Several North Beach businesses, including one XOX Truffles, are known to lack wheelchair-accessible ramps. Said businesses, unable to comply with ADA regulation, are then sued by local lawyer Tom Frankovich, forcing them to lay off employees and denying, in the words of one Eater SF commenter, "thousands of people ... the pleasure of eating those most wonderful XOX chocolates." Needless to say, the shop is buying themselves a removable ramp— their building can't handle structural modification, not to mention the oh-so-ironic fact that businesses aren't allowed to alter the sidewalk, either.
In the meantime, the State Bar of California is considering action against Frankovich, who has accrued quite a reputation for jackhammering business owners across the state with ADA lawsuits— and whose website features a charming graphic of himself riding a tank called the "Access Blaster." Despite court documents accusing Frankovich of possible extortion and intimidation, the lawyer remains unruffled; he recently claimed that if he were on a suing spree, he would have taken nearly every business on Columbus Avenue to court. Nice.
· Lawyer Files Multiple Handicapped Access Lawsuits In North Beach [NBC 11]
· ADA Suits, Tiny Steps Terrorize North Beach Eateries [Eater SF]
· Ramp Racketeering: ADA Crackdown in SF [Curbed SF]
[Handy XOX graphic courtesy Eater SF]
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