Daley blames owner, manager for collapse

http:www.AP.org ^ | 7-3-03 | Phuong Le

[JustPiper]

Mayor Richard Daley said today the owner and manager of a building where a porch collapse killed 13 people are to blame for the incident.

"Had he followed the law he would have known that the porch was unsafe," Daley said of the owner of the building, which city officials say did not have a proper construction permit.

Daley said it is ultimately the responsibility of the building owner — not the city — to ensure that porches are built to code.

Funerals also continued today for victims of the collapse.

Among those remembered were Eileen Lupton, 22, who recently finished her nursing program and planned to work as a pediatric nurse, and Sam Farmer, 21, a graduate of New Trier High School.

The city is investigating whether the porch was overloaded when it collapsed about 12:30 a.m. Sunday during a party at the apartment building in Lincoln Park, an affluent neighborhood popular with young professionals.

About 50 people — most in their early 20s — were on a third-floor porch when it fell, causing a chain reaction that sent porches on the second and first floor plummeting to the basement.

Seven men and six women died, most of them crushed on the lower porches. At least 57 people were injured.

The city sued the building owners and managers in Housing Court Wednesday, arguing that the porch was too big, built of the wrong materials and lacked the proper construction permit.

A construction permit would have triggered a porch inspection and design review to determine whether it was safe, said John Roberson, executive director of the Department of Construction and Permits.

Officials issued a permit in 1998 to management company LG Properties to install furnaces, air conditioners and water heaters but not to build a porch, the city said.

Inspectors who made other checks at the building did not note the illegal construction of the porch, officials said.

Philip Pappas, president of LG Properties, was back in Chicago Thursday after a canoe trip to Canada, according to a man who answered the phone at LG Properties.

His attorney Michael Ficaro did not immediately return a call from The Associated Press.

The city's Building Department continued to review 42 other buildings owned or managed by Pappas and LC Properties, but the results were not immediately available, said Breelyn Pete, spokeswoman for the Buildings Department.

[JustPiper]

Update Ping

[JustPiper]

Chicago Ping

[JustPiper]

Sun-Times Spin:

Daley: Don't blame city for porch deaths
July 3, 2003

BY FRAN SPEILMAN City Hall Reporter



Mayor Daley today promised families of the 13 young partygoers who died in the Lincoln Park porch collapse that they will get the answers they “want and deserve” about what went wrong.

But the mayor has already reached his own conclusion: City Hall was not to blame.

“We have a procedure in place to protect the citizens of this city and that procedure includes obtaining a permit for construction. This building owner did not obtain a permit for construction of the porch that violated the city's building code. Had he followed the law, he would have known that the structure was unsafe,” the mayor said.

“While questions have been raised about whether the building code goes far enough, the fact remains [that] when building owners disregard the process—whatever that process is—the safety of our citizens will be compromised. This is the challenge we face as a city when building owners break or skirt the law.”

Thirteen people, most of them promising young professionals in their 20s, died shortly after midnight Sunday when a three-story porch pancaked to the ground at 713 W. Wrightwood.

After initially claiming the porch was overloaded but structurally sound, city attorneys did an abrupt about-face.

They filed a lawsuit accusing the building's owner, manager, mortgage holder and porch contractor of building a porch that “collapsed in the middle” because it was too big, too far away from the wall, improperly supported and illegally constructed.

Today, Daley offered his first public comment about the incident that has shined an unflattering spotlight once again on the city's inspection policies, just as the E2 nightclub disaster did five months earlier.

The building and its allegedly oversized, unsafe porch passed five annual inspections since 1998 that, experts and some aldermen contend, should have red-flagged the unpermitted work.

Daley vehemently disagreed. He said an annual inspection is a search for glaring safety defects—not new, unpermitted construction. Inspectors charged with conducting tens of thousands of annual inspections of residential buildings with ground-level commercial space are not trained to catch structural defects, the mayor said.

“We have specialized inspectors and that's what they do. . . . If an elevator inspector is called out, they check elevators. Masonry inspects masonry. . . . An electrical inspector cannot do plumbing. . . . The landlord has the responsibility. That's what it is,” the mayor said.

Pressed on whether City Hall should share responsibility, Daley said, “We have responsibility when we go out [on inspections], but we don't have responsibility for everything. It's impossible. We can't do it.”

The mayor also defended the city's decision to whisk the pieces of the broken porch away from the site of Sunday's tragedy. Attorneys for some of victims have accused the city of spoiling evidence and compromising an impartial investigation.

