sum peeple died in chicago. balcony went kerplunk.

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is there a heaven for a thug?

whose balcony is next? will it ever stop?

― faggotry (faggotry), Monday, 30 June 2003 19:48 (twenty-two years ago)

you go hell now

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 30 June 2003 19:50 (twenty-two years ago)

didn't this happen last summer too?
do they have building codes in Chi-Town?

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Monday, 30 June 2003 19:52 (twenty-two years ago)

yes, unfortunately we also have people who think no harm can come to them.

― oops (Oops), Monday, 30 June 2003 19:55 (twenty-two years ago)

but who's gonna be the guy at a kegger who says 'People people, this is a bit unsafe. Some of you must leave.'?

― oops (Oops), Monday, 30 June 2003 19:56 (twenty-two years ago)

The "best" thing about the story was the way they ended it on the news last night.

"Chicago police think the collapse may have been caused by three beer kegs and all those people dancing on the balcony."

MAY?

― Ally (mlescaut), Monday, 30 June 2003 19:57 (twenty-two years ago)

My first thought is of Carl Hiaasen's book Kick Ass a collection of his Herald columns, wherein in devotes many inches to the crooked/lazy building inspectors and dirty developers who cut corners on building completely demolished by hurricanes, while similar structures built by Habititat for Humanity lost only a few shingles.

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Monday, 30 June 2003 19:57 (twenty-two years ago)

they said the decks were structurally sound. there was just too many damn people on them.

― oops (Oops), Monday, 30 June 2003 19:59 (twenty-two years ago)

chi-town has had a bad run lately for pary go-ers. by the sounds of it chicago is the place to party with callous disregard for ones own life. the people there must be dedicated to having a good time no matter what the cost – i like that. i'd go if i could.

― dyson (dyson), Monday, 30 June 2003 20:05 (twenty-two years ago)

not surprisingly, these things rarely happen in Saskatchewan.
Though there are a lot drunk-driving deaths, because EVERYONE drives here.

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Monday, 30 June 2003 20:07 (twenty-two years ago)

hthis happened a few years ago in SF and it was horrifying (probably now best remembered as a pivotal incident in a Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius). But in that case there were structural problems with the balcony that the landlord knew about.

― anthony kyle monday (akmonday), Monday, 30 June 2003 20:10 (twenty-two years ago)

There are actually a whole lot of pretty old wooden decks, porches, stairs and such in Chicago, and they're invariably where everyone winds up during an apartment party (especially during summer and especially if the hosts don't allow smoking inside). Most of them are well-built and sturdy. Some of them are so clearly not well-built or sturdy that people don't get raucous on them. But I get the feeling that here -- or probably anywhere, I dunno -- there are plenty of structures that feel just fine right up until a few too many people crowd onto them. This sort of thing happens every so often: in the apartment building I lived in through college, a guy I work with was killed when a side railing collapsed -- he and a friend were moving a couch; the side rail collapsed and he fell a couple stories to the ground; and he probably would have been okay except the couch was falling right on top of him.

Very sad in both instances, obviously. The thing about this one is that the landlord will probably have some wiggle room as far as liability goes -- easy to argue that they overloaded the platform, were partying recklessly, underage drinking invites tragedy, etc. In other cases, I've always hoped the gaping legal liability would lead landlords to just, you know, double-check their decks and staircases, if not with a contractor then with their own common sense, and if they're not going to fix them at least warn people not to crowd up on them.

― nabisco (nabisco), Monday, 30 June 2003 20:14 (twenty-two years ago)

it sounds terrible, but the story nabisco relates is exactly why i paid some guys $50 to move my sleeper couch down the rickety wooden back stairs of my apartment building (i'm on the third floor). so rickety that you can see the sky through cracks in certain steps. and god forbid my landlord should put any lights on the porches. i have to feel my way downstairs after the sun has set, unless everyone's kitchen light is on, and their shades are up.

― amateurist (amateurist), Monday, 30 June 2003 20:19 (twenty-two years ago)

True...if the tenants knew the risk involved w/having so many people on the decks and if they were told their capacity, this may not have happened.
(btw, the decks were made in 1998)
(x-post)

― oops (Oops), Monday, 30 June 2003 20:19 (twenty-two years ago)

or maybe i'll just take my stuff out through the front stairs this time. it's not like the landlord has cleaned it, or painted the walls, in a decade or two...

