Bend, Oregon, tries to address its poorly built curb ramps

From KOHD-TV in Bend, Oregon:

Chris Fellows is paralyzed from the waist down since birth due to spina bifida. He doesn't let it slow him down, even driving his own car. Eight years ago he moved to Bend, not knowing many of the curb ramps were poorly built.

"When I first moved here I didn't know that and I went down normally, ended up on my side. Had somebody give me a hand back into my chair," said Fellows.

In 2007, after a legal challenge, the City of Bend entered into an agreement with the Oregon Department of Justice to repair curb ramps, but the agreement left questions unanswered.

"What curb ramps need to be done in the city and how many need to be done," said Susan Duncan, Accessibility Manager for the City of Bend.

The city has already fixed more than four hundred ramps and plans to repair six to seven hundred more over the next two years at a cost of three point two million dollars. That may fulfill their agreement with the Department of Justice, but it's a far cry from the six to seven thousand curb ramps some advocates had hoped the city would repair.

"We need to prioritize where we go first and where we put our dollars, our very limited dollars," said Oran Teater.

Oran Teater, a Bend city councilor, says the city needs to look at what other communities are doing.

"I look around and it seems like we've done a pretty darn good job, particularly in our downtown core," said Teater.

He admits, he might see it differently if he was in a wheelchair. Fellows sees it from his wheelchair everyday.

"It stinks. It needs a lot of work. It's getting better but it has a long way to go," said Fellows.