International Disability Rights News
Service
Click here
for today's headlines & home page
Keeping advocates informed, inspired and connected since
1999.
Click
here for daily or weekly delivery . . . OR
Try Inclusion Daily Express for ten days FREE
. . .
City: Actor Gere Must Include Access In Resort Plan
By Dave
Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
July 12, 2006
BEDFORD, NEW
YORK--Thanks to the City of Bedford, film actor Richard Gere will avoid the
same fate as fellow actor Clint Eastwood when it comes to accessibility at his
planned resort.
According to a brief item in the New York Daily News, Gere, 56, and business partner Russell Hernandez have purchased a 14-acre property, which includes an historic house and barn, with the intention of turning it into a luxury hotel and restaurant.
But the town has refused to issue a building permit -- thereby putting a stop to any renovation of the historic Revolutionary War-era buildings -- until Gere and Hernandez provide plans showing wheelchair access and an elevator.
This means that Gere and Hernandez will probably not have to face legal challenges of the sort that Eastwood faced at his Mission Ranch Inn in Carmel, California.
In September 2000, a California jury decided that Eastwood was liable for three violations under the Americans with Disabilities Act and ordered him to provide a ramp to the registration office, a second accessible guest room, and signs about the accessible restrooms -- which were 234 feet away from the main building.
That year, Eastwood unsuccessfully campaigned for Congress to amend the ADA to force people with disabilities to give businesses a 90-day notice before filing a discrimination complaint.
Some critics have speculated that the plot of Eastwood's Academy Award-winning film "Million Dollar Baby", which included a scene in which his character turned off life-support for the movie's injured heroine, was a form of retaliation against disability rights advocates for losing the ADA lawsuit.
Related:
"ADA Notification & Clint Eastwood" (Inclusion Daily
Express Archives)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/access/notification.htm
Million
Dollar Bigot
http://www.milliondollarbigot.org
Copyright © 2006 Inonit Publishing
Please do not
reprint, forward, or post without permission.
Click here for top of this page
Purchase this story for your website or newsletter . . .
Here's what subscribers say about Inclusion Daily Express. . .
Keeping advocates informed, inspired and connected since
1999.
Click
here for daily or weekly delivery . . . OR
Try Inclusion Daily Express for ten days FREE
. . .
Inclusion Daily Express
3231 W. Boone Ave., # 711
Spokane, Washington 99201 USA
Phone:
509-326-5811
News@InclusionDaily.com
Copyright © 2006 Inonit Publishing