Warehouses / Underground / DIY Spaces Under Attack in the USA

I mean, it’s bullshit as a “defense” and Dereck should go to jail, but I think it’s also true that the building owner and potentially the city should also be facing criminal charges

Why should the city be facing criminal charges for this?

The owner definitely knew the building wasn't up to code for what it was being used for, and she knew what it was being used for ... I believe the owner is definitely culpable.

Some lines from Wiki

The City of Oakland's planning director revealed that the building had not been inspected for three decades.[3]

Although police and fire officials warned that the warehouse was a fire hazard, the Ghost Ship's founder, Derick Ion Almena, allegedly did not respond to these concerns.[62]

The vice president of the local firefighters union said that the fire marshal's office had been understaffed for years, and that a fire inspector seeing the conditions of the Ghost Ship "would have shut the place down".[60]

Adding to the discussion, on December 13, the Oakland Fire Chief said "there were no indications this was an active business", that there are no city records showing her department had received complaints about the building and that the department "inspects businesses, not buildings".[64]

the thing is, and you know this, or maybe you don't, but i'd think you would, that spaces like this (and I have run them), do things to avoid being caught, because if they catch you, they are likely to shut the space down on various technicalities and letters of the law.

To me, it's kinda like blaming the government or cops for not catching all the criminals.

Don't get me wrong, I hate cops, and am "not a fan" of the City of Oakland building/planning/fire admin bureaucracy.

and following up on the "criminal" analogy -- my belief, and what I've been somewhat helping to work towards -- is a process of "decriminalization" where safety improvements that prevent things like G.S. happening and seriously reduce the likelihood of spaces becoming like that one -- where spaces can meet basic life safety standards AND people don't get evicted/spaces don't get shut down ...

The civil cases are still ongoing, right? It's still insane that at least some of them name surviving performers from the night.

Also, I think Denver actually did something progressive and cool in re these spaces after the Rhinoceropolis thing.

the civil cases are so so so ongoing ...

there is also an (i think) ongoing case involving corruption in the City of Oakland building department that might potentially get tied in with the G.S. civil cases

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/18/us/ghost-ship-fire-settlement.html

short version: City of Oakland decided it's cheaper to settle for millions of dollars than to go to court, but aren't really accepting responsibility ... which, the thing is, the specific things they were being sued for, I actually don't think they are responsible for ... but there are huge systemic problems related to code enforcement and venues and live/work diy spaces that the City is definitely responsible for, which led indirectly to Ghost Ship ... and I still feel bad for yelling at Donna for drinking in public view back in the late 2000's and she was a sweet awesome person ... as were Jsun, Kiyomi, Ara, Micah, and Griffin -- the other 30 ppl I didn't know well enough.