# Milwaukee Journal article on electrical fires



## EJPHI (May 7, 2008)

Electrical fires hit Milwaukee's Black renters hardest. Nobody is held accountable.


Violations not fixed, blazes not investigated, warrants not served, deaths not counted




www.jsonline.com





Very well written. Slumlord don't want to pay for electricians to fix problems.


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## five.five-six (Apr 9, 2013)

EJPHI said:


> Electrical fires hit Milwaukee's Black renters hardest. Nobody is held accountable.
> 
> 
> Violations not fixed, blazes not investigated, warrants not served, deaths not counted
> ...


I don’t think it’s that well written. Here I found 2 dangling participles in one sentence. 



> Cole and his attorney did not return calls and emails from the Journal Sentinel.


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## EJPHI (May 7, 2008)

five.five-six said:


> I don’t think it’s that well written. Here I found 2 dangling participles in one sentence.


Really,
I wasn't trying to pick the fly **** out of the pepper, but I thought that the premise of the article was good and well presented. We can go on about grammar, but that is not the point.


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## kb1jb1 (Nov 11, 2017)

Is it the landlords or just a commonality of poverty-stricken areas? Tenants using 1500 watt electric heaters on an old wiring system. We have all seen hazardous wiring conditions but either the homeowner or tenant does not have the money to fix it. I just finished a town funded mini renovation of a house in a poor area. Part of a county grant to help people. There were many electrical hazards that were outside the scope of work. The last one I did I was well over budget. This time I was told to stick to doing what I was told, nothing more. Lipstick on a pig approach.


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## micromind (Aug 11, 2007)

While it certainly addressed the problem of slumlords not maintaining their properties, it was also a thinly veiled promotion for BLM. 

But yes, I imagine there are a large number of rentals like this.


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## macmikeman (Jan 23, 2007)

I had no money when I first hit the islands. Had to rent , had to live in a few real dumps at first. So I worked hard. Usually held two or three jobs down. And moved to better and better places and worked harder and harder. And saved . And .. key word coming up here... invested savings ...  into property.. and worked even harder- 7 day work weeks , and double shifts on a regular basis, and purchased Lumber, and windows, and doors, and flooring, and shingles, and non metallic cable, and made my own house (first one) followed by others. 
This is what is missing from all the stories about how the people in these tales of woe don't do chit about there situations , but rather seem to dig in harder into poverty not dig out of it. 

By the way, white privilege = absolutely zero in rural Hawaii in the 1970's. The good jobs were always given to others. So I tend to not give a whole lot of credit to any talk of so called CRT , it is all about personal drive and willingness to work your ass off to better yourself.


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## five.five-six (Apr 9, 2013)

EJPHI said:


> Really,
> I wasn't trying to pick the fly **** out of the pepper, but I thought that the premise of the article was good and well presented. We can go on about grammar, but that is not the point.


That’s different than well written. 



let me ask you this, how much in maintenance is a landlord supposed to spend when people haven’t even had to pay rent in a year? The article didn’t even touch on that. 

It was written like there was a forgone conclusion of “electricity is racist“ fallowed by a college of ostensibly supporting incidents.


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## EJPHI (May 7, 2008)

five.five-six said:


> That’s different than well written.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


This is a real problem with these houses. Rent will never pay for correcting the hazards so nothing gets fixed. I don't have any great answer to the problem. What would you do? In my rentals, when stuff breaks it gets fixed properly; but I have a different circumstance than that described in the article. I guess I didn't focus as much on the race aspect of this piece , as I did on the statistics presented and the details of the hazards that were described.


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## readydave8 (Sep 20, 2009)

Some of the examples of bad wiring looked extremely dangerous, but when they mentioned double tapped breakers I lost interest 

Really how many houses have burned due to this? Maybe 6?


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## five.five-six (Apr 9, 2013)

EJPHI said:


> This is a real problem with these houses. Rent will never pay for correcting the hazards so nothing gets fixed. I don't have any great answer to the problem. What would you do? In my rentals, when stuff breaks it gets fixed properly; but I have a different circumstance than that described in the article. I guess I didn't focus as much on the race aspect of this piece , as I did on the statistics presented and the details of the hazards that were described.


Really? You skipped reading the title of the story, the 7 times ”black” was mentioned and every picture of a victim in the story was black, you missed all that? 

Even the photos?

To heck with sorting fly poop from pepper, you weren’t even sorting watermelons from basketballs.


