OpenGov - Open Government Brainstorm

Why Is This Idea Important?: Many worthwile projects will never get accomplished because the existing conditions are "grandfathered in" and the threatened cost will even deter people from making needed upgrades to their buildings -- especially in California where there are a abundance of regulators and litigants with little to do. The homebound, such as my late mother would never have benefitted from any of the ADA provisions, because pain limited her ability to lift a phone in the 1960's. Vietnam war wounded often benefit as have those people with strong lobbying affiliations -- such as polio victims in Minnesota, but no where else in the world. I would quit my job as a longtime architect at a Dow 30 Company if given an opportunity, for out of pocket expenses perhaps, if I could lead an unbiased team to fix these rules to actually benefit the disabled community as a whole, and end the waste and associated disgust. Our company once had to spent $20,000 extra to build a custom, oversized revolving door into a drug manufacturing cleanroom to allow access by people in wheelchairs. However, the FDA protocol prohibited wheelchairs from the area because of drug contamination issues. This was a highly visible and assinine waste of money and there are so many similar mandates it should be an embarrassment. Had my firm been required to spend the $20,000 on something beneficial, the company would have contributed to solving a problem instead of throwing away design time, construction effort, and state review money. Only a deeply entrenched bureaucracy, with specific beneficiaries having an axe to grind could be so selfish as not to have comprehended the problem I am addressing. The flagrant overkill and the corresponding failures where access ought to be provided are proof of government failure involving every non-residential building in the country -- of course church sanctuaries are exempted. The fact that perishioners cannot attend their church or sing in the choir or stand at a pulpit because of a disability is the ultimate irony and injury. Some exemption.