Disabled pair sue to make Balboa Island more accessible

The Balboa Island Ferry and the shops along Marine Avenue are some of the most charming places in Southern California.

Unless you’re disabled, according to Arnie Pike.

Pike and a co-plaintiff are suing the city of Newport Beach to make Balboa Island more accessible. They say that there aren’t enough disabled parking spaces along the main shopping street, that the sidewalks are too crowded with benches and signs, and that the Balboa Island Ferry is inaccessible.

After two years of negotiations and court proceedings, the parties are going to trial.

Pike, 72, began using a wheelchair after he suffered a stroke in the 1990s. His co-plaintiff, Christie Rudder, 48, was in a car accident that left her a partial quadriplegic. She also uses a wheelchair.

Rudder has visited family on the island for years, her attorney says, and around 2005 she was unable to park in her usual disabled spaces because the city removed three of them along Marine Avenue.

All that remains is one disabled space just off Marine, next to the Balboa Island Fire Station. But Pike said he can’t extend the wheelchair ramp from his van because the curb there is too high. Pike also contends that sidewalks leading from the ferry landing to Marine are not sufficiently accessible.

Because of these and other barriers, the pair say, the city is violating the Americans With Disabilities Act and other laws.

The city contends that the areas in question are accessible.

“The city goes out and tries to help the handicapped, and a guy like this challenges it,” said Councilman Ed Selich, who represents the area. “It seems this guy is punishing the city for going the extra mile.”

Pike and Rudder are suing under California law and the ADA, which requires local governments to provide curb cuts — the indentations allowing wheelchairs to move from the street onto sidewalks — and to make areas such as Balboa Island’s shopping district generally accessible for disabled individuals.

Because parking is so limited near Marine, Pike said, he has to park on side streets or take the ferry from the Balboa Peninsula.

The ferry is mentioned in the lawsuit because the city licenses it to transport cars. The city says it’s not responsible for its accessibility.

This isn’t Pike’s first ADA lawsuit.

He has sued local governments, including Orange County and the city of Placentia, to get more disabled access to facilities. He sued

a farmer in Placentia in

2007 because his wheelchair sank into gravel and he was unable to access a fruit stand.

Pike has also sued the “Dancing With the Stars” television show because the CBS studio where it is filmed did not have disabled-accessible seating.

Money has not been the focus, he said. He does seek damages, he added, to heighten the threat. “That’s the only way to get the attention of anybody.”

Pike has settled with cities in the past but was unwilling to disclose the terms.

michael.reicher@latimes.com