As ridership for Lime and Spin continues to climb, so do complaints about improperly parked e-scooters. Meanwhile, the SFMTA board voted to extend the companies’ permits another two years — without addressing the parking issues.

San Francisco transit officials voted Tuesday to extend operating permits for scooter rental companies Lime and Spin for up to two more years, despite a sharp rise in complaints tied to improperly parked e-scooters blocking sidewalks, driveways, and ADA-accessible areas, as KQED reports.

The companies operate through the city’s Powered Scooter Share Permit Program, which allows fleets of up to 3,250 scooters. Both companies began operating in 2019, as SFist reported at the time. Ridership has continued climbing, with Lime reporting more than 260,000 trips in October 2025 alone — its highest monthly total in San Francisco to date. Complaints against Lime also reportedly doubled between 2024 and 2025, rising from roughly 5,000 to over 11,000.

North Beach residents have been among the most vocal critics of the program, with many 311 complaints originating from the neighborhood, per KQED. Former Supervisor Aaron Peskin accused Lime of routinely leaving scooters in the middle of sidewalks and near curb ramps, calling the situation “an ADA lawsuit waiting to happen.”

Lime disputed the claims, saying improperly parked scooters are typically left that way by riders. The company said it deploys scooters according to city rules, uses foot patrol teams to correct parking issues, and is launching a new incentive campaign aimed at reducing sidewalk riding and bad parking.

Under the permit program, the SFMTA can issue citations to scooter companies for parking violations and other infractions, though fines may be waived if issues are resolved quickly, according to KQED. Since the end of 2023, the agency has issued nearly 17,000 parking citations to Lime and more than 7,000 to Spin, according to the SFMTA's citation tracking tool, though both companies remain in good standing with the city.

SFMTA staff said it continues meeting regularly with Lime and Spin and can impose parking restrictions where needed, including updated rules adopted last year that banned scooter parking in Fisherman’s Wharf and other crowded areas.

While the SFMTA cannot regulate privately owned scooters and other personal mobility devices, officials said the city’s permit system gives it leverage to hold shared scooter operators accountable.

Advocates argue the vehicles help reduce car trips, traffic, and emissions while advancing the city’s transit and street safety goals. Streets For All SF director Robin Pam suggested the city convert some newly restricted “daylighting” curb zones into designated scooter and bike parking corrals to keep sidewalks clear while improving visibility at intersections.

Previously: 750 Additional E-Scooters Allowed In San Francisco As The City's Expansion Program Matures

Image: SFTMA

Kevin Ortiz, a wheelchair-user and content creator documenting his cross-country tour of NFL stadiums, had trouble obtaining ADA-compliant seats at Levi’s Stadium. The 49ers say they’ll fix their policy but already have a track record — a 2020 class action settlement and a pending 2023 suit.

As KRON4 reports, influencer and disability advocate Kevin Ortiz recently visited Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara during the 49ers game against the Atlanta Falcons and was initially unable to obtain wheelchair-accessible seating. In one of his videos about his visit, Ortiz was told that 90% of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)-compliant seats at Levi’s are purchased by season ticket holders who typically resell them for quadruple the price.

Ortiz says that most stadiums reserve a certain amount of ADA seats, which are made available on a first come, first serve basis the day of the game. He said he usually has success buying a regular same-day ticket and exchanging it for a wheelchair-accessible ticket at the stadium, which worked for him at the previous ten games he attended this season.

When Ortiz and his companion, content creator and disability advocate Kerry Peterson, who also uses a wheelchair, arrived at the stadium, they were initially told the game was completely sold out and the venue would likely be unable to accommodate them by exchanging their tickets. After some pushback in person and through his Instagram account, the pair were eventually given seats — in an empty ADA section reserved for “TV,” with no film crew to be found.

While the stadium says it’s working to improve its policy on ADA seating, commenters on Ortiz’s posts led SFist to two recent lawsuits against the venue on the matter. In 2020, the stadium agreed to a $24 million settlement in a class action lawsuit, with one of the terms stipulating that ADA seats be made available for purchase online so “Class Members will not be required to visit the 49ers football stadium box office in person in order to buy tickets.”

The stadium is also currently involved in another pending ADA lawsuit, which it unsuccessfully tried to have dismissed last year.

