Ironically, at Noisebridge they are wheelchair accessible and have sprinklers in the ceiling. The wheelchair/scooter users visit regularly. I'm 99% sure the sprinklers were already installed when they moved in. A lot of build-out work was done when moving to the current location.
Yes, the Dojo got thwacked by the common practice that every city government in California has at least which is that when you sign a new lease you have to bring the space up to the current code. This problem is compounded by the fact that 'the code' keeps changing, in part because of new issues (like earthquake knowledge gained from new earthquakes) and in part because they don't feel they have enough money (an example of that is that the 'blue' color required for outlining handicapped spaces changed slightly which required folks to repaint existing striping).
A more accurate headline would be 'Haven struggles to stay open while updating to latest codes', having just gone through the process of securing new facilities for our company one of the things in the lease was a requirement that the landlord turn over the space already compliant with the latest codes. Remember this story if you are out leasing space (if you're subleasing you get a pass though, so sometimes that makes it a better deal)
