Dragon*Con, Day 1

[filkertom]

Not happy with myself.

Oh, my concert went great last night. Hell of a good crowd, at least 150-200 (the sound people were keeping count, and it started off with 90 as Leslie Fish opened and just kept growing). Fairly basic set, honestly, but I think I was in pretty good form. Leslie sounded good, and after me the reunited Brob Bards kicked ass and took names.

And I had a pretty nice day over at the Marriott. Lots of friendly people, including one who'd seen me at Maker Faire Detroit. Superlative costumes, including one lovely young woman who was pretty much perfect as Morrigan from Dragon Age: Origins, several very good Jokers, two different costumes involving accomplished accordion playing (one was Weird Al in the 80s -- simply great), lots of Doctors (mostly Tennant, although a few earlier and one darn good Matt Smith), an interesting surplus of Super Mario characters, lots of steampunk, and an unbelievable Alien costume that could've walked right off the movie lot. (The same Alien was doing photo-ops in the Hyatt Thursday night, and I saw him/her/it hugging a five-year-oldish girl dressed as I Dream Of Jeannie.)

And everybody's been fantastic. I emphasize Rowan, Chip, Regina, Robert Dennis, and of course Robby Hilliard, Da Man his own bad self. Among the old friends I saw yesterday were Ira and Janie, Tom Reed, Matt Leger, Scott Merritt, Jean Prior, Yonnie, etc., etc., etc.

But.

As usual with Dragon*Con, there is one big problem: the elevators.

Let me be very specific: We're talking a thirty thousand plus people con. This by itself is more than bad enough, but a whole lot of the evening programming is at the Hyatt. Also there are a lot of room parties. And the con suite. Thousands of people at any time, trying to work their way up a twenty-two-story-plus-three-basements hotel.

A hotel which has five elevators in the main lobby tower, and three elevators in the other tower.

360 days a year, this isn't a problem, I'm sure. Can't be. But when Dragon comes to town, and suddenly everybody wants to get to where they're going and there are only a very few ways to get there, it gets a lot crazy very fast.

Not much better at the Marriott. And they have a lot more elevators.

The key part in this little story, of course, is that I'm riding a mobility cart this weekend, graciously provided by Scooteround and D*C, so that I don't kill myself getting from hotel to hotel. So that's no problem.

It's getting to the right levels within the hotels that's the problem.

I will not bore you with most of my adventures of the day. Suffice it to say, there was a lot of waiting. A lot.

It really got bad in the evening, of course, when the parties all started. And a whole lot of people, determined to par-tay, started going down to go up. Which means that the elevators come down, responding to calls from the third basement level -- where much of the programming is, including Baker, the main filk room -- but nobody gets off.

As the number of people, including people in wheelchairs or with walkers or mobility carts, increases.

There is one solution for this: Have people with the hotel -- possibly with the convention, but definitely with the hotel -- wait at the lobby and lowest level elevators. If you got on and went all the way down, why, you must have intended to go all the way down, right? All off. Hotel policy. Move it out.

That solution has been in place in past years. Not yet this year.

So I was waiting with a woman, slightly older than me, with a walker, and another woman with a mobility cart. She was rather verbally militant about our rights regarding the elevators. I was trying to be cool, but I was exhausted, and I hadn't really had dinner, and it was all getting to me.

We, and other, more mobile people, watched as elevator after elevator came down to the third basement and nobody got out. We were effectively trapped there.

Finally, Robby came by, and he tried to commandeer us an elevator and talk sense into the people on it. Didn't work, for the most part. Two people did get off, but one guy in particular refused loudly. Robby said it was con policy to let handicapped people on, which meant non-handicapped people had to get off. The guy actually said, "That's your policy, that's not my policy." He should've had his badge revoked right there.

And I said, "Sir? Just so you know? You're a dick."

Like I said, I was very tired. But it gets worse.

Another car came, and two people got off and then before anybody could move a young man on it reached across and hit the Close Door button. I called him a dick, too.

Yet another car came, and this one already had a person on a cart in it. Behind him, looking over him to look at us, one of the other people in that car actually said, "At some point, you just have to start taking the stairs."

And I said, "You're an asshole."

At that point, I realized I was not fit for human company, and I apologized to those near me. One of whom said, "Yeah, but [what the other guy said] was kind of an asshole thing to say."

