The Richmond Coliseum is a disgrace.
I know the facility has been around since 1971. I remember watching the opening of the Coliseum on TV.
The Richmond Coliseum phone number(s) apparently don’t work. I tried calling the numbers listed on their website in various places (including the number to call to purchase box seats). The phones rang and rang and rang. There was not even a message that came on to acknowledge you called the Coliseum. Shouldn’t a public venue like the Coliseum have a recorded message at least for the public to call. The message could be press whatever for location address, for when the Coliseum will open before an event, like which entrance can be used for disabled ticketholders, etc. That would be professional. At least movie theaters’ phones will tell you that type of information.
My husband, previously from another state, had never seen the Coliseum before and wanted to know where it is. He drives in Downtown Richmond all the time for his job, but obviously not by that building. I told him to look for the flying saucer, because that is what it reminds me of. The Coliseum is conveniently located if you are traveling from the airport direction, I-64 heading west, into Downtown, at the 5th Street Exit. Whether it is marked with signage on the streets or not, I don’t remember.
The parking garage next to the Richmond Coliseum and across from the Richmond Convention Center is conveniently located and is well lit. It is $6 for event parking, not too bad. Fortunately, there was not an event at the Convention Center so there was adequate parking. The problems with the parking garage – which I realize is not the Coliseum or maybe not associated with the city – it could have a commercial operator, are:
1) the exit doorway by the elevator at ground level is not handicap accessible. It should have a ramp.
2) that area outside of that exit is not well lit, or even lit, it was so dark I can’t remember. Again, the pathway etc. is not good for wheelchairs, etc. and it leads directly to the steps of the Coliseum
Again, I realize that the Coliseum was built back before the disability laws about designing buildings, accessibility issues. However, it has been 20 years since those laws started getting put in place. Somehow in 20 years I believe Richmond should have made changes to the main event venue for the region.
As a disabled individual who uses mobility assistance products, if I want to go to an event at the Richmond Coliseum, I have to go through Ticketmaster as suggested by the Richmond Coliseum website. You fill out a request form to obtain ticket(s) for disability seating. You are only allowed a maximum of two tickets, one for the disabled party and one for the person attending with you. They will email you to let you know if there are any seats available and give you the specifics of the location. You get to decide whether you want the tickets or not and you respond.
The problems with getting tickets:
The disabled person and his/her “friend” will have to pay the maximum ticket rates because you will be seated at club level seating. You have no choice at all, you either pay the maximum rate or you don’t attend.
When you look on the Coliseum website at the club level information, it appears that you are sitting in a private suite with relatively comfortable looking seating. You are not shown what it actually looks like. More on this later.
You have to place your request months in advance in most circumstances because there is very very limited space for you.
For one event, I was told by Ticketmaster that the Richmond Coliseum doesn’t provide seats for the disabled. Apparently it depends on which representative you get from Ticketmaster to respond to your request. What that representative told me though is closer to the truth than not.
If you have a family you want to attend the event with, too bad. Your children or whoever will have to sit in the stand seating, separate from you. You may not be able to control where they sit, depending on availability of tickets. If it is you attending, your spouse and your family, neither you or your spouse will be able to be with your children in the stands. This is a public venue with thousands of other people. I wouldn’t want my son (when he was younger) to be separated from me. No sane parent would want these circumstances.
What you experience when you show up at the Coliseum:
Parking issues regarding accessible exit/entrance from parking lot, condition of pathway, not well lit area, etc.
The parking garage next to the Coliseum leads directly to stepped entrances to the Coliseum level. You have to go around to the front 5th St. area of the Coliseum to get to level ground.
The entrances to the Coliseum on 5th St. are apparently not opened as an entrance during certain events, I don’t know about all events. This means that if you are on that side, you have to go around to the side entrances. This doesn’t sound like such a big deal if you are walking. If you are in a wheelchair, scooter or even use a rollator/walker, this is different. The ground isn’t level. Having to travel on bricks or unlevel surfaces give mobility devices a lot of wear and tear, and that doesn’t count what it does to the person in that device. The disabled person has to go further than others.
You went to the trouble to get around to level ground to get up to the Coliseum level. The crowd/lines now extends down the steps. There is not a separate line for the disabled, like at several venues I have been to. You are at the mercy of the crowd or your “friend” to hold a spot in line. If you are using a rollator/walker, it may be very difficult for you to even wait in line due to a back problem, etc.
You go through the entrance. One person is checking your bags, maybe running a scanning device around you. The person who did this with me had an aggravated look on his face when he saw I was disabled.
