YUCCA VALLEY, Calif. — A treasure map of the Mojave Desert could lead you across the Morongo Basin and behind the shopping center. A sign that says “From Junk to Jewelry” points the way. The hunt ends in a dusty lot where vendors have flocked for decades to sell everything from vintage Western wear to kitchen utensils and crystal bowls.
Of course, locals didn’t need a map to find the Sky Village Swap Meet in this town of 21,700 people. Many people remember the days of drive-in movie theaters. They remember that Anthony Bourdain once dined at the Sky Village Cafe after a tequila-filled night at Pappy and Harriet’s, a nearby barbecue restaurant and music venue. They will tell you about the bargains they have acquired over the years.
The Yucca Valley Swap Meet has been held for over 50 years. Residents speak cheerfully about the bargains they’ve made over the years.
“What you need to know about swap meets is that sometimes you come here and you don’t find anything, but you can find some fun conversation somewhere,” Yucca Valley shop owner Kim Buselli said. Another time, “A man had to pay rent, but he sold all his turquoise jewelry. He even got a bag full of rare Egyptian pendants.”
But the swap meet abruptly closed last weekend after the family that owned the property filed suit under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The complaint, filed in September in federal court in the Central District of California, alleges the owners have failed to comply with federal and state standards for handicap parking spaces and added barriers to accessibility without on-site inspection. He claimed that he would be identified later.
According to the complaint, the plaintiff, Darwin Boggs, is a paraplegic and uses a wheelchair to get around in public. He has filed 71 ADA lawsuits this year, including against diners, vegan restaurants and animal feed stores in the high desert. Boggs is represented by Thor attorney Jason J. Kim. Cal. Equal Access Group has filed more than 2,300 ADA lawsuits this year.
Neither Boggs nor Kim responded to The Times’ requests for comment.
Zena Carr, whose family has owned the swap meet for 35 years, said she plans to settle the case with the plaintiffs, but has not yet met to discuss terms. She said she decided to close the facility immediately rather than upgrade it because the cost of making the business ADA compliant (more than $200,000, she estimates) was “not realistic.” said.
Kerr said she and her 72-year-old mother had plans to eventually sell the swap meet property. His father, Bob Kerr, a key figure in the business, passed away in 2018, and Kerr didn’t think he could run the business long-term. But a lawsuit early last month sped up the decision. Still, the closure was bittersweet, she said.
“Relationships have been built here,” she said. “Memories were made.”
Max Hoegele (82) searches for treasure one last time. A chalk board with the final offer and “Thank you for the memories” written on the last day of the swap meet operation. (Gina Ferrazzi/Los Angeles Times)
How do ADA lawsuits develop?
Federal and state disability laws are generally enforced through individual lawsuits because there is no government agency tasked with evaluating whether a public place is accessible, said Autumn Elliott, a litigation attorney with California Disability Rights. He said it would be done.
“So while a lawsuit may not be welcome to business owners, it just continues to leave businesses inaccessible to people with disabilities,” Elliott said of the swap meet lawsuit. could not comment specifically.
Boggs visited the swap meet in June and claimed in the complaint that he encountered several barriers to accessing the business, including a lack of proper signage indicating accessible parking.
The swap meet has parking for people with disabilities, but the lawsuit claims the business failed to provide space for the vans, including a level walkway for unloading wheelchairs.
“These barriers and conditions denied Plaintiff full and equal access to the business and caused hardship and frustration for Plaintiff,” the complaint states.
Dan Dunnett, an attorney with Carlin Law Firm LLP who is representing the Kerr family, said the lack of accessible parking, or accessible parking that doesn’t fully comply with the law, is “the biggest barrier to access in my opinion. There is no doubt that it is.” With a complaint. ”
He said the vast majority of his cases end in early resolution. Under the state’s Unruh Civil Rights Act, the plaintiffs can seek at least $4,000 in damages and attorney’s fees for each visit to the store. The prospect of an on-site investigation and the cost of addressing additional barriers also encourage early settlement, he said.
Some defendants have expressed concern that serial attorneys and plaintiffs are using a nearly 35-year-old federal law to seek violations and damages. But a state bill that sought to reduce the harm of such lawsuits by providing a 120-day warning notice to cure violations recently failed.
Elliott, of the California disability rights group, said business owners have been told for decades that they need to comply with the ADA, and the organization does not support this type of warning. . These types of provisions only reduce the incentive for companies to proactively comply, she said.
“There are a lot of places in the world that are inaccessible, which is frustrating for a lot of people with disabilities,” she says. “Any solution that doesn’t involve businesses actually becoming more accessible is not fair to people with disabilities.”
heartbreak in the desert
In this high desert region where people sought solitude on five acres, the market was a place to find weekly connection. It also provided a space for everyone to socialize as the Joshua Tree area rapidly gentrified.