Another car came, and we managed to get room for the two people who'd given up their space for our sakes. Which left us with our original problem: three people who needed an elevator, and a growing number of folks trying not to walk up X stupid flights of stairs.

Robby was trying to wrangle us some help. I decided to go to the Motor Lobby desk (ten feet away, right frickin there) to see if the hotel could help as well. I told the person there about the situation, then came around to get back to the elevators.

Where a Dramatic Scene was ensuing.

The first woman on the mobility cart had parked herself in the open door of an elevator, and was loudly declaiming she would not move until the people there got off so she and the woman with the walker and I could get on. The people in the car refused. The woman with the walker was reaching over the other woman into the car, and someone grabbed her wrist. Robby tried to break it up.

And suddenly I knew that none of this was worth it.

I would go outside the damn building by way of the motor pool in the dark if I had to, pushing the frickin cart up the ramp. I'd carry the woman with the walker up the escalator. But this was simply not worth it.

At which point, someone got my attention.

Yet another elevator had opened, and, with a bit of negotiation, they made room for me.

Like a coward, I took it and fled.

Got to the lobby, got to the International tower, waited and waited for the elevator again, finally got to my floor and my room. Called Robby to make sure he was all right. He'd broken up that scuffle, got hotel security (and apparently some huge guy who came down and made sure nobody had a problem got that sir?), and told con staff, and later forwarded me word that there is an express elevator that handicapped persons can use by calling the Hyatt front desk.

That will help. But Robby's also trying to get the con, and maybe the hotel, to basically run as gatekeepers, as they have done in times past, to let handicapped people have some priority.

At the very least, I don't want to leave the damn rented cart in a far part of the building, y'know? Kinda defeats the purpose.

But I was a jerk about it. Grade-A, first-class mouthing off asshole. And for that I am sorry. To the people I was mouthing off at, and to those around me who had to watch and hear me in action.

I knew Dragon*Con is a big, exhausting mother. I was even looking forward to it. But I have the suspicion that what I'm really looking forward to is Wednesday, when I can sleep in.

And how's your weekend beginning?

Comments

[niqaeli]

You know, reading that, I honestly don't think you were out of line. Being tired and frustrated with assholes refusing to make any accomodation for people with disabilities is pretty reasonable, and calling them assholes when they're being ones... well, maybe you don't win any politeness awards. But the assholes were being assholes. And sometimes people being an assholes aren't ever going to realise it until you tell them as much. (Sometimes they know and don't care, or don't know but wouldn't care. But occasionally they don't realise and might learn something from being told that they are being assholes.)

I'm really sorry that you had to deal with all that shit. No matter how you feel you handled it -- it sucks all around to have had to handle the situation at all.

I dunno if you care to hear good news, sir, but... my weekend is going well? I have slept and might, possibly, have almost made up my ongoing sleep debt. I am very excited about this possibility. I live an extremely exciting life, yes.

[louisadkins]

I have to agree, you don't sound like you were a Dick in this situation. Not polite, I can agree with, but sometimes that happens, or is even called for. Your behavior was what I would consider inside the range of "understandable." I also think it's a good note on your character that you realized you were less than good company, and acted to correct that.

I'm sorry to hear about the elevator-fail, and hope things improve on that front for you.

[tarsa.livejournal.com]

You have a right to be pissed. When able~bodied individuals look their noses down at folk who aren't and as a result keep you hostage? You betcha there's gonna be words flying. You were quite mild about it~~I would have demanded that hotel and con security get their collective asses down there and fix it. Period.

This is one of the reasons I'm not attending Dragon Con. If my back decides to give out, even while using a scooter, I have to get to my room *quickly* to stretch out my spine (and most likely, take major pain meds). I could not have waited that long for an elevator. Of course, most likely I wouldn't have~~my screams (when I'm in agony) are pretty loud.

[latheos.livejournal.com]

Two things.

1) tarsa I love your icon. Mind if I steal it? (My wife and I are both handicapped, and the only wheelchair icon I have isn't always ... appropriate)

2) Tom, I agree with everyone else. Everyone has a point at which civility begins to break down, and you hit yours. It happens. It also tends to happen more often when formerly-able people become damaged enough to require things like scooters, walkers (I hate those things - never use mine), and wheelchairs. That you took it as long as you did is in your favour, as is the fact that you left before things got really ugly. You're not any more a dick than you were before. ;-) You're human, just like the rest of us monkeys.

[drzarron.livejournal.com]

And people bitch when we work a Dorsai contract at a big con and go into elevator wrangling mode.