― amateurist (amateurist), Monday, 30 June 2003 20:20 (twenty-two years ago)

Chicago ain't got nothin on New Orleans for dumpin drunk people off balconies.

― jewelly (jewelly), Monday, 30 June 2003 20:21 (twenty-two years ago)

This makes me wonder where Jewelly hides the bodies.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 30 June 2003 20:26 (twenty-two years ago)

I dunno, it's weird: surely it's not just a Chicago thing to consider decks like this basically an extension of apartments themselves? Unless they're clearly falling apart -- and if this one was constructed in 1998 it probably looking fabulous compared to the neighbors -- weight-bearing limits are really far from people's minds, no more than they are when people walk down the front stairs. The decks are where the kegs go, where the people go, etc., and this is mostly fine, although I guess this summer people will have it in mind a bit more not to test the limits of that security.

Anyway, unless they were leading elephants out there I imagine there had to have been something at least slightly unsound about the deck itself, even if it was only that this particular deck wasn't built to support the weight the average deck of its size and appearance usually does. But it sounds as if there's an equal case to be made that they clearly overloaded it, so I'm not sure how this one will pan out; I get the feeling blame is gonna gravitate toward partying New Trier kids a bit faster than the landlord, but I could be wrong.

Oops, the one thing is that I imagine it's a bit difficult to get landlords to be completely transparent about these things, since it sometimes might mean their admitting that their decks aren't nearly as solid as they look. (Alternately, they'd probably all cover their asses by putting a three-person limit on every deck ever and saying it's your own fault beyond that.) But yeah, I'd so prefer to get a straight line from my landlord on exactly how sturdy a given deck was.

― nabisco (nabisco), Monday, 30 June 2003 20:28 (twenty-two years ago)

this might have something to do with the generally quick'n'shoddy construction of new condos and apts even, in lincoln park over the past 10-20 years.

i've never had an apartment where the relationship b/t landlord and tenant wasn't faintly suspicious or even antoginistic. i'd probably have little luck getting information about the building from my landlord, if he was even on the ball enough to have the answers himself.

my deck has always made me nervous so i do little out there but wash stuff ocasionally, or water really big plants.

― amateurist (amateurist), Monday, 30 June 2003 20:31 (twenty-two years ago)

antoginistic = characteristic of the adversarial relationship that develops when you move in next to a fraternity

― amateurist (amateurist), Monday, 30 June 2003 20:32 (twenty-two years ago)

I have a tiny balcony off the kitchen of my second story apartment, so small the only thing it's good for is throwing my garbage into the alley, in the general direction of the trashcans 30 yards away. I hope I don't die doing that.

― jewelly (jewelly), Monday, 30 June 2003 20:35 (twenty-two years ago)

If it was purely a matter of overloading, you'd think there'd be a lot more incidents--there were probaly other parties of similar size taking place on porches that very day. One is led to believe that the structure itself played a role... but is the builder/landlord responsible? or is it the city's fault for not having codes that are stringent enough?

― oops (Oops), Monday, 30 June 2003 21:09 (twenty-two years ago)

My balcony used to wheeze when I stepped on it so I kept bugging my landlord & she finally replaced it. There was one soft spot in particular that was always a little unnerving.

I actually saw a balcony collapse once, on some house that was being renovated--a guy was working on it at the time, and luckily it was only one story up.

― s1utsky (slutsky), Monday, 30 June 2003 21:30 (twenty-two years ago)

This sort of thing happens every so often: in the apartment building I lived in through college, a guy I work with was killed when a side railing collapsed -- he and a friend were moving a couch; the side rail collapsed and he fell a couple stories to the ground; and he probably would have been okay except the couch was falling right on top of him.

Brutal luck there.

― Girolamo Savonarola, Monday, 30 June 2003 21:33 (twenty-two years ago)

five years pass...

ytth to thread

― jaymc, Friday, 17 October 2008 16:44 (seventeen years ago)

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