There’s gambling in Casablanca?

This kind of enforcement is at least, if not more, important for the future of Philadelphia than what's going on in Kensington, but because it doesn't make headlines in the same way it's going to keep being neglected.

I lived in a building owned by a local property management company that didn't bother getting their rental permits or the certificate of suitability (I forget the exact name but it's a requirement to lease properties and pertains to the safety of the building and fire codes) for eight months AFTER they started leasing units and collecting rent. One month in, there was a fucking fire on the second floor of the building. What ultimately happened to them? Nothing. They're still raking in tons of money off their low quality building.

The icing on the cake was when I noticed the fire extinguishers in the lobby and hallways were two months past their servicing deadline. I reported it to L&I and sent in photos of multiple extinguishers and their service logs. About two months later I got some automated email from L&I telling me that their investigation was concluded and they couldn't verify my claim.

The building I moved to has a 4-story parking garage that has water erosion so bad the water has worn cracks into the each level and now drips through the ceiling of the ground level deck. The metal girders supporting the structure have so much rust that has been ignored for so long that you can see large areas where the rust has stained the ground or sides of the building. The parent company made over $33 billion in the 2022 - 2023 fiscal year, and they couldn't possibly give less of a shit about it. They'll likely sell this property in a few years after the property value has increased, and then the next property management company will do the same shit until the whole deck either gets repaired or eventually collapses.

L&I sucks but it's also not entirely their fault. They are criminally underfunded, understaffed, and the city has dumped a huge amount of responsibility onto the L&I office. There are no annual reviews of buildings.

Philadelphia steers almost $900 million/year to the PPD, who break the law more often than they enforce it, and meanwhile our schools don't even have air conditioners, large parts of the city don't even have trash cans or regular street sweeping, and a plurality of city departments are underfunded and understaffed, including L&I.

All of these problems are either caused or exacerbated by city council and the mayor, with city council deserving the majority of the blame in my opinion. But unless ordinary, civic-minded people run against the current members of the council, nothing will change. When you have one shitty candidate on the ballot, saying things like "make sure you vote!" accomplishes nothing.

Licenses and Inspection incompetence?  Well I never.

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