[tarsa.livejournal.com]

Remind me to make the DI some of my OMFG *GOOD* cookies, y'all have earned them! *HUGGS*

[eustaciavye.livejournal.com]

We've had the same problem at Arisia and its only the decency of people that keeps it from going crazy. You were, imho, totally reasonable.

[wildcard9.livejournal.com]

I remember the last 2 Arisias had elevator monitors to keep the elevators from getting overloaded. It seams to have worked, not too many elevator breakdowns during the last two years. It sucked waiting in the line but the line moved because the monitors were able to keep all the elevators going.

[ladyotterfae.livejournal.com]

Speaking as the partner to a man in a wheelchair...you were being remarkably restrained, both in language and actions. I appreciate that you feel like a jerk (I would, too, after name-calling in public), but believe me, D would have been a lot louder and a lot pushier - and I would have backed him up on it, too, even if it embarrassed me.

That behavior is ridiculous. Yeah, it's crowded and everyone wants to be somewhere, but even I (and I've got some minor mobility problems of my own) try to take the blasted stairs to the extent possible when it's busy so people who need them more can use the elevators.

[virtualvirtue.livejournal.com]

Reason #453829 I am glad Chambanacon finally got out of Springfield. The other convention we were sharing the hotel with was a Indian Christian encounter group. The stories I can tell about elevators and getting rushed...including when Sandra was a babe-in-arms and one of the people we were sharing the hotel with basically block-tackled me for the elevator....

To me, you weren't an asshole. If, after many opportunities, the people you were sharing your space with didn't decide to do the humane thing and help, to me, you were asserting yourself in a way they *might* understand. You had scoped out your audience and changed your message to suit them.

[wouldyoueva.livejournal.com]

You know, I think this may be why I'll give my kid $$ to go to Dragoncon (at some point in the future when I have $$) but I won't go.

My older son is there, and has made cryptic remarks on Twitter about problems he's having there. Wonder why their system is breaking down this year. Surely they've developed one, right?

[dornbeast.livejournal.com]

Based on what I've heard about other cons, all it takes to have a system break down is changing a few key people on ConComm and not having properly trained replacements.

It may be a friendly departure, but if the person that steps up isn't aware of old policies, or simply isn't able to push hard enough for what a track needs, it can be a bad year in one part of the con.

[jayene.livejournal.com]

I completely understand and don't think you were out of line at all. I've been there twice, the first year they were down to 3 hotels and one of those was reduced in size due to renovation. I didn't want to come back. Last year a dear friend went down and we got a hotel room in a Non con hotel. Not having to deal with the elevators was worth a half mile hike everyday. Honestly they should probably dedicate one elevator to mobility problems first and run that with security. I tried to use the stair whenever practical (ie not going up 20 floors.) We skipped it this year because 3-4 days on my feet in that humidity and with those crowds would send me straight in to labor! Next year perhaps we will try to go down again.

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

I just don't believe a group of people could be that thoughtless, rude and unworthy to breathe air. I agree with the general consensus. I would be very thrilled to know the names, addresses and phone numbers of all those who would not get off the elevator, so that I could, at the very least, get them all on the mailing list for Scientology

[lovefromgirl.livejournal.com]

Oooh, you devious dear! I like the way you think.

[markbernstein.livejournal.com]

This is exactly why Anthrocon works the way it does. We always have two to three people on elevator duty on the first floor, and there are policies that are published on the web site and in the program book and strictly enforced. One of those policies is that if you rode down to the first floor, you have to get off there, and refusing to comply means you lose your badge. (The second important policy is a priority line for fursuiters, the mobility challenged, and hotel guests who aren't convention members. The third is a limit on the number of people who get on each elevator, as we've learned that overloaded elevators break down, making the situation worse.)

I firmly believe that Dragon*Con desperately needs to implement something similar, and hope the free-for-all you describe is the necessary prod to getting it done. Feel free to pass on that opinion to anyone and everyone involved in running Dragon*Con.

[sffilk.livejournal.com]

This is exactly why Anthrocon works the way it does. We always have two to three people on elevator duty on the first floor, and there are policies that are published on the web site and in the program book and strictly enforced. One of those policies is that if you rode down to the first floor, you have to get off there, and refusing to comply means you lose your badge. (The second important policy is a priority line for fursuiters, the mobility challenged, and hotel guests who aren't convention members. The third is a limit on the number of people who get on each elevator, as we've learned that overloaded elevators break down, making the situation worse.)