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## EJPHI (May 7, 2008)

five.five-six said:


> Really? You skipped reading the title of the story, the 7 times ”black” was mentioned and every picture of a victim in the story was black, you missed all that?
> 
> Even the photos?
> 
> To heck with sorting fly poop from pepper, you weren’t even sorting watermelons from basketballs.


Yeah I saw all that but was more focused on the maintenance and hazard aspect. If you want have it be all about race that is your privilege.
You can back to dangling prepositions any time.


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## RAD COM (Mar 3, 2019)

My parents have a neighbor(borderline slumlord) that I work for that has a building built in the 1920's in downtown Los Angeles' Skid Row. The building was originally built to be a supply of flop houses, 50 Sq' single room units with a kitchenette. Bathrooms are common at the end of the hall on each floor.
Los Angeles is on the other end of the spectrum as far as renter's rights are concerned and the Code Enforcement unit makes frequent sweeps writing the owner up for every possible violation they can find. There is no fear from the tenants about reprisals from complaints, for they can legally withhold rent until a repair is made and there is an army of tenant rights attorneys ready to sue on your behalf (very few complaints form tenants who lack citizenship status, which make them an ideal tenant). To me it seems like the City is trying to force the small business owners out by constantly dinging them for minor violations, to make way for the large developers to swoop in.

The building sits near the Midnight Mission so everyday people start to line up in the afternoon to get a free meal. This makes the building a nightmare to work at. I have only watched a few episodes of Walking Dead but it's as if a zombie mob is surrounding you, watching, and waiting for you to turn your back so they can steal anything they can get their hands on. This is what makes it so hard to get a qualified contractor to work on these building, it's just not worth the risk. Not to mention the dirty syringes discarded everywhere.

Inside the building I am mostly replacing switches, outlets, gfci's that have been rendered useless because of abuse or they have become cockroach habitats, and missing smoke detectors. It's amazing how many cockroaches can fit in a 4S deep box, and it's also amazing how many electrical appliances someone can cram into 50 square feet. I will go down the hall installing new hardwired smoke detectors in every unit. All the while having to keep an eye on my cart of tools in the hall at all times because it's like the building is a kleptomaniac's retreat. By the time I get to the end of the hall and have finished one floor, the tenants have removed the batteries from the detectors (so they can smoke, or boil some potent concoction) and they're chirping again. The pot smoke emanating from these units is quite pungent. I could never afford weed like that when I wasn't working. And when I was working I wouldn't want it. 

As an aside, the smoke detector is probably the single most important item in that whole story. How many lives could have been saved in Milwaukee by simply having working smoke detectors? What if the city handed out free smoke detectors? L.A. hands out free LED light bulbs once a year. But it really is a lifestyle problem, if you have to stay cooped up in a little apartment because it unsafe outside and smoking is your only escape of course you have to disconnect the smoke detector. The landlord could evict all the tenants and bring the building up to code, but if the tenant is going to plug a microwave, hot plate, and three space heaters into a little apartment with disconnected smoke detectors the results will be similar. This building was built to house multiple families, but my concern is for the single family homes that have been converted into apartments. If you tried to pull a permit to make repairs on something like that you are opening Pandora's Box of city red tape that would cause a small landlord to go bankrupt.

Most of all my work on this building is inside the units themselves. Los Angeles now requires you to file a city form and notify the tenant if you will be disrupting their electrical service. Of course the tenants want compensation for their lost TV time or discomfort from having no AC. It's amazing how many people can live on top of each other in a single unit and when the power goes out they all start tracking me down and demanding I fix their problem first. This makes the landlord loathe to disconnect the power to make any upgrades on the feeders and panels until it is absolutely necessary. Which is always borderline catastrophic because the interim "quick fix" handymen will keep raising the fuse sizes until the wires start melting.


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## five.five-six (Apr 9, 2013)

RAD COM said:


> My parents have a neighbor(borderline slumlord) that I work for that has a building built in the 1920's in downtown Los Angeles' Skid Row. The building was originally built to be a supply of flop houses, 50 Sq' single room units with a kitchenette. Bathrooms are common at the end of the hall on each floor.
> Los Angeles is on the other end of the spectrum as far as renter's rights are concerned and the Code Enforcement unit makes frequent sweeps writing the owner up for every possible violation they can find. There is no fear from the tenants about reprisals from complaints, for they can legally withhold rent until a repair is made and there is an army of tenant rights attorneys ready to sue on your behalf (very few complaints form tenants who lack citizenship status, which make them an ideal tenant). To me it seems like the City is trying to force the small business owners out by constantly dinging them for minor violations, to make way for the large developers to swoop in.
> 
> The building sits near the Midnight Mission so everyday people start to line up in the afternoon to get a free meal. This makes the building a nightmare to work at. I have only watched a few episodes of Walking Dead but it's as if a zombie mob is surrounding you, watching, and waiting for you to turn your back so they can steal anything they can get their hands on. This is what makes it so hard to get a qualified contractor to work on these building, it's just not worth the risk. Not to mention the dirty syringes discarded everywhere.
> ...


