Downtown for “Everyone” Means Everyone

This history of exclusion in American cities is vast. The way we build our cities can be used against certain populations. One way we see this today is in the physical accessibility of historic buildings. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which requires a minimum level of accessibility for all publicly accessible buildings, was signed into law in 1990. However, many buildings built before this were grandfathered in and are not required to follow this act for a multitude of different reasons. For older buildings, reaching ADA compliance is often costly and significantly alters the appearance of the façade, making them difficult to retrofit, but some have found creative solutions to this problem. 

Much of Downtown Bloomington fails to meet ADA’s standards for many reasons – doorways being too skinny to accommodate wheelchairs, stairs immediately inside entrances, or unsafe or nonexistent wheelchair ramps. All of these failures to comply with ADA’s standards have a very real impact on the city. The people who rely on these features aren’t able to access these buildings, spend time in these places, or patronize the businesses inside. 

We often think of exclusion as an explicit tool. Things like hostile architecture or redlining are/were tools to keep certain people away from certain areas. However, there are far more implicit exclusionary practices. Things like odd details in zoning codes, housing practices, and historic preservation can all be used to exclude people in a very different way. 

When tackling these problems, we should start with the easiest, actionable change. Bobzbay’s Books shows us what that may look like. Their business is located in one of those historic buildings that is not ADA compliant. However, they built their own removable ramp for their entrance to make the building accessible to wheelchair users. This is the perfect example of a small, bottom-up change — the Strong Towns method. Retrofitting older buildings to allow for better accessibility in a creative way is a much easier (and cheaper) way to make a meaningful difference.