[SML] Oakland warehouse fire

[Ben Thoron SML]

An artist's "collective" rented space from us a couple of years ago.  They
attempted to do the same thing, divvying  up the space haphazardly and
hazardly and hosting exactly this type of event.  It was difficult, even as
the landlord, to restrict the activity, until the annual fire department
inspection.  Never have I been more glad to have an AHJ to turn to.
There are lots of zoning and building codes on the books already, the
challenge is to enforce them quickly enough to save lives.  Cities and
counties only have so much money, they can't inspect every venue that pops
up on Facebook...

Horrible loss of life.  So sad.
Ben Thoron
The old globe



On Dec 4, 2016 10:32 AM, "Dale Farmer via Stagecraft" <
stagecraft at theatrical.net> wrote:

> On 12/4/2016 12:45 PM, Bill Conner via Stagecraft wrote:
>
>> Since it seems to have been operated like a "night club" or concert
>> venue, with advertised and paid admission events, it will be
>> interesting to see what legislative and code changes are sought that
>> could affect legitimate theatre. Very unfortunate.  How quickly the
>> lessons of so many club or club like disasters are forgotten.  As
>> George Santayana wrote (in The Life of Reason, 1905): “Those who
>> cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
>>
>>
> No doubt there will be more laws passed to make legit entertainment venues
> even more expensive to operate.  This will have the unintended consequence
> of driving miniscule budget events like this dance party even deeper
> underground.
>
> These artist asylums are endemic to cities with very high costs of living
> and costs of buildings.  As the article mentioned, the place was a run down
> warehouse space that was being sublet in some fashion to a whole bunch of
> artist types.   Who are notorious for their failure to follow building
> codes, and viewing any attempt to make them follow the codes as oppression
> of their artistic voice.
>
> It mentions only two stairways, one of which was constructed from boards
> and pallets, and one source of water, a dirty sink.  I doubt there were any
> sprinklers.   Dance party on the second level, and apparently was a monthly
> event, going by the old notices on their web site.
>
> So, not enough exits, intoxicated patrons in a strange place that was
> noted to be maze-like and confusing.  Sadly, only a matter of time before a
> tragedy like this happens.  Expect the body count to get larger.
>
> --Dale
>
>
> ____________________________________________________________
> For list information see <http://stagecraft.theprices.net/>
> Stagecraft mailing list
> Stagecraft at theatrical.net
> http://theatrical.net/mailman/listinfo/stagecraft_theatrical.net
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://theatrical.net/pipermail/stagecraft_theatrical.net/attachments/20161204/0a165739/attachment.html>