Burger--or at least a Salad; Tacos; Piroshky

Shhh!

News flash: RantWoman sometimes eats fast food. Sometimes RantWOman is too lazy to assemble her own salad ingredients. Sometimes RantWoman's carnivore tendencies flare up. Sometimes RantWoman just craves the experiment of seeing who is working at fast food places in her neighborhood. Until the current #CoronaVirus unpleasantness, RantWoman was able to get her fast food, eat in the dining room, or consider carrying it out. Now it's all about Drive Through only. Drive through fast food. Drive through virus testing. Drive through all kinds of things!

Except RantWoman does not drive. And RantWoman knows a lot of other people who, for various reasons also do not drive; nor do they necessarily want to pay someone to drive for them, especially for something in their neighborhoods.

Nor is RantWoman charmed by the idea of paying someone to drive her food a few blocks when RantWoman needs the exercise anyway.

RantWoman also is not charmed by invitations to pick up one's takeout orders at the drive through. RantWoman is not charmed because well, cars.

RantWoman has found kindred spirits!

What is wrong with Drive thru only???? Letter to Mayor Durkan

Okay folks. Time be be realistic AND get creative. RantWoman definitely considers it discriminatory, a violation of the ADA to make one's goods or services available to people in cars, but not to people who walk, bike, ride the bus, use wheelchairs. RantWoman is also trying to grapple with practical realities of running a business. RantWoman strongly favors creative ways to address needs rather than howling from drive-by lawyers demanding money!

Here, some great moments from recent RantWoman history:

--A favorite Taco Time location that got written up in the paper: RantWoman grudgingly decided to order food through the app and pick it up at the drive-through window. RantWoman considers it lucky that one vehicle had already left by the time RantWoman made it around the building to the drive-through lane. There were no other cars. RantWoman considers it a bad business sign to have no cars in the drive-through at lunch time on a Saturday. RantWoman cannot possibly buy enough tacos to make up for the missing car traffic. RantWoman is unclear how often she will be visiting the drive-through on foot, for one thing because RantWoman cooks and can frequently do things comparable to Taco Time except for the time factor of preparing. But there is a Stay at Home Order. RantWoman HAS time...

--The city is supposed to be staying at home, but RantWoman saw an item on Twitter about no-contact transfers from Pike Place Market vendors to people's cars. It's the market, so OF COURSE there are pedestrian friendly options. There was a link to a website that had PHONE NUMBERS for several Pike Market vendors including Piroshky Piroshky. RantWoman happens to love Seattle Piroshky. The fluffy dough and flavor palettes are considerably more diverse than the piping hot meat and dough grease bombs RantWoman used to buy during a graduate school stint in Leningrad / St Petersburg. And there is a phone number! So when RantWoman is ready to really want Piroshky, she can call up the place, see whether they can take an order AND figure out a no-contact transfer. RantWoman can think of some essential services enrout to or from...

--Recently on one of RantWoman's daily walks around her neighborhood, RantWoman decided to check out the situation at a nearby McDonalds. The nearby McDonalds has a sign on the door saying the dining room is closed but if you are picking up orders for Door Dash, please ring a bell. There is an app. RantWoman will experiment with the app. RantWoman will also experiment about the Please ring a bell option for pickups even without Door Dash.  As noted above, RantWoman is not interested in paying someone to transport her food just a few blocks. But RantWoman REALLY likes that the Please ring a bell option is on sidewalk with good wheelchair access and decent pathways both through the parking lot and from the sidewalk. So despite RantWoman's personal allergy to Door Dash, overall RantWoman will give the effort a solid A- if she is able to order food and pick it up at the same place Door dash has a pickup.

Here we now come to RantWoman's secret quest for world domination. RantWoman is writing about Seattle. RantWoman imagines that the "drive-through only" optimism afflicts many other cities in our area, not to mention the rest of thecountry. RantWoman is sure lots of other cities also have residents with disabilities who do not drive and need options other than Drive-through. RantWoman definitely encourages both business and customers to think creatively about how to maintain safety without depending only on cars!