Restaurants are to San Francisco what movies are to Los Angeles: the signature local glamour business, attracting and fascinating tourists and locals alike. When one of the most famous and beloved dining institutions announces that it is closing its doors, it is like the death of a movie star. Today, one of SF most affordable attractions announced its closure, killed by government regulations and litigious unions.

No one is holding his breath waiting for the Chronicle, Mercury—News, or any of the major TV stations to denounce the villains in the death of Sears Fine Foods. No calls for reform are yet evident. Every time I have gone to Sears, just up Powell Street from Union Square, I have had to wait outside the door in a long line.

Lack of business is not the issue: debt is. And that debt comes from having to pay off lawsuit judgements for failure to comply with the handicap access rules contained in the Americans with Disabilities Act, from additional expenditures to make physical modifications to accommodate wheelchair patrons, from lawsuits by labor unions wanting the employer to absorb all rising costs of health care, and from exhaustion at all the legal fighting, union fighting, and the struggle of a small family—run company to cope with extraneous demands beyond providing excellent, crowd—pleasing food at reasonable cost.

Chalk up one victim of the victimology industry.

Posted by Thomas 12 25 03