Controller: City Demolitions Still Unsafe

The Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections’ demolition oversight procedures are still unsafe, City Controller Alan Butkovitz reported Thursday, a year after the deadly Salvation Army collapse in Center City. NBC10 reports:

The detailed 81-page report revealed a number of inadequacies in L&I’s attempted reform of its demolition procedures, as well as long term structural flaws that, according to Butkovitz, jeopardize the public’s safety.

“It is extremely disheartening for me to have to stand here today and tell you that L&I demolitions aren’t being conducted in any safer manner today than they were a year ago,” Butkovitz said during a morning news conference.

“People have been given a false reassurance that the problem has been handled and in reality, it hasn’t changed.”

The full report can be found here.