Earthquake Safety Concerns Arise Over L.A.'s Outdated Building Retrofit Data

Earthquake Safety in Los Angeles Under Scrutiny

For nearly a decade, Los Angeles has touted its sweeping earthquake safety ordinance — the nation's toughest, which requires thousands of buildings to be evaluated and strengthened if necessary. However, city officials have made it challenging for Angelenos to find retrofit information about their buildings.

Errors in Reporting Cause Alarm Among Residents

In 2023, The Times requested the city's lists of non-ductile concrete and soft-story buildings, along with their retrofit statuses. After publishing a map that allowed residents to review the earthquake risk of their buildings, The Times was contacted by several property owners. They claimed the data from the city indicated their buildings were not retrofitted, despite having completed the work. This misinformation led to concerns among property owners, as potential tenants assumed seismic retrofits had not been completed.

City officials Acknowledge Reporting Failures

Once The Times uncovered the errors, it added a note to readers and began investigating further through permit records. The full scope of the problems became clear 18 months later when officials confirmed the Department of Building and Safety had been incorrectly reporting which buildings had undergone retrofitting.

• Manual Input Issues: Gail Gaddi, public information director, noted that the reporting relies on manual adjustments, leading to program-wide inefficiencies.
• Increased Safety Fears: Residents expressed serious concerns for their family's safety living in buildings deemed unretrofitted.