I've had the same thing happen to me twice. The first time was at the Red
Lobster. I used to go there fairly often and like almost every restaurant I've
been to they always try to sit wheelchairs in the center of the room. To me
this is the worst place fire safety wise besides, I hate sitting there. So I
would always ask to sit along the wall. They always said okay until they got a
new manager and he gave me the same story as you.
I tried to reason with him saying why are baby high chairs and seeing eye dogs
allowed to occupy the places while I couldn't. He just kept repeating that the
fire Marshall won't allow wheelchairs there. I never went back. I go to many
restaurants this was only one of two that enforced this archaic law.
The other one was a large restaurant. The dinning room was almost empty as it
was between rush times. The manager/owner gave me the same spiel. I said, lady,
this place is empty. Plus the tables were very far apart.
Anyway, that was back in the '80's and I've never been asked to move again.
Dan
At 06:04 PM 4/29/2008 -0400, Quadius said something that elicited my response:
>I had something rather interesting happen to me the other day. I went out to
>dinner with my brother and the usher mistakenly put us in the wrong place. I
>was sitting in the aisle, because my wheelchair cannot fit under any table. It
>has nothing to do with the ADA, my armrests are simply too high and it's more
>beneficial for me to sit to the side so someone can feed me. That's my own set
>of circumstances, so I don't complain about things like that.
>
>Anyway, I made sure there was plenty of room to get by me or I would have
>never sat there in the first place. The manager comes over after only about
>two or three minutes and tells me I need to be moved. He was polite, so I
>simply asked why this was necessary. He explained to me it was a fire hazard
>to have me in the aisle. While I was moving, I tried to explain to him that
>some of the modifications they had made recently made the restaurant a little
>tighter and would probably be more of a fire hazard than he realized. I think
>he believed I was being a little pissy, so I made sure I changed my tone. I
>initially thought he got my message, but I discovered later he didn't.
>
>Just as I was about ready to finish my dinner, I noticed the waitress setting
>up some of the tables so a large party could be accommodated. I told my
>brother, "you know that's going to be a fire hazard when those individuals sit
>there in the aisle." Well, that's what turned out to be. The waitresses had to
>turn to the side in order to get by and no one saw anything wrong with this.
>
>On my way out I politely asked the manager to take a look down the aisle and
>tell me if he saw anything wrong. He initially indicated he did not and when I
>pointed out the problem he too shook his head in agreement. In a polite manner
>I asked him, "what would happen if I contacted the fire marshal right now?"
>(In case you're wondering why I asked this negative question, it's because
>when he was explaining to me why I needed to move initially he told me at the
>fire marshal was called or came in that they would be closed down for a week
>if I was sitting in the aisle).
>
>His response, "they probably closes down there." "What are you going to do
>about this situation?" I asked. He shrugged his shoulders in bewilderment.
>Then I ask what can we do about this. His suggestion was for me to call
>corporate headquarters. I intend on doing this, but for some reason I keep
>forgetting to lay out the contact information.
>
>Don't get me wrong the guy was very polite and they accommodated me, but the
>blatant institutional discrimination gets on my nerves. This problem truly is
>not about being disabled though. It's more about making sure restaurants
>comply with the safety restrictions and not simply choose to ignore the ones
>which are most profitable to them. I'm sure if I would have had six or seven
>guests, they would have let me sit anywhere I wanted.
>
>I know, it sounds pissy, but the manager thanked me for not blaming him. I
>guess some other people have gone off on him about an accessible bathrooms, as
>if it's his personal fault. He's only a 20 something-year-old young man. He
>can bring it up with corporate, but if they don't do anything, I guess it's up
>to someone else to take charge.
>
>Sorry if this is a rambling mess, but it is simply dictated it rather quickly.
>
>Quadius
