This Saturday, Supervisor Eric Mar and other city officials will host an American with Disabilities Act Town Hall event at the Richmond District Branch library (351 9th Avenue) from 2pm until 4pm.
The event has been organized to highlight the new programs the city has put in place to help small businesses better assess their ADA compliance, and if needed, get into compliance.
Last November, the city officially announced a $200,000 pilot program to help small businesses receive ADA inspections and if there are issues, receive advice and planning assistance for coming into compliance. The ADA Small Business Assessment Program also gives merchants access to grant money and a $1 million loan fund to make needed improvements.
The program is designed to help merchants avoid what Mayor Ed Lee calls “irrational and abusive” lawsuits that have been threatened or filed in the past few years against restaurants and other small businesses in the city, alleging that they are not ADA compliant.
Several dozen businesses here in the Richmond District have been threatened with ADA lawsuits. Some have been able to afford the upgrade construction expenses – like Han Il Kwan – while others have had to close like the Video Cafe on Geary and 21st Avenue and Thidwick Books on Clement (which thankfully was able to re-open a year later in a new location near 12th and Clement).
The process typically begins with merchants receiving a letter from a lawyer who represents a disabled plaintiff, alleging the business’ ADA violations and threatening to file a lawsuit if the business does not offer a financial settlement.
In September, Governor Jerry Brown signed a new law banning these types of “pre-litigation demands” and gives a break to businesses that fix their violations in a timely manner:
The law bans “pre-litigation demands,” i.e. letters demanding money from small businesses under threat of an ADA suit being filed; reduces fines for violations if they’re fixed within a certain period; and, except in rare cases, eliminates “stacking”- the levying of additional fines for each day a small business is out of compliance.
The new city pilot of The ADA Small Business Assessment Program will cover ADA inspections and planning for about 40 businesses. Qualifying businesses must be located in the Sunset District or the Richmond District, though the initial pilot is only open to businesses on Geary Boulevard between 14th to 28th Avenue.
Today, Mayor Ed Lee and Supervisor Mar went on a “merchant walk” along the Geary corridor that is part of the pilot program, to stop in at businesses and tell them about the new program.
The City also has a ADA Requirements & Your Small Business page up on the Office of Small Business website with helpful resources.
Saturday’s event at the Richmond District Branch library begins at 2pm and will include representatives from the Mayor’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development (OEWD), the Mayor’s Office of Small Business (OSB), and the Northeast Community Federal Credit Union (NCFCU), who will explain the various City assistance programs available to help small businesses become ADA compliant.
Sarah B.
Right on . . . my sense over a lot of these ADA claims is that there are a lot of bogus,litigious people out there, bent not on any legal actions, but rather just a quick buck through blackmail.
Be warned that they continue to prowl. I saw Irma Ramirez and her crew out to get another business today. What a sad state we live in. As a disabled person Myself i feel that she is tarnishing a lot of good people. She could care less about accessibility other than the accessibility to these poor merchants wallets