Social media post shows office furnishings allegedly thrown onto Park Avenue from derelict building

Screenshot from Social Media video showing broken office furnishings and mechanical equipment that had been tossed onto Park Avenue, apparently from six stories up

Just two weeks ago a teen in Colorado was convicted of murder for throwing a rock which punctured a car windshield and killed the driver.  Thrown objects from Renton’s derelict Park Avenue buildings could readily cause a similar death.

Four months after Renton’s Public Safety Chair assured the public that she was taking the safety of of the Park Avenue buildings very seriously, a social media post now shows evidence of office furniture being hurled from the taller of the two buildings onto Park Avenue below.

This is not the first time that objects have been thrown from high up in this building, but I have not previously seen photographic evidence of objects being thrown into the traffic lanes.

Renton’s Public Safety Chair, Carmen Rivera, shared an entry on several social media sites on January 13 stating  “We remain committed to ensuring the property is secured and that we can move toward a resolution that benefits the community.” In the same post she assured the public the property would be secured and patrolled.

A month later, I documented here that the property had not in fact been adequately secured.  Please see that post for complete background on this topic.

These buildings are desperately out of compliance, and the City of Renton has every right to go onto the property and physically abate them, and bill the out-of-state ownership group for the cost.   To meet code, the deathtrap buildings need to be emptied of occupants, and all doors and windows secured with either the originally designed glazing or architectural panels that match the building.  Cleanup should occur around the buildings to eliminate blight.  The buildings should then be surveilled, with electronic means and perhaps an occupant residing in a trailer onsight, until the buildings can demolished per an approved permit.  I would also like to see water service restored to the buildings, with at least temporary fire protective equipment, so that the open-elevator-shaft, waterless building does not turn into an inferno that threatens our entire city.

If the City had conducted emergency physical abatement when many of us had first recommended it, these buildings could still be valuable and serviceable, and could continue to support thousands of jobs in Renton.

Broken windows and graffiti are found on all sides of the buildings