Yet another series of Philadelphia building collapses has been taking place. The recent fall of the wall of an abandoned brick row house at Myrtlewood and Oakdale in the Strawberry Mansion neighborhood left one man with an injured shoulder when debris from the collapse struck him. The debris also destroyed a nearby car. One resident of the neighborhood mentioned that the corner was a gathering place for local children, who only the day before had been playing football there. Our building collapse injury attorneys point out that fortunately they weren’t there when the wall fell, or there would have been many more injuries.
A spokeswoman for the city’s L&I (Licenses and Inspections) division said they were unaware of any injuries from the collapse. She went on to mention that if the man had been taken to the hospital before L&I arrived on the scene, they wouldn’t have known about the injury.
What, they don’t ask? Wouldn’t you hate to be the spokesperson for L&I? How creative would you have to be to find plausible explanations for some of the gaps in their record? For instance, several recent news articles had mentioned that L&I says it can’t give a count on the number of building collapses in Philadelphia because that data either doesn’t exist or is inaccessible. And apparently if L&I doesn’t actually see an injured person on the scene, that constitutes a no-injury accident.
The L&I spokesperson also said the department had received complaints about the unsafe abandoned row house as early as July 2006 and had sealed the building. On Friday just before the collapse, when it was becoming apparent to local residents that the building was probably in imminent danger of falling, someone made a dangerous building complaint to L&I. The department was going to inspect it in the following week. But the building could not await their convenience and collapsed in the meantime, injuring Pele Lewis.
The building collapse injury attorneys at Denena Points, PC note that the a decaying block on Cleveland Street also presents danger. Several vacant buildings are in alarming states of disrepair. On at least one, a resident said you can see through to the sky from the outside of the building. Another house has a tree growing out of it. And reportedly at least 8 building collapses occurred in the area in the past month. Some of the buildings are owned by the Philadelphia Housing Development Corp., and may threaten the stability of adjacent houses that are still inhabited. L&I says it doesn’t pursue court actions against unsafe buildings owned by the Philadelphia Housing Development Corp. (philly.com, 3/12 and 3/19/14) So what are residents to do?
It’s a sad state of affairs in one of our nation’s oldest, most historical cities. A city that was at the center of the nation’s move for independence and a Constitution that has served as the model for others all over the world.
Part of the problem is the tendency of landlords to simply abandon buildings that have become too costly to maintain. Our building collapse injury attorneys understand that it might cost tens of thousands of dollars to safely demolish a building. So landlords make strategic abandonments of the properties. The city can’t find them to pursue actions against them. L&I only has a budget of $6 million, and already 600 properties are on the list of those needed to be demolished asap.
Some people feel that better ways to hold landlords accountable would help solve the problem. But how would you implement that, when it’s so easy to travel and move away, leaving a bad investment behind? It costs money also to find and pursue negligent landlords too.
Decaying infrastructure and failing buildings are a growing problem in America’s aging cities. A huge number of buildings, bridges, and roads have reached the time when they need to be repaired or replaced. But the economy (using that word loosely) has been grinding to a halt and the money’s just not there to do what needs to be done.
We may be focusing on Philadelphia and L&I because they’ve become the most prominent national example of the dangers of building collapses and ineffective structural safety management. But they’re not alone. Parts of Baltimore, for instance, looked far worse last time I was in that area. But Baltimore wasn’t the site of the tragic building collapse into a Salvation Army store this summer that killed 6 innocent people.
What is clear is that the need for solutions to the problem of aging infrastructure is increasing nationwide. Bright minds with novel and cost-effective approaches to rebuilding and repairing infrastructure will be needed.
In the meantime, learn about what you need to do if you or a loved one suffers injury from an unexpected structural failure. Browse our building collapse injury attorneys’ structural collapse practice area and use our internal search bar to find the information you need. Our FAQ responses, informational articles, and blogs cover a full range of building collapse and injury issues, including causes and how to prevent them. And feel free to download our complimentary report at the book icon on this web page to learn how to inspect and help prevent collapsing structures on your own home.