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The story of the factory art building fire is tragic.
Some folks want to blame the owner, the leasee, the city inspectors..
Passing around the blame to anyone other than the people who lived their.
Then some folks mentioned the place was unsafe, so they moved out. I guess they decided to take care of themselves. (instead of excpecting someone else to babysit for them)
Do you think it is up to each person to decide what risk they will take?
Or that we should be protected, apparently from ourselves?
From the bias I write with, my position is pretty clear.
Basically I want to do for myself. No big Daddy watching over my every move.
On the other hand, we need some controls and rules. Best ones protect others from ones behavior. The ones protecting me from myself? no way.
So if I decided to live in a firetrap maze, on the second floor with only a pile of stacked pallets as a makeshift staircase.. I would say it is MY risk.
I guess if I ran such a place, I would get a signed statement stating the risk, and that the dweller accepts it.
?: Is that 'good enough'?
If not... Do the folks selling a bottle of booze need to be resonsible for how it is used? Ditto guns, cars, tons of things..
Follow Ups:
For the record- the people living at the house choose
To live in an artist community.
It shouldn't make a difference- but it was a lifestyle
Choice as well as financial.
It wasn't just kids crammed in a space paying nothing
And doing drugs.
I think many people believe that was the case.
Often in the Bay Area - people hear the word artist
And just think poor squatting drug users.
That said- it sucks because everyone has a
Family of sorts and things like this are a crusher.
I think that the people who lived in that warehouse did so for monetary reasons. I don't know what the rent was, but it was probably cheap compared to where else they might live. I expect that they realized that the place wasn't safe, but took the chance because most people believe that bad things happen to other people. That's why they text and drive, don't wear seat belts etc. People get away with the philosophy of it won't happen to me until it happens to them.
The people living there were definitely partially responsible for what happened to them in my opinion. The owner of the building and the local regulatory agencies are also responsible. The people who died won't have to pay for their portion of the blame. I expect that the city will end up paying.
Great post.
"The people living there were definitely partially responsible for what happened to them in my opinion."
You could leave off the "in my opinion" part.
And, I'd say that they were ENTIRELY responsible for their fate. Who in their right mind would live in an unsafe warehouse which is not zoned for residential occupancy? Ya gotta be pretty dumb to do that.
And "artists"?! Ya gotta be a piss-poor artist to be living in an unsafe warehouse which isn't zoned for residential occupancy. This is the 21st century equivalent to the sixties "hippie commune".
On the other hand, both the property owner and the City should pay BIG TIME for allowing the situation to exist. Maybe - maybe - this will be a wake-up call to Oakland and cities across the nation, and to property owners who allow this sort of thing to go on.
:)
It's been one of the worst run big cities for a loooong time.
You'd think it was in Michigan.
The Oakland Police Department is a disgrace and is representative of the troubles
the backwards thinking city continues to face.
There's so much political BS there it makes Baltimore in "The Wire" seem pleasant by comparison.
"Once this was all Black Plasma and Imagination" -Michael McClure
Horrible tragedy, and I'm sure that there will be plenty of blame to go around especially once the lawyers sink their teeth into it.
On the other hand I can imagine the shitstorm in the media if, instead of this tragic fire, the City came in and evicted all of these "artists", squatters, and poseurs before they self-immolated.
"Fascists, capitalist pigs, globalist tools"! They'd even find a way to blame ..........guess who?
"You pays your monies and you takes your chances" - but sometimes it seems like no matter what you just can't win.
Cheers,
SB
I suppose Oakland should tighten it's process of condemnation of properties, but people have to live somewhere.
There is just so much space for these people in ... I don't know, North Dakota or someplace.
When folks make a conscious decisions which put themselves in jeopardy, rarely are they held solely and openly accountable. They chose to put aside the warnings of the inspectors....been there/done that - sadly it NEVER ends well.
or sprinklers, and no escape ways.
Richard Craniums the lot of them.
And they were all 'away' when they were doing physics and chemistry at their school.
Warmest
Tim Bailey
Skeptical Measurer & Audio Scrounger
whether to risk living in such places, owning them, managing them or monitoring them.If you want to risk living in such a haphazard environment (for whatever reason(s) (the main
one is usually cited as financial but I think it is more a cultural draw that supersedes the $ one)
then go for it.But do you want to chance dying for your art?
The management was breaking the law, the owners were breaking the law,
the tenants were breaking the law.The law(s) are there to help protect the type of folks the City of Oakland failed.
And the City of Oakland has a pretty good track record of failing its citizens.What's surprising is that these tragedies don't happen more frequently.
I'm not a fan of Big Brother, but the rules in place (and well paid for by us all) are there for a good reason and should
be adhered to for the safety of those that need that net.
"Once this was all Black Plasma and Imagination"-Michael McClure
Edits: 12/07/16
but in this case, in a city, where fire could impact others living close-by this was the definition of irresponsibility of everyone involved.
That is where government SHOULD step in. Now suing government is as stupid as thinking companies pay income taxes - it doesn't do any good - it is the regular folk who do the paying in both cases.
But the guy who sublet these spaces should be held accountable. But he has nothing so that is a waste of time.
Anyone who would move into such a hovel and pay six hundred dollars per month is beyond help. There are daredevils in this world and you cannot stop them. Imagine a stack of pallets as a staircase. Insanity.
The city should have kicked them out and they should have moved to the country but then they would probably start the woods on fire and that is a big deal in California. Lots of fuel in them woods ...
So I guess the best thing to do would be to kill them.
> So I guess the best thing to do would be to kill them.>Really? Perhaps more Nazi than Liberterian.
Many of them didn't live there but just showed up for the party upstairs.
Edits: 12/07/16
the law will see it different I imagine
I agree with you to an extent that people have to accept the responsibility for their actions. However, allowing a make shift stairway made of fire wood with no escape for the second floor is a foreseeable disaster.
The lessee has a problem, but I suspect that he's not got any money. The parents or spouses will cash in from the city because they were warned and didn't follow up.
-Rod
...the owner of the building had been cited by the city numerous times in the past and had a lien placed on the property for city clean-up outside.
The manager (lessee) rented it to the people inside and allowed a number to live there (they all knew it was illegal), to work and have events. Reports said he attached an additional transformer to the power supply which worked intermittently. One of the exits were blocked. A report today said a recently brought in refrigerator may have been the source of the fire.
The parents who allowed their underage kids to attend the party upstairs.
The city inspectors who stopped by 2 weeks ago, couldn't gain access and didn't come back. There are dozens of warehouses like this in the Oakland/Berkeley area where artist live and work.
The techies who have moved into the areas and driven up rents so this is the only place artists can live.
It may be your risk to live in a firetrap but what if a fire starts and kills you and the next door neighbors? That's what the codes are in place to prevent.
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