No. Most likely Oakland’s Fire Marshall and Building Official get complaints every day on hundreds of buildings for suspected code violations. I don’t know their staffing numbers but it would not surprise me if it was inadequate for investigating all complaints in a timely manner. It may also be they believed the building was not occupied full time it was not given the priority it should have been. It could be that higher ups thought coming down hard on the place would be a community relations nightmare, but I doubt it based on neighbors complaints.
What should have happened is simple. The fire inspector should have done an inspection seen the hazards and ordered an immediate shut down specifying what would have to be done before it was allowed to open again. I have no idea if the owner ever had permission to use the building for an artists’ space rather than a warehouse. If they did somebody goofed up. If not it should have been ordered to cease and desist when officials were first presented with evidence of the change.
We have building and life safety and fire prevention codes for a very good reason. Enforcing them is one thing that officials should not apologize for.
Kind of proves my initial point, no?