Live data from Hacker News

Miami orders evacuation of 156-unit as structurally and electrically unsafe

apnews.com

41–50 of 102 posts

Re: Miami orders evacuation of 156-unit as structurally and electrically unsafe

#41

Wait, the building manager was sitting on a re-certification report (that was required by the county/city) since Jan that said the building was unsafe? Wtf?

"Crestview Towers North Miami Beach offers property for sale that are modern, well-maintained ..." perhaps not. https://crestviewtowers.com/

Only $182k for a 2br condo. What a steal.

Re: Miami orders evacuation of 156-unit as structurally and electrically unsafe

#42

The geology of Florida is terrifying. I’ve been reading about how a building like this could collapse, and I came across this interesting phrase, “sink hole alley” The area between Tampa and Orlando. The bed rock is so unstable that sinkholes have become ubiquitous.

I remember a car sinking (sink hole) at a gas station near my home in Florida... but in this case, sink holes were not the problem... and the owner knew about structural and draining problems (they just did nothing about it)

Re: Miami orders evacuation of 156-unit as structurally and electrically unsafe

#43

I live in Minneapolis. Back in 2007 the I-35W bridge collapsed, killing 13 people. Engineers had previously reported that the bridge had structural problems. And once the collapse became national headlines news, bridges nationwide were given special attention. It shouldn't take horrific accidents for us to suddenly decide to care about structural safety.

So you want to pay higher taxes? You are in the minority.

I think the costs of taking it seriously before the disaster and after the disaster would be similar. The difference is that before the disaster, the budget seems discretionary and afterwords feels mandatory. Also, after the disaster, many people are dead.

I'd say we could trade away the feeling that we could spend the money elsewhere for the lives of all the people who were killed.

Re: Miami orders evacuation of 156-unit as structurally and electrically unsafe

#44

I live in Minneapolis. Back in 2007 the I-35W bridge collapsed, killing 13 people. Engineers had previously reported that the bridge had structural problems. And once the collapse became national headlines news, bridges nationwide were given special attention. It shouldn't take horrific accidents for us to suddenly decide to care about structural safety.

So you want to pay higher taxes? You are in the minority.

You seem to be assuming that in order to have reliable infrastructure, we have to pay for all the things we pay for now, plus reliable infrastructure.

I'd like to pay lower taxes, and have them spent on different things. Such as reliable infrastructure instead of 20-year wars. (And a pony.)

Re: Miami orders evacuation of 156-unit as structurally and electrically unsafe

#45

I believe in CA, not FL, but the imgur user AlphaStructural usually has some truly hair-raising photo albums every week: https://imgur.com/user/alphastructural/posts

It seems I can’t view that link on a phone unless I download the app. I didn’t realize Imgur has started blocking content from web browser users. For others here, requesting a desktop version of the website lets you view the user’s gallery that the parent linked to.

God that website is just hot garbage now.

Re: Miami orders evacuation of 156-unit as structurally and electrically unsafe

#46

I live in Minneapolis. Back in 2007 the I-35W bridge collapsed, killing 13 people. Engineers had previously reported that the bridge had structural problems. And once the collapse became national headlines news, bridges nationwide were given special attention. It shouldn't take horrific accidents for us to suddenly decide to care about structural safety.

So you want to pay higher taxes? You are in the minority.

[deleted]

Re: Miami orders evacuation of 156-unit as structurally and electrically unsafe

#47

I live in Minneapolis. Back in 2007 the I-35W bridge collapsed, killing 13 people. Engineers had previously reported that the bridge had structural problems. And once the collapse became national headlines news, bridges nationwide were given special attention. It shouldn't take horrific accidents for us to suddenly decide to care about structural safety.

Similarly, it shouldn't take a security breach for companies to care about security. Poor budgets are what is eliminating the safety nets.

Isn't this a predictable failure mode of capitalism and free markets? Entities are disincentivised from preparing for rare and catastrophic events.

Re: Miami orders evacuation of 156-unit as structurally and electrically unsafe

#48

I live in Minneapolis. Back in 2007 the I-35W bridge collapsed, killing 13 people. Engineers had previously reported that the bridge had structural problems. And once the collapse became national headlines news, bridges nationwide were given special attention. It shouldn't take horrific accidents for us to suddenly decide to care about structural safety.

So you want to pay higher taxes? You are in the minority.

You making it sound like having higher tax rates — and a marginally worse quality of life — to prevent people from dying is an unambiguously bad choice?

Re: Miami orders evacuation of 156-unit as structurally and electrically unsafe

#49

I live in Minneapolis. Back in 2007 the I-35W bridge collapsed, killing 13 people. Engineers had previously reported that the bridge had structural problems. And once the collapse became national headlines news, bridges nationwide were given special attention. It shouldn't take horrific accidents for us to suddenly decide to care about structural safety.

The problem is the same as it is in IT. Risk management and disaster prevention requires money, which people rarely want to spend. Boards for condos are elected, and they try to keep costs low. No one is going to elect someone who says the building should spend millions to prevent a collapse that they feel is theoretical.

Even worse, they’re just elected from the pool of residents, right? They’re likely to not know anything about actually managing a building, are doing it as a side job, and they have limited ability to enforce things.

Re: Miami orders evacuation of 156-unit as structurally and electrically unsafe

#50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is the same as it is in IT. Risk management and disaster prevention requires money, which people rarely want to spend. Boards for condos are elected, and they try to keep costs low. No one is going to elect someone who says the building should spend millions to prevent a collapse that they feel is theoretical.

This is exactly what happened with Champlain Towers. After that assessment, they got a repair estimate and then the board and residents argued with each other about the price of fixing it for 3 years... all the way up to the moment it collapsed. https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/majority-of-fl...

Without opening story...why would residents have anything to do with paying for maintaining the building they're a customer of?
Post reply on HN