Popponesset Marketplace, Closed?

From the Falmouth Enterprise:
What Of The Popponesset Marketplace?
By: Geoff Spillane
Published: 05/13/11

Handwritten petitions nailed to trees, Boston television news coverage, mediation attempts, and a Facebook crusade.

Reaction to the pending closure of the Popponesset Marketplace due to a lawsuit filed over noncompliance with federal handicapped access guidelines has been swift, prolific, and often heated during the past week.

Meanwhile, discussions to resolve the issue are in the works. “I understand there are ongoing communications and discussions for resolution,” Selectman Michael R. Richardson said this week. “People are talking to each other and not against each other.”

Daniel J. Murphy Jr., who grew up spending summers in the south Mashpee neighborhood and who now lives in Florida, filed a lawsuit in United States District Court in early 2010, alleging that the marketplace is in violation of the US Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

From the Cape Cod Times:
Lawsuit shutters summer marketplace
By HEATHER WYSOCKI
hwysocki@capecodonline.com
May 15, 2011

Popponesset Marketplace sits empty, the seashells padding the grounds wet after an afternoon rainstorm. Doors are creaking against the steady winds and brown leaves dance down the narrow winding pathways between buildings.

By mid-May, the marketplace is usually waking from its winter slumber and preparing for another season at the center of New Seabury's summertime social life.

This year, however, most of the shops will stay shuttered because of a lawsuit that accuses the marketplace of being unfriendly to those in wheelchairs and others with limited mobility.

In a January 2010 legal filing in U.S. District Court, actor Daniel J. "Danny" Murphy Jr., who has spent most summers at a family home in Popponesset, accused marketplace owners of failing to follow Americans with Disabilities Act accessibility guidelines. Efforts to settle the matter have failed, and so most shops will remain closed.
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Less than 1% of the US population is in a wheelchair.
Go Team Lawsuit
Edit: 1% of the population stutters, how about changing the name?

Apparent deal in Mashpee access suit
By HEATHER WYSOCKI
hwysocki@capecodonline.com
May 24, 2011

MASHPEE — The longtime summer resident who sued Popponesset Marketplace's owners because he believes it is inaccessible to people with disabilities said Monday he has reached an agreement that will allow the marketplace to open this summer.

The apparent pact — details of which were not available at press time — comes after weeks of public outcry over an announcement by the shopping center's management that most of the businesses in the New Seabury hub wouldn't open this summer as a result of the lawsuit.

"There was a productive meeting yesterday," plaintiff Daniel J. "Danny" Murphy Jr. said from his sister's home in New Seabury. "It was very civil."