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    #26
    Berkeley Disaster

    The reason for the tragically high casualty rate in this accident is the unusual collapse path of the balcony, which flipped 180 degrees and ejected its occupants onto the street below. Had it fallen straight down or at 90 degrees in a normal fall pattern, most of the victims would have stood a much higher survival chance. This is because the membrane, which is there for waterproofing, stretched out while the balcony was rotating downwards but did not rip. The kinetic energy from the balcony pivoting downwards was transmitted to the poor souls projected downwards, in other words, the balcony acted as a springboard, propelling its occupants downwards, head first.

    I don't have anything to add to AP's technical take, but yes standards are very stringent in CA.

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      #27
      Berkeley Disaster

      I wonder if the public editor has to read all the dross they put out in the Real Estate section?

      Comment


        #28
        Berkeley Disaster

        Only when a critical mass of people complain about it, as with the perennial "Rich family buys their spoiled kid her "dream condo"" pieces.

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          #29
          Berkeley Disaster

          I doubt many people are that outraged by those, but when you realize that you've offended an entire nation...

          Comment


            #30
            Berkeley Disaster

            It is a small nation, Inca. In fact, most of them post on here.

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              #31
              Berkeley Disaster

              "It's a very small country. They've just had it carpeted."

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                #32
                Berkeley Disaster

                I doubt many people are that outraged by those
                The class of "young people looking for apartments whose parents aren't minted" is both large and vocal.

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                  #33
                  Berkeley Disaster

                  Balcony was considered "decorative" by Design Review Board

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                    #34
                    Berkeley Disaster

                    I kind of feared it would be something like this. "Oh, it was a decorative wheel - you shouldn't expect it to roll straight". Decorative is classic vehicle to breach code.

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                      #35
                      Berkeley Disaster

                      The wood in that photo is utterly punk. You can see mould, rot and water damage.

                      Comment


                        #36
                        Berkeley Disaster

                        Christ almighty, it has double doors opening on to it. Either it's a balcony or it's not a balcony. I never heard of a decorative balcony.

                        Design Review Board guy says:
                        “This was meant just to be a place where someone could stand out for bit, get a breath of fresh air. Not for something like 13 people.”
                        Indeed, and that's why a stringent building code exists, because your idea of a balcony is not somebody else's idea of a balcony.

                        This is insane. I remember being on fairly crowded balconies at parties. I don't remember worrying if I was standing on a real balcony or a "decorative balcony".

                        Comment


                          #37
                          Berkeley Disaster

                          WOM wrote: The wood in that photo is utterly punk. You can see mould, rot and water damage.
                          Yeah, I don't know anything about wood construction, but that's what I thought too when I saw it.

                          Comment


                            #38
                            Berkeley Disaster

                            The owner of the building, Blackrock fund, has just about the deepest pocket in the world, with nearly $5 TRILLION under its management. About the size of the GDP of Japan...

                            Comment


                              #39
                              Berkeley Disaster

                              Well - that is kind of true, but also like me having deep pockets because I have all your money in my pockets. $5 trillion is multiples higher than their true value.

                              Comment


                                #40
                                Berkeley Disaster

                                I'm afraid that "decorative balconies" are a thing in the US, just as "Juliet Balconies" are in Europe, though the latter have the advantage of being less than a square metre on average.

                                There's no way you should have a "decorative balcony" of that size with double doors opening onto it.

                                Also on BlackRock (they care deeply about the capital R), they don't own the building directly. They established (with much less then a majority interest) a Real Estate Investment Trust that owns the building (likely along with dozens of others); non affiliated investors will own the large majority of the REIT's equity.

                                BlackRock itself is well insulated from liability in the absence of highly unusual circumstances.

                                Comment


                                  #41
                                  Berkeley Disaster

                                  As far as I know, even a tiny balcony in Europe is required to adhere to the building code. Certainly in any building built in the last 30 years.

                                  A letter sent to the New York Times:

                                  Today in Ireland we are hanging our heads in shock and sorrow at the needless deaths of six of our brightest and best young adults and the serious injuries to others.

                                  Today the New York Times should be hanging its head in shame at how outrageously and without the remotest evidence it has rushed to judgment on those deaths.

                                  I was a J-1 visa student in California over forty years ago.

                                  Tens of thousands of Irish J-1 students have spent happy summers there over the years since.

                                  By far the vast majority have been a credit to Ireland and only the very tiniest minority have not.

                                  Yet within hours of the most appalling tragedy in the history of the J-1 visa program, when the one salient fact to speak for itself is the ludicrous collapse of a fourth floor balcony in a relatively new building, New York Times journalists reached for the lazy tabloid stereotype and heaped deliberate injustice on top of the most awful grief.
                                  Shame on you.

                                  Mary McAleese, former President of Ireland, 1997-2011; J-1 visa student in San Francisco summer of 1971

                                  Comment


                                    #42
                                    Berkeley Disaster

                                    There's a Gawker piece about the NY Times angle, and some of the comments beneath are mind-blowing in their viciousness and coldness. There are a lot of incredibly fucked-up people out there.

                                    Comment


                                      #43
                                      Berkeley Disaster

                                      Green Calx wrote: There's a Gawker piece about the NY Times angle, and some of the comments beneath are mind-blowing in their viciousness and coldness. There are a lot of incredibly fucked-up people out there.
                                      That's par for the course on Gawker. At least the people in Deadspin comments saying awful things are trying to be funny.

                                      Comment


                                        #44
                                        Berkeley Disaster

                                        Antonio Pulisao wrote: As far as I know, even a tiny balcony in Europe is required to adhere to the building code. Certainly in any building built in the last 30 years.
                                        I don't have a lot of faith in big apartment buildings built near universities. It just seems that they cut corners here and there to save money, and aren't always well maintained. I wouldn't be surprised to know that most aren't completely up to code.

                                        Comment


                                          #45
                                          Berkeley Disaster

                                          Incandenza wrote:
                                          Originally posted by Green Calx
                                          There's a Gawker piece about the NY Times angle, and some of the comments beneath are mind-blowing in their viciousness and coldness. There are a lot of incredibly fucked-up people out there.
                                          That's par for the course on Gawker. At least the people in Deadspin comments saying awful things are trying to be funny.
                                          I'm all for bad taste, as anyone who knows me will attest. But some of these fuckers are blatantly psychotic.

                                          Comment


                                            #46
                                            Berkeley Disaster

                                            Dry rot.

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