Longtime Santa Clara restaurant sues city to stay alive

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (KGO) -- David Ebrahimi has operated David's Restaurant for more than 30 years in Santa Clara. But now the 71-year-old is facing uncertainty and hardship as the city works on developing the land under and around him. The city served him an eviction notice after changing his multi-year lease to a month-to-month tenancy.[br /][br /]That's discriminatory, Ebrahimi says, because a pro shop a few feet away has been given a lease even as plans proceed on the CityPlace shopping and entertainment complex. He has filed two lawsuits against Santa Clara.[br /][Ads /][br /]"Rather than include me in their future plans, they just want to exclude me and not to be fair," Ebrahimi said.[br /][br /]He says he isn't being treated fairly because the adjacent golf pro shop has had its lease extended. Without a lease, Ebrahimi says his customers won't book parties or weddings.[br /][br /]"The whole golf course is not developed all at once. We will continue to provide services we do to our community, to our youth and to other groups, seniors, etc., so with that, the golf course still has to be maintained," Santa Clara City Manager Rajeev Batra said.[br /][br /]The uncertainty over the future of David's Restaurant, Ebrahimi says, along with road closures during games and special events across Tasman Drive at Levi's Stadium, has cost him millions of dollars.[br /][Ads /][br /]"Every corner of my business has been hurt. No business can operate month to month, especially our business is over 50 percent based on large events," Ebrahimi said.[br /][br /]Adding to the complexity of the David's Restaurant situation is a delay of possibly a year or more because of a lawsuit filed against the project by the City of San Jose.[br /][br /][url HREF="https://twitter.com/abc7david" TARGET="" REL=""]Click here [/url]to follow reporter David Louie's updates on Twitter.[/b]