I firmly believe that Dragon*Con desperately needs to implement something similar, and hope the free-for-all you describe is the necessary prod to getting it done. Feel free to pass on that opinion to anyone and everyone involved in running Dragon*Con.

Mark, it's a great idea. That being said, it'll never happen. Why? It's Dragon*Con and they set their own rules.

[saganth.livejournal.com]

Tom,

I don't think you were much out of line at all. Ok, yeah, calling people names like that in public isn't the best of ways to handle it, but I can definitely understand you being pushed that level by such blatant fuckheads. You and the others stuck waiting had every right to be angry and to protest and do everything you could to get the situation resolved.

As for you "fleeing like a coward," I think you're beating yourself up far too much. You went to get help, you weren't the one having a sit-in protest in the open elevator doors. I'm not going to judge the woman who did it, I'm just saying you weren't part of that specific action. You were tired and stressed and clearly you'd long since been forced to cross the International "Enough" Line. You got yourself out of that situation, away from further stress and did not overly involve yourself. Maybe the fracas that you escaped had to happen because it finally made the hotel staff notice and do *something*, even if just in that moment. But you not immersing yourself in it doesn't make you a coward.

And, as someone who (so far, thank goodness) does not have mobility issues, let me say that I have done the ride-in-one-direction-and-then-the-other thing in elevators myself on extremely rare occasion (generally I don't see the point in doing it). I've never done it during such huge crowds (never BEEN around such huge crowds when dealing with elevators). After this story, I will definitely never do it again at all.

I hope the rest of the con goes well for you.

[tibicina.livejournal.com]

Riding down to go up isn't the problem. Doing it and then not being willing to get off to let the mobility impaired people on is the problem.

[teddywolf.livejournal.com]

Tom, you had a reasonable expectation. You expected that an elevator coming to the bottom floor would then have room for you to get on. Leave aside mobility-impairments for a moment. That is a perfectly reasonable expectation to have.

Add in that we have, as a society, gone to some effort to make sure mobility-impaired people are able to get where they are going. There's the reason that tickets for parking in a handicapped spot are generally as expensive as parking next to a fire hydrant, and gets a tow-truck nearly as fast - it is public safety.

Each of the people you chewed out acted very poorly. One effectively said he had the right to be pre-emptively uncivil and rude to anybody they didn't know at a convention, tightly packed and filled to the gills with geeks who are putatively fans-in-arms. A second made it so nobody waiting for the elevator could get on. The third, without mobility issues, told mobility-impaired people to take the stairs while he took the elevator. Those people were all demonstrating just how dickish they were. More to the point, and a subtle point which still might have bothered you on some level, by your report none of the other people in those elevators called these people on their rudeness, which means they passively accepted this dickish behavior and normalized it.

No, you were not diplomatic. Given the circumstances, though, you were IMO entirely justified.

Up and Down

[baronet.livejournal.com]

If there are long lines for the elevators, and if some people are riding down to ride up, and if you have to use the elevator for some reason, then what can you do?

You can join the ride-down-to-ride-up crowd putting yourself into that queue, but then you are making the problem worse for everyone else. I wouldn't have thought to ask the Hotel staff about a secret elevator that they were holding in reserve, although it sounds like they had one in this case. You can stand around waiting for an elevator that isn't full of dicks. You can go vigilante on the ones that are.

I don't see a good option.

The thing that gets my goat about riding-down-to-ride-up is that you fill up elevator space while you're doing it, so more total elevator space gets used for the same number of trips. That means that fewer people get to where they're going per trip and per minute, so you are making the problem worse for everyone. You aren't just line-jumping, you are sabotaging the system while you line jump. What do they do to saboteurs in wartime?

Re: Up and Down

[dornbeast.livejournal.com]

That means that fewer people get to where they're going per trip and per minute, so (people that ride down to ride up) are making the problem worse for everyone.

And they don't care. It isn't whether anybody else has a problem, it's solving their own problem.

What do they do to saboteurs in wartime?

I wouldn't classify them as saboteurs. Hoarders, yes. Saboteurs, no. And somebody who is hoarding should be put on the tightest access to the resources in question.

