bucks US) if you're feeling too lazy to walk 6 short blocks to metro station.

Little market in bottom of house directly across the street, open roughly 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily -- has great prices and everything you need such as snacks, beer, soda, bottled water (though Medellin's is 100 safe out of the tap).

Location is in a real middle to upper middle class neighborhood -- you will be walking past everyday people, not tourists. Can't stress enough how important it is to stay local.

Piers saved me at least 60 US round trip by suggesting I take collective bus from airport to center (San Diego), then taxi to his place.

A taxi from airport will cost at least $35 US one way and gets you there no faster than the Piers suggested route, which costs only a couple bucks -- and exposes you to local culture that takes place on a 45 minute bus ride through the countryside and into the city.

MEDELLIN MAGIC -- EXPLORING COLOMBIA'S REMOTE METROPOLIS 7

MEDELLIN: THE METROCABLE DOES MORE FOR TOURISTS
THAN SIMPLY TRANSPORTING THEM TO PARQUE ARVI

On the way up the mountain, don't just transfer from one cable car station to the next on the way to the mountaintop Arvi Park.

Get out in Comuna Santo Domingo and take a walk around.

This used to be an unthinkable thing.

Not that long ago, the area was beyond dangerous.

It's certainly very, very rough around the edges.

But it represents the real Medellin.

There are more folks scratching out a living in the makeshift bars, shops, restaurants, barber shops and markets of Santo Domingo then there are millionaires in a walled and guarded enclave in El Poblado.

Even in the poverty-challenged hillside comunas, I experienced an amazing vibrancy of life and a resolve to create housing, shops and more out of basic materials.