Just putting out there about construction in the 80's.

[joetheman]

Greed gripped the nation, white flight to the coastal areas, bought up most of the public accesses to nice beaches, the push against regulations and regulators, cheap steel and watered-down cement, cheap labor, and all kinds of cutting corners ... all because someone told Americans, especially wealthy Americans, they should not have to sacrifice for anyone or anything...

Result: mostly shit-build housing and condos. The townhouse my daughter bought in late 1980's practically fell apart in five years. Shitty drywall, cheap insulation, poly-piping...she had to practically re-build it to sell it. There's that.

[FakeNoose]

1. Yes a lot of this happened

... but Miami Beach is a sand bar.

So add everything you listed to the fact that there's no solid bedrock base underneath those high-rise beach condos.

[joetheman]

2. That too!

[GulfCoast66]

3. But there rock under them. And not always that far down.

All of southeast Florida is Limestone rock covered by a thin layer of sand. In many places the bedrock comes out of the sand.

Anchoring a building in the rock is not the problem. The problem is that the bedrock is porous with seawater. And tall buildings are built of steel and concrete. Which is rotted by seawater.

Thats the real threat. It can and often is mitigated but that cost continual resources. Some buildings spend what is needed. This condo did not and the state does nothing to insure they do.

[brush]

4. Let's see, what party which dislikes regulation and standards was in charge then?

Oh, it was the GOP and their patron saint, Ronald Reagan.

And thousands of the shoddy buildings of that era are still standing...minus one of course.

[mopinko]

5. anyone who could swing a hammer could get a job in the south.

pretty much no real unions in a lot of states.