The law won

Looking out for the disadvantaged is a longstanding, if somewhat unevenly applied, veneer on the American legal tradition.  Even our symbol of justice is a blind lady (I know she's only pretending - just go with it).  While much of the time, this outlook is a welcome assurance that we live in a civilized society,  sometimes it’s a bit too earnest and silly.  While doing some research into European commercial office regulations (as a service to my readers, I will not provide the link), I was reminded of an interesting run-in with the corresponding U.S. rules.

About two years ago, when CoreStreet was just over a dozen people, our offices were two adjacent rooms in a (not very recently) renovated 19th century commercial horse stable.  It was an inconvenient setup because even though the two rooms shared an interior wall, to walk from one to the other required going out one door, down the long hallway and in through the other door.  This added a couple of hundred feet to the walk and required fumbling with keys two times per trip.  Among our neighbors on the floor was some sort of “training” center.  We never figured out what they taught, but judging by the condition of the single common bathroom, it may well have been toilet training.  We kept our doors locked at all times.

When I finally got tired of the constant locking and unlocking, I asked the landlord if we could just punch an opening through the interior wall and connect the two rooms.  We would even be willing to prolong our lease.  The landlord agreed.

A few days later, we ran into a snag.  The floor layout permitted only a single place where an opening could be constructed, and the space would be a tad too narrow to comply with ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) standards.  The landlord couldn’t put in the door because it would not be wheelchair accessible.  I proposed that we leave off the door and just make it a hole.  That wasn’t good enough.  I pointed out that the new plan would actually improve wheelchair accessibility because it’s easier to drive a wheelchair though a narrow doorframe than through the current configuration which, I reminded the landlord, was a SOLID WALL.  Plus, anyone who couldn’t get through the new opening could always use the existing hallway doors.  The landlord agreed that this was plausible, but upon consulting with the experts decided that it was still not legal to punch a hole through an interior wall of his own building.

In the end, everything worked out for the best.  We were forced to relocate to our current and much swankier digs.  Now, in addition to wide open spaces, big doors and spotless bathrooms, we actually pay less rent per square foot due to the drop in prices from when we signed our first lease to when we signed our second.

Who says that government regulation hurts small business?  Well, our first landlord does, but what does he know?