5 dead after balcony in Berkeley, California collapses.

[PastTense]

Berkeley City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to adopt amendments to local and state housing codes that will require inspections of weather-exposed structures every three years, among other stipulations.

The council also voted to send a revised letter to the California Building Standards Commission urging it to require steel reinforcement in new balconies and approved a referral to the city manager to develop an ordinance to display weight capacity on balconies and to notify tenants of balcony materials, all after a balcony collapse in June killed six.

City Council votes to adopt new building safety codes after June balcony...

[epbrown01]

@Eva_Luna

There was a surge in porch inspections in Chicago after that - I know a number of people who got fined for construction that wasn’t up to code. Which may not have been such a bad thing, all in all.

Yeah, I lived in Wrigleyville at the time and there was some serious rebuilding back then, with a lot of buildings switching to metal and concrete construction instead of just new wood. I honestly think it will be decades before we see this happen again in Chicago.