Laurel Yancey, who was trying to get vendors on her Facebook page to keep in touch, said the meetup represented “people from several different worlds coming together.” Despite differences in politics, economics, and life experiences, the market is “almost the central point of the sign of infinity, the place where the two parts intersect,” she said.
When the Kerr family purchased the swap meet property in 1994, it had already been used as a drive-in movie theater and open-air market for decades. According to the Morongo Basin Historical Society, the Sky Drive-in Theater opened in 1959. The weekend swap meet began operating in 1971.
Zena Carr said that after they stopped showing the movie in 1997, the Carr family built cabins and other structures where permanent vendors could store their wares for a small fee. . Companions can rent a bare field space where they can bring their own table and shade for $30 on Saturday and an additional $10 on Sunday.
The dilapidated Sky Village Swap Meet sign on the last day of market business.
Bob Carr also built his own strange treasure on this property. Zena Kerr said Crystal Cave closed many years ago, but it started as a mini diorama of a small village of animals and houses placed inside the cafe’s donut case. Eventually he expanded it into what Atlas Obscura describes as “a meditative space of bubbles, running water, passion, and thousands of crystals.”
In a town where the median household income is about $54,000, swap meets have survived in part because of strong buyer and seller markets, Zena Carr said.
“As far as the economics go, this is the kind of business that will work in any scenario,” Kerr said. During the pandemic, and the Great Recession before that, people were pulling things out of garages to make money for rent and car payments, she said.
For Stephanie Varga, a volunteer archivist at the Morongo Basin History Museum, it was this staying power that made the exchange so appealing. Flea markets these days are usually dominated by luxury goods or wholesalers, she said.
“It was dusty and full of trash and full of treasures,” she said. “It was a treasure hunt.”
The Yucca Valley swap meet has survived for more than 50 years in part because of the strong seller and buyer markets, said Zena Carr, whose family has owned the property for 35 years.
say goodbye
On Sunday afternoon, Charlotte Burns watched a swap meet as a man in a cowboy hat serenaded the crowd. She grew up in the high desert, where the market hasn’t changed much since the 1990s, and recalls her mother buying her Cabbage Patch Kids dolls.
“I hope it doesn’t become just an upscale market or something,” she said.
Randy Brill, who uses a wheelchair, has been selling items at the swap meet for nine years, including NASCAR memorabilia, old bicycles and snowboards, hand-carved signs and even a Chihuahua puppy. It was. He recalled that Bob Kerr once built a concrete ramp so he could shop from one of the permanent buildings.
Randy Brill, who uses a wheelchair, sold his products at swap meets for nine years. “This is the heart of the community,” he says.
Brill, who now runs a monthly flea market in nearby Landers, expected buyers and sellers to survive.
The dilapidated buildings are being demolished. Cowboy boots sold within Dakota Bob’s Western Wear.
“Eventually everyone will pick it up from the ground and dust themselves off,” he says. “That’s the thing about desert people. You have to have tough skin to get through here, or the desert will chew you up and spit you out.”
Inside Dakota Bob’s Western Wear, the swap meet’s largest permanent building, owner Margo Sturgess also showed resilience.
When a customer expressed disappointment about the end of the swap meet, Mr. Sturgess responded warmly: So I’m just waiting to see what opens up and what’s revealed. ”
Sturgess and her husband, Dakota Bob, 90, have been regulars at the swap meet for 20 years. They started selling wagon wheels and teak twisted-root furniture, but switched to vintage Western wear during the recession. As time went on, they started dressing the entire wedding party in cowboy costumes and giving many children their first pair of boots.
Now that the swap meet has closed, Sturgess said she and her husband are considering selling their products at the Joshua Tree location.
“He doesn’t gamble, he doesn’t drink, he doesn’t do drugs, he doesn’t chase women,” Sturgess said. “But he likes to go shopping.”
With 30 minutes left at last weekend’s swap meet, a dozen people gathered around the stand where Hamid Moazzam has sold jewelry, crystals, handmade rugs and furniture for more than 20 years.
Seller Ruben Escobar puts away his merchandise as the Sky Village Swap Meet winds down.
(Gina Ferrazzi/Los Angeles Times)
As Moazzam lit the incense, his sales partner Willow Murillo was preparing to give a farewell sound bath with the crystal and Tibetan bowls he had been selling for years.
“This is a small farewell,” Murillo said.
She began drawing her wand around the bowl, its soothing vibrations echoing through the dusty marketplace.
Then, be silent.
Times researcher Scott Wilson contributed to this report. This article is part of the Times’ Equity Reporting Initiative, funded by the James Irvine Foundation, which examines the challenges facing low-income workers and the efforts being made to address California’s economic disparities. I am.
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