@LT04:
District 1 says the gender nutrial signs have to be 36’’ wide district 2 says they have to be 48’’ wide.
So I say fine what ever I start putting feelers out to find out where I can buy these stupid signs. OK I found the only manufacturer in the US that can comply but the 48’’ signs are a special order that will have to be custom made.
Any sheet metal shop (among my many skills is shear/press brake operator) with a waterjet machine could make those signs for you. No matter what state you live in, short of maybe Alaska, you could look in a business phone book or on the net and, within 10 minutes, have half a dozen shops in your state or even local to you that can do it. AND many of them would also have the capacity to paint them as well and if they don’t, there is probably a place right across the street from them that will. Unless the sign is 50 square feet or has more that 2 faces it will never be “special order”.
@LT04:
The NYDOT does agree that I need a total of 6 signs per job site (3 each way.) So with an average of 50 - 75 crews a day I will need to buy as meny as 2 sets of 450 signs.
My point is if you want to make this change fine what ever; why can’t we grandfather the old signs untill they need to be taken out of service instead of possabily bankrupting small businesses?
Why would you have to have them ALL cut brand new, anyway? What is stopping you from just sending out the old signs, that still comply with size standards, to be repainted? A little sanding, repriming, and repainting would take 2 days.
And if your company size averages 50 to 75 crews of workers, along with accompanying equipment, then you couldn’t possibly convince me that it is a “small” business in danger of bankruptcy and should easily be able to afford the +/-$50k it would take to have all of those signs made brand new.
Not to mention that it’s a business expense that can be written off and your competitors also have to comply to the new demands so your company isn’t losing any sort of competitive edge.
Personally, I applaud the people who want the change made. With very few notable exceptions, in the last 3000 years of recorded history, women have been consistently shortchanged and overtly discriminated against by men in every facet of life. Now, if there was a demand to, in the NEXT 3000 years, give women all of the benefits and priviledges that men enjoyed and force men into the role that women endured, then maybe the opponents would have an arguable position. But, only now, in the last century are women even getting close to “on par” with men and yet men are going apesh*t over it. The playing field has yet to become completely level so if there are laws that are passed or demands made that actually give women a slight edge over men in some aspects it is the LEAST we can do and this particular case isn’t even one of those situations. All it is, is “we want the signs to acknowledge us”. Quit being petty and let them have it.
The REAL tragedy here is that there are some women (I’m not mentioning any names. Jen) who have been conditioned, ultimately by men, to be resistant to other women wanting their due. We see it all the time in the middle east and Asia and we can’t have that, but when we see it at home it’s ok. Women who rock the boat here are vilified, by men and women alike, just like everywhere else. It amounts to nothing more than psychological warfare and I’m glad that, however slowly, the good guys are winning this war.