We had to ask for assistance as to which side we needed to get to for our section. The last time I was in the Coliseum was 1976, I don’t remember too many details. We went off to the side directed. I saw a restroom so I went in, I have never seen such a small public bathroom facility. The restrooms at my doctor’s office are larger than this entire restroom. The disability stall was the first one in, which is good because I could not have gotten my mobility device any further in because the hall from the bathroom stalls to the sink were too narrow to even get further, let alone not plow over women standing at the sinks. The door to the disability stall was the width of the hallway. If I opened the door fast enough, it could have smacked someone in the face. It was difficult to get to the sink and wash my hands. I don’t know what someone in a wheelchair would have done at all.
We continued on, and at that point you either have to take stairs or a narrow pathway. We took the narrow pathway. We got to the area where we were supposed to be (according to the signage). We found out we had to take a somewhat small elevator to a higher level, club level. You enter a larger area, see restrooms (nicer and larger, still a bad design) and entrances. We opened the door and we were directed to another doorway. Let me say at this point, everyone we stopped to ask for assistance from, that worked in the facility, treated us like we didn’t belong in the club level. We entered the club bar entrance, and we were told I would have to use the “lift.” A “lift,” really? What does that mean?
The lift: There is a lift operator who works it from the outside, on both levels. A one person with your mobility device gets in the “box.” The person with you has to use the steps to go up to the level, separate from you. The lift box has an open top. It moves incredibly slow upward. You get to the level you are supposed to be at and the operator opens the door for you. You exit and she points to the open walkway before the railing in front of you. She hauls a chair over for my spouse and tells me she is going to take my mobility device and that we have to squeeze down as far as we can and close together because there will be other people next to us. We were the first ticketholders to come to that walkway section of seating. I had elected to use my rollator without the seat and with larger wheels and smaller profile, because I didn’t know what we would be facing at the event.
I refuse to let anyone to take my mobility device ever ever ever. It is the same as my legs. We immediately leave any place that insists that I give them one of my mobility devices. It takes up less space than a highchair (in a restaurant) or a wheelchair. I told her we would be leaving if she takes my device. She wasn’t happy. It folds up and I always fold it up. I put it as tight between my husband and I as I could, in front of us. Because of what she said, my 6’2″ husband that to practically ball his legs up, he just had meniscus surgery. If I was in a wheelchair, I would not have any choice as to what size “footprint” I took up. The disabled are treated like 3rd class citizens.
Anyone who needed to get to the seats in the stands by us or below us had to go by us. During the time we were there, there was a full row of disabled individuals with “friends.” This is another factor, because each of the disabled individuals had to use the “lift” one at a time. When you arrive, it is generally at different times.
I don’t know what they would do if you had a legal service dog and needed space for it.
In the middle of the long show, I realized I needed to use the restroom. Guess what? That would mean I would have to use the lift to go down to the level which most likely had a restroom, then you would have to go back up again. We had been there through the first half of the event, and they had started the second half. We had been there in the show (not the waiting time) for over 2 hours. My husband asked me how I was doing and I told him I needed to go to the restroom. He asked if I wanted to leave. I told him it was up to him. He knew that I hated the pyro effects they use (I am terrified of fire, especially in a public event and we were seated close enough to feel the blasts of extreme heat on our faces) and he grabbed our coats and we went to the lift. The attendant was really nice now, that we were leaving. It is good the concert was so loud, otherwise the lift would have been noisy.
Let me stop right here and explain something to you. We had been members of a church in this area that is almost 200 years old. That church had an elevator for the disabled to use, and you could get 3-4 people in it, and yes, 2 people in it with mobility devices. The church retrofitted the building to have that elevator in it. It was not a lift. It is extremely disgraceful that the Coliseum does not have a real elevator for the disabled to use to get to see the show.
When the show is over, it is time for everyone to leave. It is bad enough that you are in a mobility device and you have to try to get through a fast walking crowd of people who are swarming by you on their way out of the area to exit the Coliseum. You also have to wait one by one to get down the lift. So, that is another reason we left early, to avoid all that chaos. We also left early to avoid the crowds on the way out.
We passed the front door entrance and we asked the guard if we could exit the building there. All but one barrier gate was closed. He asked if we were leaving and not coming back (the Coliseum has a no re-entrance policy), and we said correct, so he let us out. We went back the way we had come to the parking garage.
