Concerns about historic preservation delay wheelchair ramps at Como Park Conservatory

Nearly a year after St. Paul officials said they planned to replace balky accessibility elevators with ramps at the Como Park Conservatory’s Sunken Garden, an out-of-order sign showed access remains limited.

The reason for the delay? Historic preservation officials spent the past several months reviewing design concepts. The state approved those concepts in March and work on the ramps now is expected to begin this summer at the 109-year-old conservatory.

But the delay illustrates what officials say is a frequent conflict between historic preservation and the desire to make facilities like Como Zoo or St. Paul City Hall truly accessible.

“I’m not a person with a deep background in historic preservation, but in my time at the city and when I was at the state, I had a lot of frustration with the requirements around historic preservation and the limitations that put on our society today,” said St. Paul Deputy Mayor Jaime Tincher, a onetime chief of staff to former Gov. Mark Dayton. “How do we appropriately balance historic preservation with who we need to be serving today? It’s a big challenge.”

Officials acknowledge accessibility was often an afterthought on older buildings. Throughout the conservatory and adjacent Como Zoo are exhibits and restrooms that, while accessible, are difficult for disabled people to use. Doors in several buildings and most restrooms lack wheelchair access buttons. In some cases, doors had buttons, but the buttons didn’t work.

A March Star Tribune story highlighting accessibility challenges at City Hall prompted officials then to promise action. Questions last month regarding accessibility at Como spurred leaders from several city departments to gather at Mayor Melvin Carter’s office to detail ambitious plans to improve accessibility citywide.

To that end, every city department is updating ADA transition plans, Human Rights Director Beth Commers said during the meeting. All departments are doing the work, she said, “because we all serve the public. We’re not just thinking about facilities. We are going beyond that. And we’re thinking about programs, services, information, and the policies and practices that guide them. Are we accessible enough? No.”

When asked for an example of the kind of welcoming place officials envision, St. Paul Public Library Director Maureen Hartman pointed to a new, modern and more accessible Hamline Midway library — one that’s yet to be built.

But those plans are in limbo. Defenders of the old library, built in 1930 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, are fighting St. Paul’s efforts to tear it down. Tincher pointed to that battle as another example of historic preservation vs. a modern design and built-in accessibility.

“We have members of our community that would say, ‘I don’t go to this library because I have a child in a wheelchair, and we can’t use it or we have to go in the back door,’” Tincher said.

Sometimes, accessibility is in the eye of the beholder.

On a sunny day last week, Susan Peltola set her forearm crutches down as she and a friend waited outside the conservatory for their ride home. Diagnosed with multiple myeloma 26 years ago and finding it increasingly hard to get around following repeated leg and hip fractures, Peltola said getting out into the world is critical to her sense of well-being.

Como is among her favorite spots, she said, and pretty accessible. She had not only spent the day visiting the zoo, but she was able to get down into the Sunken Garden. One of the two oft-broken lifts was working that day.

“I’ve been home all winter,” she said. “So, I’m very pleased.”

Happy, too, was Dennis LaVoie. The Vietnam War-era veteran has been unable to walk since breaking his back after falling off his roof while shoveling snow five years ago. He goes everywhere in a wheelchair. And, thanks to a battery-powered attachment for his chair, he can cover lots of ground — fast.

He regularly covers the mile or so from his apartment to Como. While some areas are harder to get into than others, he said the zoo and park “are pretty accessible.” If there’s a place his chair can’t get him into, he just doesn’t go.

“Como’s good,” LaVoie said. “I mean, yeah, there will come a day when I will be sitting there, only looking out my window. But I am going to do everything in my power to postpone it as long as I can.”

Still, officials said, more needs to be done. Beyond replacing the lifts with ramps — during times when the Sunken Garden is not reserved for weddings — officials said other improvements are in the works.

Michelle Furrer, Como’s campus director, said maintenance funds and money raised by Como Friends will be used soon to install disability access buttons on doors in the aquatics and hoof stock buildings. The city also is seeking state bonding money to remodel the big cat building, where a steep set of stairs makes one side of the building impassible to those with limited mobility.

Funding for additional improvements could come from the recently approved city sales-tax increase, Furrer said. The point, she said, is to keep improving.

“I think every project I have going on has some piece of the lens of ‘How are we making this welcoming for everyone?’” she said.