In his first video in the series, Ortiz said he wants to be the first person with a spinal cord injury to attend all 32 NFL games in one season. (Side Note: There are currently 30 full-time stadiums in the NFL as opposed to 32, as the New York teams share MetLife Stadium, and Los Angeles shares SoFi Stadium.)

He says his motivation for doing the series is to shed light on the obstacles wheelchair-users face when attending NFL games and to challenge teams to improve their customer service and seating policies for guests with disabilities.

Image: SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA - OCTOBER 19: A general view inside Levi's  Stadium ahead of the game between the San Francisco 49ers and the  Atlanta Falcons on October 19, 2025 in Santa Clara, California. (Photo  by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

Photo: Rafael Toledano Ilian

Going after alleged “Serial Filers” of ADA lawsuits, one of whom has filed 1,700 lawsuits himself, the SF and LA district attorneys have filed a state suit against the law firm churning out lawsuits against Chinese-owned businesses.

When SF District Attorney Chesa Boudin launched a criminal investigation last summer into a serial filer of ADA compliance lawsuits, which were primarily against immigrant-owned businesses in Chinatown and on Irving Street, these allegedly frivolous lawsuits had already been an issue for years. Way back in 2016, the Outer Sunset’s then-supervisor Katy Tang warned Irving Street shop-owners to not pay “drive-by” ADA settlements, or implausible lawsuits targeting small businesses claiming the business in not in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), threatening a lawsuit, but immediately offering a financial settlement option.

But when Boudin launched that investigation in July, the problem was on the rise. “1,156 cases have been filed against Chinese-owned businesses in Chinatown and on Irving Street,” KPIX reported at the time. The fellow listed as the plaintiff in all of these lawsuits lived in Los Angeles.

Apparently two serial ADA lawsuit filers are on a tear in California, with an estimated 2,500 cases listing them as the plaintiffs, often in cities where they do not live. So on Monday, Boudin and his predecessor, now-Los Angeles District attorney George Gascón, filed a joint state lawsuit against the law firm mass-filing all of these suits, according to KTVU. Per a release from Boudin’s office, “It is estimated that over 250 businesses in San Francisco alone were targeted by these fraudulent lawsuits.”

The firm behind these allegedly fraudulent lawsuits is San Diego-based Potter Handy LLP. The mere two individuals with thousands of suits listing them as plaintiffs, according to the Chronicle, are “Brian Whitaker, [who] has filed approximately 1,700 suits, and another, Orlando Garcia, has filed more than 800.” Both men live in Los Angeles.

“After receiving reports last year that hundreds of small businesses had been served with fraudulent lawsuits under the ADA, our office launched an extensive investigation and today we filed a civil case against the law firm that has filed thousands of these unlawful, boilerplate lawsuits,” Boudin said in a statement.

That statement goes on to allege that “Potter Handy’s business model is designed to shake down small businesses into paying cash settlements rather than ensure ADA accessibility; indeed, the Serial Filers that this law firm uses almost never return to the businesses after the settlements to monitor compliance.”

The suit asks that Potter Handy be forced to return all previous settlement money back to business owners, and “seeks a permanent restraint on future misconduct” by the firm in that field, though it seems unclear how that would work.

In a response to the Chronicle, Potter Handy rather unsurprisingly tied the suit to the recall efforts against Boudin and Gascón (Boudin’s recall election is set for June 7, the effort to recall Gascón is still gathering signatures), and say their thousands of ADA lawsuits are just good old-fashioned advocacy for the disabled.  

“There is no dispute that the businesses that have been subject to our claims violated the law,” Potter Handy attorney Dennis told the Chronicle. “Instead, the fingers are being pointed at our clients, the victims, for noticing.”

And also rather unsurprisingly, a small gaggle of recall Boudin protesters (outnumbered by members of the press) had designs on disrupting Boudin’s announcement of the lawsuit. The recall effort Safer SF Without Boudin immediately put out a statement: “Boudin announced he will prioritize combatting ADA lawsuits against businesses in Chinatown - but made no specific mention of how he will address the skyrocketing robberies, burglaries and petty theft occurring on his watch.”

While this effort to halt ADA-claim filers might shore up some support for Boudin in the AAPI community, it is unlikely to produce any settlements or payout checks by the June 7 recall election. It may, however, ultimately rein in one out-of-town law firm that’s doing a curious amount of business in San Francisco's Chinatown and Outer Sunset neighborhoods.