Richmond is a very old city, with a lot of old buildings. There are places I cannot go at all. My husband has become more cognizant of what the disabled go through, because of what I go through. He sees problem areas and what should be different for a disabled person. He has become sensitized to the situation. “Regular” people, who are not disabled or have regular contact with the disabled, do not understand what is required to deal with being disabled. Unfortunately, many of the newer buildings in this nation are not to the ADA and ABA codes and regulations. Architects, interior designers and landscape designers should have to use wheelchairs and be in one for a month to understand what the disabled go through. For that matter, so should the lawmakers and commercial property managers.
There is a lot of judgment about the disabled. If you are obese, some people consider you are disabled because you are obese. They do not realize that our health conditions and/or medications contribute to our weight problems. I cannot exercise and workout like most people. Yes, some disabled are extremely fit because of what they are able to do. For various reasons, not everyone can function like those individuals. I add this because of the judgments, but because as a disabled individual it can take a lot of energy out of you to go anywhere, let alone to a large public event like this. You are worn out before you start the show.
A restroom needs to be on the same level as the disability seating for practical reasons. Many disabled have problems with their bladder, for various reasons. A person may have to go to the restroom a lot, may be incontinent etc. and needs access to a restroom without delay. Some individuals in wheelchairs have catheters and don’t have to go through this as much, they have enough other problems. In some cases, they do have catheters because they are in wheelchairs, due to the difficulties involved.
The disabled feel like a different class of people. Remember another group that felt like a different class of people? Remember the civil rights protests and demonstrations in the 1960′s? The disabled are treated different. We don’t have accessibility to some restaurants, doctor offices, grocery stores, etc. – places we have to go, let alone places for entertainment. Maybe we are not supposed to have entertainment. There are a lot of people who don’t think the disabled should be receiving Social Security Disability Income, that someone we are all losers and trying to live on the public welfare rolls. Don’t get me started.
There is a growing revolution growing in this country, separate from the Tea Party. There is a swelling wave coming about the disabled being a different class of citizens and being denied access to places we need to go. We deserve the respect of being able to go where we need and want to go.
Some might argue that the disabled are being treated different because we want our own restroom stalls, ramps, special doors and devices, etc. and that we should have to use what is there. They say there is no comparison to the civil rights issues of the 60′s and that they didn’t have to spend extra money to build special things then. Well, they did have separate things then in a lot of cases, separate water fountains, etc. The civil rights of black Americans did cost citizens in a lot of ways, including more funds and more equality in schools, etc. I am not saying anything against that. The old ways were wrong. The current ways are wrong for the disabled in the 21st Century.
My husband asked me what the disabled used to do. The disabled stayed at home or went to a nursing home. “Homebound” was the term that used to be used, and in some cases is used today by a segment of our society.
Being “homebound” today would end up costing a lot, especially with the increased number of war vets coming home who are disabled and the growing numbers of disabled baby boomers, not counting the disabled children or people who have other health conditions. If you think there are a lot of costs to our health systems in the US now and a large number of obese people, you could probably double that figure if the disabled weren’t allowed to get out and do whatever they can do. You would end up in a very inactive, less healthy condition, and that just makes things worse. There would be growing numbers of suicides and other problems.
All of this is related to the issue of disability.
I implore the City of Richmond and all other citizens of this country to look at the disabled as individuals worthy of dignity and respect.
I implore all architects, interior designers, landscape designers, commercial building owners, lawmakers etc. to spend a whole month in a wheelchair and experience what the disabled experience. I guarantee you there will be a lot of changes.
Don’t complain to us that any of the disabled are being unfair when we complain, when we protest, when we take you to court because of inaction.
Yes, I know new venues are expensive and we are in a depression. Yes, I know selling bonds or using other methods of financing would be difficult right now. I worked 10 years in the municipal bonds business in my “prior life” before disability.
I used to be a very active individual. I used to hike, walk a lot, swim, do a lot of things I cannot do any longer. It was extremely depressing to be at the Coliseum last night, to go through what I did. Then to add to all of that, we used to live in two of the largest cities in the US and we used to go to pro baseball games and large concerts and events in much larger coliseums. We had to often park a long long way from the coliseums, we could do all of that and then walk the interior of the coliseum without a winded breath. We enjoyed the public events. I was once involved in a major national event that took place at one of those much larger facilities and I had access to the entire building. Part of what I was supposed to do was provide “security” and I walked and walked every inch of that building over and over and over. It was extremely depressing to me that I could barely do what I did last night.
My life has changed, just like a lot of other people who are disabled. We want to live not exist.
Oh, and don’t get me started on the use of pyrotechnic devices inside of a huge public facility, and especially to be a sitting duck as a disabled individual in that circumstance.