“It's a crime scene. C-R-I-M-E. Crime scene. That's what it is. When there's a crime scene, it's up to the Buildings Department and the Law Department,” he said.

Personal injury attorney Robert Clifford, who's been contacted by the families of several victims, countered that the destruction of evidence “under the guise of necessity for alleged safety reasons” without court approval was “highly suspect, highly unusual, highly unfair, inappropriate and self-serving.” It also exposes the city to possible court action, he said.

“There was no reason for the city to tear the scaffold down without giving the families the opportunity to inspect the premises with their own experts before the destruction occurred,” Clifford said.

The finger-pointing and legal wrangling will undoubtedly continue for months, with the courts having the final say on who is to blame.

But it won't change the fact that 13 promising young lives were snuffed out in an instant on a glorious summer night.

“This tragedy is especially heartbreaking because the victims are so young,” the mayor said.

Heading into the holiday weekend, City Hall once again warned Chicagoans that porches are intended to be used for emergency fire exits and for incidental storage. They can safely hold one person for every 20 square feet, according to Denise Casalino, deputy director of the Department of Construction and Permits. That’s 8 or 9 people on a standard 10- by 15-foot porch.

By that standard, a porch the size of the one at 713 W. Wrightwood should have had 12 people per floor, or 36 people in all. That’s 78 fewer people than were on the porch when it collapsed.

[Sacajaweau]

How about blaming the 50 or so stupid people who were on the porch. Not one BRAIN in the group or were they ALL drunk??

[So Cal Rocket]

What happened with the nightclub stampede in Chicago... was the owner (Jesse Jackson's friend) held liable in that??

[texasbluebell]

The mayor also defended the city's decision to whisk the pieces of the broken porch away from the site of Sunday's tragedy.

Richie D. is very good at whisking things away. Just think of what happened to Meigs Field. Gone under cover of darkness late one night.

[plain talk]

They can safely hold one person for every 20 square feet, according to Denise Casalino, deputy director of the Department of Construction and Permits. That’s 8 or 9 people on a standard 10- by 15-foot porch.

Well, its obvious the fault lies with the person who allowed 50 people to "party" on a porch only designed to accommodate a 1/5 that many. But no one will state the obvious because that's gets into personal responsibility and people aren't responsible for anything anymore.

[MinuteGal]

Da Mare is just getting his oar in early before the owner and/or his attorneys start blasting the city and its corrupt building inspectors with the other side of the story.

Leni

[newgeezer]

Daley blames owner, manager for collapse

Who cares? The real question is, who does Jesse Jackson blame?

Oh, wait. The answer is obvious.

Nevermind.

[laotzu]

Since when is a mayor the determinor of legal liability?

Stupid SOB should shut-up, and not stick his kneck out where it has no business.

[RonF]

The people on the porch had no idea that the joists were 2" x 8" instead of 2" by 10". Had the joists been of the correctly sized lumber, and especially if they had been supported in the middle, the porch would probably have held up.

[lelio]

Had he followed the law, he would have known that the structure was unsafe
Yeah right. The city is infalliable.

[Xenalyte]

I made that point yesterday and got spanked for it. Good luck!

[lelio]

Just think of what happened to Meigs Field
What is the deal with that anyway? Looking around I found a Friends of Meigs Field website.
I can't decide if he's got some sort of plan for the area in which he gets a cut, or the major airlines don't like the idea of competing with air limos to take first class travelers through a non-congested airport.

[cksharks]

The eople on the porch were too stupid to get out of the rain.

[Willie Green]

I can't decide if he's got some sort of plan for the area in which he gets a cut, or the major airlines don't like the idea of competing with air limos to take first class travelers through a non-congested airport.

Sniff out where the biggest money is.
(Hint: think "lake front property")
My guess is you'll conclude that the major airlines weren't concerned at all about the status of Meigs Field.

[texasbluebell]

Just think of what happened to Meigs Field-- What is the deal with that anyway?

That's what a lot of people would like to know. Should be interesting someday if the story ever comes out.

Boss Junior is very good at yanking people's strings though, and the truth may never come out.

[cherry_bomb88]

But no one will state the obvious because that's gets into personal responsibility and people aren't responsible for anything anymore.

Which is why we all have to pay so much for insurance....because of stupid people who want to blame everyone else for their stupidity. You know this will be a lawsuit against the owner & their insurance.

[MinuteGal]

My educated bet is that the valuable and spacious lakefront Meigs property will be the future site of several casino palaces a la Donald Trump.

Play a quarter on it for me, will ya?

Leni