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Squeeze Inn Owner Says Lawsuit Could Sink Him (Access Issues Violate Civil Rights, Woman Says)
MSNBC ^ | 7/8/2009 | KCRA.com

Posted on 07/08/2009 9:00:03 AM PDT by rivercat

The owner of a tiny but famous Sacramento burger joint said a lawsuit about handicapped access could shut him down.

The Squeeze Inn, known for huge mounds of melted cheese on its burgers, violates the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the lawsuit alleges.

Kimberly Block, who says she has severly limited use of her legs, argues she suffered "embarrassment and humiliation" and that her civil rights were violated because of inadequate access inside the Fruitridge Road restaurant.

(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; US: California
KEYWORDS: ada; civilrights; lawsuit; squeezeinn; wheelchairnazi
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To: NMEwithin
just because you are confined to a wheelchair shouldn’t mean you can’t enjoy a burger.

If you can't climb Mount Everest, whom do you sue? Gotta be somebody.

Once you start the "reductio" on your argument, you get to "absurdem" really fast. Wisdom is that not everyone can do everything. None of us needs to do everything.

And at the same time, without police-state laws like the ADA, "everything" will often find a way to come to you. Do you think nobody wants to sell a burger to a guy in a wheelchair? (Why should everybody have to?) Besides ramps and other devices, which many walk-in businesses would have put in on their own, there are innovations that benefit the wheelchair market along with everyone else. A decade ago, who thought about drive-up windows? Now they're everywhere. No ADA storm-trooper-inspector would have come up with the drive-up window.

With ADA and its absurd, expensive consequences, businesses are killed and countless innovations are never dreamed of.

61 posted on 07/08/2009 9:40:54 AM PDT by SamuraiScot
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To: El Sordo
Can I count on your support for mandatory closed captioning of all movies and television?

Don't forget youtube, etc.

62 posted on 07/08/2009 9:41:23 AM PDT by jiggyboy (Ten per cent of poll respondents are either lying or insane)
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To: NMEwithin

I don’t think a place should be forced to spend A SINGLE PENNY to accomodate the handicapped or anyone else.

It’s a private business.
Even if he didn’t want ANY handicapped people in his establishment, I’d support his right.

With a free market, somebody will step up and provide facilities that accomodate the handicapped, with an eye towards turning a profit.

Any other motive is just stupid.


63 posted on 07/08/2009 9:42:29 AM PDT by SJSAMPLE
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To: NMEwithin

Are you suggesting that if he showed up there, wanted a burger, and said he might need some help please, that nobody would help him? Some great businesses would be sunk if they have to become wheelchair accessable. Especially small funky places designed in the 1940 or 50s.


64 posted on 07/08/2009 9:42:29 AM PDT by DesertRhino (Dogs earn the title of "man's best friend", Muslims hate dogs,,add that up.)
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To: NMEwithin

So a business that has no room on their lot to provide a proper ramp has no choice but to shut down? To install a proper ramp would extend into their parking lot and violate zoning laws because they then would be below the minimum number of slots required. While I sympathize with your cousin I disagree that a business should be put in the position of providing wheelchair access or closing down. Does your cousin’s “right” to a burger trump the business owners “right” to make said burger?

There are lawyers who do nothing but drive around town looking for ADA ‘issues’ and then go find one of their regular clients in whose name to file the suit. It’s a whole industry unto itself.


65 posted on 07/08/2009 9:43:48 AM PDT by BlueNgold (... Feed the tree!)
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To: stop_fascism

Yes - but Granny wouldn’t hear of it - and I really can’t blame her - she had Macular Degeneration and had a relationship with this Doc for some years and he really was excellent to her.

I don’t think all businesses should be required to ADA up, but health care facilities should - this office could have been fixed with two small concrete ramps.


66 posted on 07/08/2009 9:43:48 AM PDT by mom4melody
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To: NMEwithin

Can you really tell a business owner with a tiny business like this that they have to rebuild their building and put themselves into debt for years in order to accommodate one or two customers.

