West coast version: the developer of the Leaning Tower of San Francisco is probably wishing that Obama would fly out and say "You didn't build that!" It's a sad commentary when even buildings are trying to head for the Pacific Northwest in an apparent quest to escape the state of California.
SAN FRANCISCO – Engineers in San Francisco have tunneled underground to try and understand the sinking of the 58-story Millennium Tower. Now comes an analysis from space.
The European Space Agency has released detailed data from satellite imagery that shows the skyscraper in San Francisco's financial district is continuing to sink at a steady rate — and perhaps faster than previously known.
The luxury high-rise that opened its doors in 2009 has been dubbed the Leaning Tower of San Francisco. It has sunk about 16 inches into landfill and is tilting several inches to the northwest.
Oh, yes, you bet some folks have a problem with this; when it's so bad that it can be clearly visualized from 400 miles up in space, the developer's assurances that everything's fine - perfectly safe and seismically sound - tend not to gain a lot of traction. Especially not when residents on the upper floors demonstrate the degree of tilt by filming marbles rolling around on the floor. That sort of thing tends to make people nervous.
The problem seems to be that they didn't anchor the foundation to bedrock but instead built it atop pilings driven into landfill, which seems a less than ideal approach; here in Portland, developers in the northwest part of town are preparing to deploy pile-driving equipment - much to the dismay of nearby residents - but these pilings will sit on bedrock, and the building will be considerably smaller in size.
Looks like a good time to be a lawyer in San Francisco.
Now, the east coast version: your visiting grandson heads out into the back yard to play in the Florida sunshine but ends up falling into a hole. You discover that the hole is there because your septic tank exploded and there's raw sewage all over the place. This seems unhealthy, so you dial up your landlord who, rather than fixing the problem, sends somebody out with a sheet of plywood and some palm branches:
The landlord said she has no resources to fix the problem.
What a load. Perhaps she shouldn't be renting the place out, then. Anyway, now the health department's involved. They figure that the situation is somehow sort of a safety hazard, and the landlord gets three weeks to get repairs going before they start levying fines. It's unclear where Grandma's going to go in the intervening time. Five-gallon buckets, perhaps?
