Hacker News Reader

Comment by ngneer | Hacker News Reader

Not an expert, but $100K claimed by the owner seems rather much. A third party assessment would be good to procure. Given the touted popularity, cost would be amortized, too. Maybe the owner derived what they had hoped out of the business.

View on HN

She mentioned the building is old. Maybe there are other structural issues that would be brought up if a ramp was installed that would have to be delt with. I don't know though, it's just a guess.

Agreed.

"Crema Coffee owner June Tran said bringing her 100-year-old building up to code would cost $100,000."

Bringing a 100-year-old building up to code != installing a ramp.

But you need a building permit to install a ramp, and that may come with a requirement to bring it up to code.

Then she was already willfully ignorant of the law when she started, long before ADA got involved.

Besides the ramp, the other big thing (from a customer's perspective) would be the bathroom. This business was basically in a converted house. So the existing "half-bath" would probably not be large enough for ADA standards (with enough room for someone in a wheelchair to enter, close the door, transfer to the toilet, etc.).

ADA compliance (IANAL), if the owner is being comprehensive, includes things not just for customers but for employees too, so maybe their kitchen/working spaces are also not compliant and would involve significant interior redesign etc... I dunno. Seems plausible, anything that has some legal definition of compliance also has some overhead cost to make sure that the thing implemented also complies :)

It’s an absurd figure and a real news source wouldn’t print it.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com