Richmond CA burger joint closing after 40 years....no wheelchair ramp.

[HikerGuy83]

In our race to be so accomodating, we're doing things like this.

I can't tell you how much I respect small business people.  Often they work long hard hours and find a lot of satisfaction in being part of a community.

But someone has to screw it up.  I don't know that I am unsympathetic to the guy in the wheelchair.  But, maybe he should have just gone somewhere that does have what he needs. 

In the end, the need to be right is costing Richmond a community business.  Maybe these people can go to work for Amazon or Wal-Mart.  In the meantime, the guy in the wheelchair won't be getting his hamburger anyway.  And I guess he can take satisfaction in the fact that a lot of others won'te either.

Hope he's proud.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/beloved-san-francisco-burger-joint-will-close-after-40-years-after-wheelchair-user-sued-over-obstacles-that-stopped-him-entering-with-owners-saying-they-re-too-poor-to-build-a-ramp/ar-BB1ltQZ5?ocid=msedgntp&pc=LCTS&cvid=1dc356588667418caa772597d1bfd937&ei=4

After 38 years of operation, the Great American Hamburger & Pie Co.'s Post in Richmond, California, bid farewell to its longtime customers on Thursday, with the lawsuit being the final blow.

'Two harsh years of COVID, high food inflation, and a recent ADA compliance lawsuit have taken a toll on our small family business,' owners George and Helen Koliavas announced the closure.
George told SFGate that there were discussions about constructing a wheelchair-accessible ramp, but the cost was too high.

After the Americans with Disabilities Act compliance lawsuit was filed against the restaurant last year, George and Helen decided that the best moved was to close.

**************************

Getting rid of this crap.....first step towards maybe MAGA.

Not that anyone brought this up.

[Timber Rattler]

Same thing happened in Gettysburg several years ago.  An embittered, wheel-chair bound liberal woman took it upon herself to terrorize local small businesses by filing incessant complaints and lawsuits against them, forcing the owners to invest in tens of thousands of dollars (they did not have) to add wheelchair ramps to their 19th century buildings.  The borough council was powerless to stop her but the Pennsylvania state "Human Rights Council" backed her fully.  Those that tried to accommodate her ended up getting pinched between her lawsuits and the town's historic district zoning and permitting regulations, which often denied their requests for the ramps because the ramps would clutter up the sidewalks and change the "historic character" of the town.

She finally died and the lawsuits ended but not before the damage was done, and many of those businesses went under because of her lawfare attacks.

Here are just a couple of the stories that came out of her vendetta:

Handicapped Activist Turns to Petition the Federal Government

Marilynn Phillips has filed dozens of complaints with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Council
 against Gettysburg businesses she does not believe are compliant with the Americans with
 Disabilities Act.

So far, very few decisions have been made on those cases and the wheelchair-bound Phillips is

 upset that most businesses did not take the initiative to fix the “problems” on their own.
 Therefore, the Hampstead, Md. resident will now file all complaints in federal court with a private
 attorney.

 “It has been my practice for 30 years to file with such commissions, in the hope that if
 respondents do not have additional court costs, they will do the right thing.  As that has not
 happened in Gettysburg, I am moving ahead with the option of federal court,” Phillips said
 Wednesday.

 Phillips explained that federal court cases take “months, not years” to proceed. If the complaint is
 determined valid, the defendant must pay all costs associated with the case, including Phillips’
 attorney fees and the cost of hiring an ADA consultant hired by the attorney.
 
When cases are filed with the PHRC, becoming compliant is the only cost associated with the
 case if the business is determined to be non-compliant. The PHRC does have the right, however,
 to fine guilty defendants $10,000.

ADA Director to Gettysburg: ‘You’re on your own’

https://www.gettysburgtimes.com/news/article_28a7b03c-58ef-11e0-af6e-001cc4c002e0.html

As businesses in Gettysburg continue to struggle with disabled-access threats, the downtown
 area has taken a different look since litigation first occurred nearly five years ago.
 There are new ramps near every business on York and Chambersburg street, with little design
 standards, often times resulting in unattractive clutter.
 To complicate matters, there is no where for businesses go to for help, and there likely won’t be
 any time soon.

 “I think the bottom line is, you’re on your own. Don’t expect anyone to help you,” Mid-Atlantic
 ADA Center Director Marian Vessels told Gettysburg Borough Council’s community development
 committee last week.

[PeteS in CA]

The City of Richmond is not an affluent area, and not new, either. The hamburger place is a mile or two from a manufacturing plant where Jeeps were built and Kaiser built Victory ships during WW2. IOW, it's a fairly old area, and the picture of the building makes it look like it was built no more recently than the 1960s. IOW, the building and the hamburger place both predate the ADA. Some old buildings can and have been updated/adapted to be ADA compliant. That building obviously would be difficult to adapt, if not impossible.

There are predators that prey on small businesses using the ADA. The character who sued the family out of business, IMO, is either one such predator or has hooked up with a leechyer who is. That the ADA would be used this way should have been obvious when G. H. W. Bush signed it.