[enjis.livejournal.com]

And this is why the Dorsai act as elevator guards at Anthrocon...which is not nearly as huge. Fursuiters and handicapped folks (and food delivery persons) have first dibs on any elevators. Folks who ride the 'vator DOWN had better get off on the first floor...or else Uncle Kage will be informed, and he will not be pleased.
Some people grumble, but the system mostly works, keeps the 'vators running thru the weekend, and keeps forlks moving.

[lovefromgirl.livejournal.com]

Curious (read: dumb question) but... why fursuiters? Is it a harassment thing, or are the suits just that unwieldy? Never been in one, so I wouldn't know.

[lovefromgirl.livejournal.com]

I... don't see jerk in what you did, but then, I will happily mouth off to anyone flaunting their able-bodied privilege. "Take the stairs? Sure! Can you give me a piggyback ride?"

Hats off to Robby, and here's hoping your problems from here on out are few -- especially in that respect.

[pandoradeloeste.livejournal.com]

nthing what everyone else said - that wasn't being an asshole, it was asserting your rights to get on a damn elevator and be treated like a human being.

[eruvanna.livejournal.com]

You are only human sir. As humans, when we get tired and see less than average human behavior happening which effects us personally, we get irate and less than cordial. I personally have a hope that those individuals crass enough to cat call you from inside full elevators have karma come around to them in due time.

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry you had to have this happen to you, evidently right after you left us in the filk room. Blessing on Robbie for taking initiative and I'm glad to hear he's okay and you did finally get where you were going.

As for your behavior, I join in the general consensus; while I was not present to witness the incident, I know you well enough by now to be sure that (a) your account of events is probably pretty accurate and (b) your reaction was both remarkably restrained and more than I would have had the nerve to do in the same sitch. And once again we see that D*C badly needs to improve the way it handles invited program participants, particularly those like yourself with special mobility needs.

[dornbeast.livejournal.com]

Yes, you went a bit beyond what you normally do.

But you clearly had cause, even if that's more explanation than excuse (and I don't think it was), and you caught yourself at it. That's a Grade-B asshole at best; Grade-A, first-class assholes never think twice, and never apologize to anybody. Not at the moment, not after the fact, and not in print.

And I don't think you were a coward in getting out of there. You knew you were not at your best, and you got out before you did any more damage.

Yes, I am biased in your favor. But I still think you're running yourself down more than you deserve.

[stormgren.livejournal.com]

See, I see it as something similar to an escalation of force.

It's perfectly acceptable to shift into full-bore asshole mode if you're being presented with pure and total assholishness at you.

Because the elevator riders were being a pile of ableist fucks, they certainly deserved far worse than Tom gave them, and frankly, I don't see how he did anything wrong.

[stevemb.livejournal.com]

As Surak put it "The cause was sufficient".

[jeffreyab.livejournal.com]

DragonCon really need to be running the elevators in that situation.

With a freight elevator option for scooters.

Hope this catches you still at the con

[mouser.livejournal.com]

This is what you NEED to do, not for yourself, but for the others that got caught:

Call the front desk.

Ask to speak to the general manager. When asked what's wrong, explain that you're calling to complain about the treatment of handicapped people and you're going to be filing a complaint with corporate, along with the two other handicapped people.

Make sure you use the word "unacceptable" in there somewhere.

http://www.hyatt.com/hyatt/customer-service/share-feedback/share-feedback-on-a-recent-stay.jsp



Did I mention I used to work in a hotel (Marriott)?

Re: Hope this catches you still at the con

[nagasvoice.livejournal.com]

Very much agreed. It's really not the convention's primary duty to make sure the elevators are adequate--hey're just trying to help out and keep an unacceptable situation from deteriorating. What would happen in a fire, pray tell?
The hotel needs to be able to handle the crowd they booked. I'm really tired of hotels who want the company and can't handle it when it shows up, not just with elevators but all the other services called for.

[brithistorian.livejournal.com]

From where I'm setting, it sounds like you were remarkably restrained in a truly horrible situation. Hopefully something can be done to fix this situation in the future, so that no one will find themselves going through this again. (I definitely like mouser's suggestion above.

[ttamsen.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry you were in that situation, and I think your reaction was entirely understandable. I just can't imagine being in such a hurry for anything that I'd block someone with a legitimate need from getting access to an elevator (or a bus seat, or a washroom, or ...) That just baffles me completely.

Maybe it was just a really ugly little local reversal of entropy, with all the jerks clustered together, and all the rest of the congoers are the enthusiastic, considerate folks fans usually are.

I hope things only get better for the rest of your con!