"You would think the December quake and damage to the same types of buildings in Paso Robles would be enough to get them to retrofit."
Not really. The commercial buildings downtown are almost all owned by landlords who do not occupy them. Retrofitting these buildings is usually a multi-million dollar proposition. They won't do it until the building falls down or they're forced to do it.
Rents are already so high in downtown SLO that retrofitting would put the rents way to high for anyone to afford, so the buildings would end up empty.
It's a vicious circle. I'm glad I'm gone. I sold my paid-for house there and fled to the Midwest, where I bought more than twice the house for half the money. Nice feeling.
Aren't they liable for injury or damages if something happened? That in itself should be enough and besides, I thought they made some sort of agreement where they could retrofit "piecemeal" over the course of a few years because of the fact that it is so expensive to do all at once.
"Rents are already so high in downtown SLO that retrofitting would put the rents way to high for anyone to afford, so the buildings would end up empty."
That is because they refuse to build any type of housing. Being a college town doesn't help either...
"It's a vicious circle. I'm glad I'm gone. I sold my paid-for house there and fled to the Midwest, where I bought more than twice the house for half the money. Nice feeling."
Yeah I just recently moved to the East Coast. I can't believe how cheap housing is here. You can almost sell your car in California and buy a house with the money out here. Depending on what you drive, of course.