Legislators Dawdle on Seismic Safety

The answer to the question above has a pretty simple answer if you care about people and their safety and well-being. See this terrific Seattle Times story that is running on here, Buildings that Kill: The earthquake danger lawmakers have ignored for decades. I think it is a very fair treatment of the issue from all sides. My only real complaint is that it focuses on Seattle when there are, I believe, hundreds of unreinforced masonry buildings (URM) in all areas of the state of Washington that also have a seismic risk — they have not been counted, including schools.

Read the debate between people who care about different aspects of the issue. "I don't want historic [read URM — unsafe] buildings torn down." "I don't want to force the rents to go up on people who can't pay the higher cost of a safe building."

The quote in the article that irked me the most was:

“We don’t want to end up like some California cities where they ended up demolishing buildings instead of having them retrofitted,” said Diane Sugimura, who headed the building department for 14 years until a reorganization in 2015. She’s now interim planning director.

Asked how she would grade the city’s progress on a policy, she paused and said, “I don’t know. ‘C’?”

Really, a "C?" Twenty years of counting buildings (I don't think they have moved since they were built) and no standards and no progress equal a "C!" The last person to give a grade on how the city of Seattle did on responding to a snowstorm was a former mayor, who gave Seattle a "B." Everyone else had another much lower letter grade in mind.

Let me give everyone involved in this Washington state URM issue at all levels a definitive "F." City councilmembers — "F." Building officials — "F." The governor — "F." State legislators-"F." School board members — across the state (except for Grays Harbor) — "F." The Office of Public Instruction and its leadership — "F."  The State Seismic Safety Committee — "F." The State Emergency Management Council — "F."

I will give Barb Graff, emergency manager of Seattle, a solid "B" for the efforts she has made to try to get this issue addressed in her city. I'd give her an "A" but then — that would mean she was successful and something actually had been done to protect people.

OK, probably the best thing to do is step back, look at this issue with a new study.

Or as one Washington state seismologist said once, "This state won't do anything about seismic safety until they are dragging dead bodies out of buildings." Then, maybe, we'll see action. At least there will be fewer of these URM buildings in the inventory since many are sure to have collapsed.