It’s clear from the photo that the building would have to be rebuilt. He would have to close for at least a week and probably a month while the work was being done. From experience, I can say that it would cost over $100k and may subject the owner to further code compliance work that could add a couple hundred thousand extra to the bill. Often once you start working on a property, you lose the grandfather clauses for other things that are not in current compliance.

Is it worth potentially destroying a business for a couple customers?


67 posted on 07/08/2009 9:44:20 AM PDT by MediaMole
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To: ssaftler
The deli’s answer to the lawsuit? THEY CLOSED THE RESTAURANT!!!!

This is acceptable to the fascists. It's their way or nothing.

68 posted on 07/08/2009 9:44:55 AM PDT by jiggyboy (Ten per cent of poll respondents are either lying or insane)
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To: karnage
Imagine how much money has been spent making every facility accessible to the disabled. Has to be billions. I worked at an plant that spent a lot of money on ADA facilities and in the eight years I worked there they were never used.
69 posted on 07/08/2009 9:48:35 AM PDT by KSCITYBOY
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To: Drew68

What are the odds that ms kimberly is an ACORN?


70 posted on 07/08/2009 9:48:35 AM PDT by WVNan ( (Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected.: Sun Tzu))
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To: MediaMole

No, I don’t think you can. Can you work towards a compromise that satisfies the business owner as well as the disabled patron? Yes...


71 posted on 07/08/2009 9:49:13 AM PDT by NMEwithin
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To: DonaldC
argues she suffered "embarrassment and humiliation" and that her civil rights were violated

Probably directly from a tenth-generation copy of a lawsuit from 10 years ago that she only had to sign, after putting her name in one blank and the restaurant name in another.

72 posted on 07/08/2009 9:49:23 AM PDT by jiggyboy (Ten per cent of poll respondents are either lying or insane)
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To: SJSAMPLE
"Any other motive is just stupid."

Any other motive is infringement.

73 posted on 07/08/2009 9:49:38 AM PDT by Miss Behave (OMG, my tagline is stalking me.)
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To: AnAmericanMother

“we always find a workaround.”
May I compliment you on the word “workaround”! That
epitomizes the right attitude instead of just Bitch’n. Too bad more people don’t see it that way.


74 posted on 07/08/2009 9:50:48 AM PDT by GOYAKLA
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To: NMEwithin

Go to another place that has room for a ramp, & stop whining. The world doesn’t owe you a clear path to every place on the planet.


75 posted on 07/08/2009 9:51:41 AM PDT by gorilla_warrior (Metrosexual hairless RINOs for hopey-changey bipartisan-ness)
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To: NMEwithin
"I’m with you...all I am saying is that if a small low cost alternative i.e. walk-up window could be made then it would serve to accommodate everyone including the handicapped. "

Oh wait!!! With her mind set - she'll sue because the window is too high!!

76 posted on 07/08/2009 9:53:15 AM PDT by LADY J
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To: NMEwithin
"I’m with you...all I am saying is that if a small low cost alternative i.e. walk-up window could be made then it would serve to accommodate everyone including the handicapped. "

Oh wait!!! With her mind set - she'll sue because the window is too high!!

77 posted on 07/08/2009 9:53:18 AM PDT by LADY J
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To: rivercat

More details from a Sacramento Bee article. Surprise, surprise, there’s a serial wheelchair-chaser involved:

“Block is represented by Jason K. Singleton, a Eureka-based attorney who has filed other ADA suits in the state.”

http://www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/crime/archives/2009/07/suit-alleges-ad.html


78 posted on 07/08/2009 9:53:53 AM PDT by jiggyboy (Ten per cent of poll respondents are either lying or insane)
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To: LADY J

I get your point...


79 posted on 07/08/2009 9:55:11 AM PDT by NMEwithin
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To: rivercat

About 10 years ago, Clint Eastwood was sued for wheelchair access to a historic Inn that he owns. He won. The story is here: http://jam.canoe.ca/Movies/Artists/E/Eastwood_Clint/2000/09/30/758129.html


80 posted on 07/08/2009 9:56:04 AM PDT by passionfruit (When illegals become legal, even they won't do the work Americans won't do)
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