City Responds to Critics, Releases Lots of Building Collapse Documents

The Nutter administration, under fire in the last few weeks for its lack of transparency regarding the Market Street building collapse, is making a move that should quiet some if its critics. (Including me, potentially.)

It’s releasing a major trove of Department of Public Health and Licenses and Inspections documents related to the collapse. After a quick perusal through the docs, it looks like the juiciest stuff is contained in a massive email file containing messages between the parties involved in the demolition of 2136-38 Market Street.

At first glance, many of them echo the emails uncovered in last Sunday’s Inquirer investigation. And as with that piece, the most surprising aspect of this new data is the sheer volume of pointless negotiation that appears to have preceded the demolition. It’s surprising how much thought went into devising a sensible plan of action that no one bothered to follow.

More to come once I have some time to look through the documents. Caveat: It’s unclear, of course, what the city did and did not include in the files, considering the data dump was entirely voluntary.