Related: Fight Against Boudin’s Recall Gets $100,000 Gift From Gascón PAC [SFist]

Image: Allen T. via Yelp

"I routinely go through moments where bus drivers resist the idea of letting me on the bus, or just pass me up, or act a little rude or horrible," the writer, blogger, poet, and literary translator Liz Henry explains. "In those cases, I have sometimes filed a complaint, and sometimes not, and let it go at that...Life isn’t perfect, neither are people, and I don’t expect my encounters with everyone to be ideal."

But attempting to get to her job at Mozilla as usual in her wheelchair last month, Henry wrote yesterday on her blog that one encounter with a Muni driver was "over the top."

First, Henry spoke up on Twitter about her experience, recording raw and honest thoughts like the following:

"My goal in explaining this at length, and in filing a bus complaint in the first place, is to improve bus and public transit service for disabled people in the SF Bay Area," writes Henry in her post. She was also able to record the the video and audio from the bus’s built in surveillance system, to which she gained access through a Freedom of Information Act request. Those are below.

As you can sort of hear, the driver repeatedly tries to tell the woman to wait for the next bus, says there are "inspectors watching" and the bus is too crowded, and refers to her scooter as a "stroller." He also says that all disabled people are just complainers, and "that's how y'all live."

"My expectations from this complaint are that SFMTA will take the complaint seriously," writes Henry, whose hearing is tomorrow. "I hope they will appropriately train the driver to interact with wheelchair users and how to let them onto the bus in a normal and efficient way. I believe they should also look at their training process since it is not uncommon for me that drivers refuse to let me on the bus, or simply pass me up without stopping. Passing me and other wheelchair users up is particularly a problem on the MUNI train level boarding stops above ground. Drivers are also often hostile and rude.... The drivers who are nice, or simply businesslike, I very much appreciate."

Henry was also disheartened that no one on the bus came to her assistance during the ordeal. Perhaps her outspokenness can serve to make other riders step in next time.

An advocate-on-advocate battle brewing in Golden Gate Park threatens to throw another wrench in the spokes of the city's bike plan if it can't be resolved quickly: The recently approved parking-protected bikeway on John F. Kennedy Drive, which places bike traffic in a 6.5-foot wide bike lane between parked cars and the curb, has the potential to be the safest bike lane in the city. But disabled advocates claim it leaves wheelchair users stuck in the middle of traffic. The Examiner explains the rolling dispute:

...because cars will now have to park several feet from the curb, crossing the bike lane — full of swift-moving cyclists — will be very difficult for persons with limited mobility, said Byron Yan of the Independent Living Resources Center, an advocacy organization for the disabled.

A separate problem is that the buffer zones — off-limit spaces to both cyclists and motorists — are not wide enough for wheelchair users who get unloaded from paratransit vehicle lifts, said Howard Chabner, a wheelchair user.

Instead of being dropped off in the buffer zones, wheelchair users will be placed down in bike traffic.

And we've seen how swift-moving bike traffic can be.

Anyhow, Team Wheelchair believes the there was no outreach to the disabled community while the bike lane proposal was being reviewed. “It comes down to a civil right to safety for disabled people," Chabner told the Ex, "versus the interest — an important one, but not a civil right — of bicyclists.” The Bike Coalition, for their part, maintains that they received "extensive feedback" from the Mayor's Office of Disability while designing the proposal.

Meanwhile, the SFMTA is keeping a cool head about the whole thing: Spokesman Paul Rose told the Examiner the design could easily be tweaked because, "there are no major infrastructure changes." So, hopefully there's room for all of the city's mobile, wheeled folks.

[Streetsblog]
[SFEx]

So many protests causing a ruckus at Civic Center / City Hall these days, it's an embarrassment of riches, photo-wise. Today, we present to you Steve Rhodes' choice set of images shot at yesterday's protest against state budget cuts to health care. A total of 17 disability activists were later arrested in Civic Center for blocking traffic.

And, although the California Legislature voted today to reject $11 billion in cuts to state services, Governor Schwarzenegger's wide-sweeping cuts are bound to affect every sector, including home care for the disabled. Expect more rallies and such in the near future.

For more information about yesterday's protest, visit Disability Rights California.