Year of Demolition

They announced today that the Hard Rock hotel demolition process has been pushed back again. 

The previous timeline of stabilizing the building to begin recovering evidence of the collapse and the two bodies trapped on the site on Feb. 28 has now been pushed back until May 7. That delay will also effect when officials believe the building will be completely demolished to an empty lot, pushing it back to December rather than late summer as previously projected.

It says "more to come" at the bottom that NOLA.com article so maybe they'll tell us more later about how soon the bodies that are still trapped under the rubble might be recovered.  Also this doesn't say anything about how the possible demolition of the adjacent properties might play into this plan.  We already know what the mayor thinks.

Answering questions about the proposal at a press conference on Monday, Cantrell said she decided to support the additional demolitions after consulting with engineers who said the work is necessary to safely use the cranes that will be engaged to take down the half-collapsed Hard Rock.

“My initial response to that is public safety first,” Cantrell said. “What the engineers have indicated is that a clear line of sight when utilizing the large cranes that will be used is just the top priority.”

“Public safety has always kind of led us and it will continue to (do so),” she added later. “As it relates to the adjacent buildings, I would say I’m absolutely in favor of demolition” if it is needed to create that clear line of sight.

I dunno. I kind of think if "public safety" had always been the priority with these developers, the building inspectors responsible for approving their plans, or anyone responsible for labor standards enforcement who ignored the complaints of their workers prior to the collapse, then we wouldn't be in this situation in the first place.  Much more likely the mayor is concerned with making sure the developers pay whatever it takes to clean up their mess. Which is fine, except this sounds like she also wants to help them recoup their losses by maximizing the resale value of the property. Knocking down the whole block instead of just the hotel is one way to do that.