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All of which ignores my first point that the owners of Hacker Dojo failed to do their due diligence here. IANAL (neither a lawyer nor a libertarian) but a coupl

• ramanujan 14y ago
  With all due respect, I don't believe it ignores it; see for example this snippet: In my experience, even the best design professionals typically have an inadequate knowledge of all of the accessibility standards. And local building official approvals provide no protection against accessibility violations. If you've worked on large construction projects, you'll find that municipalities vary greatly in what they decide to enforce and how they decide to enforce it. It's not always predictable up front, and in this case as in many others, it changes over time [1]: The Dojo, which is used as an office and collaborative space by 300 programmers who pay a $100 monthly fee, has been open since late 2009. Until last fall, Dojo board members say city officials had been relatively permissive as the Dojo operated without building permits in an industrial garage space, and was welcomed by some officials as a sort of incubator for tech start-ups. The key to avoiding regulation is to avoid attention from city government: "We had a small celebration, but it wasn't a big, crazy celebration" Weekly said. "That kind of pushed them over the line. They were starting to see us as a commercial event space." .. The city also began pressing for more codes to be met. Weekly rattled off what appear to be significant costs: $150,000 to make three bathrooms compliant with the American Disabilities Act, $130,000 for fire sprinklers, and potentially thousands more in building permit fees and other improvements. The Dojo also lacks a required fire alarm, which could cost $15,000. Without one, city officials say they'll seek the closure of the Dojo by the end of the month. "They want us to commit to a traffic study, build concrete walls around the dumpster and have the landlord re-slope the driveways," Weekly said. City staff said that it hasn't been determined whether the building has adequate exits and parking. City officials say code enforcement officers saw the Dojo advertising events online that would exceed the Dojo's 49- person occupancy limit for a building without fire sprinklers. And this is all imposed with no regard for costs: The Dojo has had to cancel numerous money-raising events and classes that easily attract more than 49 people. "Our membership is down considerably" without the classes, said Weekly. "We lost dozens of members. We had classes on machine learning and Android programming." Also cancelled was a job fair in which employers and job seekers switch roles: programmers sit at tables presenting their work to potential employers who make the rounds. "We've gotten dozens of people hired from these," Weekly said. The event brings in up to 150 people and "raises a good chunk of change. But we can't run it this year and these people can't get hired." Again, it always starts with reasonable sounding stuff (fire alarms) and then you start getting Mountain View asking you to burn money on traffic studies and building walls around the dumpster. Weekly said the Dojo has enough money -- $15,000 -- to put in fire alarms. "We just wish they would take into account the reality of the situation," he said. "What I don't think they realize is this is a volunteer-run nonprofit. We don't have millions of dollars coming out of our ears because we are affiliated with numerous computer-related things." [1] http://mv-voice.com/news/show_story.php?id=5207 http://mv-voice.com/news/show_story.php?id=5207