That was well written. Better written than OP’s article written by a professional writer.


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## five.five-six (Apr 9, 2013)

EJPHI said:


> Yeah I saw all that but was more focused on the maintenance and hazard aspect. If you want have it be all about race that is your privilege.
> You can back to dangling prepositions any time.


Sorry if I hurt your feelings but you posted up a bigoted poorly written story. 

I guess that’s your privilege.


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## EJPHI (May 7, 2008)

RAD COM said:


> My parents have a neighbor(borderline slumlord) that I work for that has a building built in the 1920's in downtown Los Angeles' Skid Row. The building was originally built to be a supply of flop houses, 50 Sq' single room units with a kitchenette. Bathrooms are common at the end of the hall on each floor.
> Los Angeles is on the other end of the spectrum as far as renter's rights are concerned and the Code Enforcement unit makes frequent sweeps writing the owner up for every possible violation they can find. There is no fear from the tenants about reprisals from complaints, for they can legally withhold rent until a repair is made and there is an army of tenant rights attorneys ready to sue on your behalf (very few complaints form tenants who lack citizenship status, which make them an ideal tenant). To me it seems like the City is trying to force the small business owners out by constantly dinging them for minor violations, to make way for the large developers to swoop in.
> 
> The building sits near the Midnight Mission so everyday people start to line up in the afternoon to get a free meal. This makes the building a nightmare to work at. I have only watched a few episodes of Walking Dead but it's as if a zombie mob is surrounding you, watching, and waiting for you to turn your back so they can steal anything they can get their hands on. This is what makes it so hard to get a qualified contractor to work on these building, it's just not worth the risk. Not to mention the dirty syringes discarded everywhere.
> ...


 Looks like LA LA is much more involved in building safety than MKE. I like your idea about handing out smoke alarms to help mitigate the hazards. As a landlord I would not be able to live with myself if some tenant died because of my negligence.


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## EJPHI (May 7, 2008)

five.five-six said:


> Sorry if I hurt your feelings but you posted up a bigoted poorly written story.
> 
> I guess that’s your privilege.


My privilege is letting you have the last word because you are such smarty pants.


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## dspiffy (Nov 25, 2013)

Very informative article.

A lot of this discussion is disappointing. I work in Milwaukee. Milwaukee is the most segregated city north of the mason dixon line. North Milwaukee is almost entirely black, and a lot of the landlords are as well. This is from decades of redlining. Any issue that affects north Milwaukee is going to disproportionately affect black people. Acknowledging that isnt racist.

It's clear the writers, and some of their sources, dont clearly understand what causes electrical fires. I've found this to be the case with pretty much everyone who isnt an electrician, as well as some electricians.

I cant imagine ANYONE on this board is surprised that landlords, particularly slumlords and/or landlords in poor and/or majority minority neighborhoods, opt for dangerous hack work. We've all seen it many many times. We've probably been asked to do it.


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## just the cowboy (Sep 4, 2013)

Looking at the pictures in the article, the houses look well maintained.
As some one said 1500 watt heater more than likely, they said a cold night.
Those heaters should be illegal, so should the media for running something like this. 
It should of been on the heater.


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## five.five-six (Apr 9, 2013)

just the cowboy said:


> Looking at the pictures in the article, the houses look well maintained.
> As some one said 1500 watt heater more than likely, they said a cold night.
> Those heaters should be illegal, so should the media for running something like this.
> It should of been on the heater.


outlawing 1500W heaters is like outlawing 20 oz sodas, they’ll just buy 2 and put them on a power strip. 

It’s not just slum lords, I have a customer who owns hundreds of units in long each. I work on his home however I can’t afford to work on his rental properties. He has a handyman that does everything from doors to plumbing for $15/hr.


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## EJPHI (May 7, 2008)

dspiffy said:


> Very informative article.
> 
> A lot of this discussion is disappointing. I work in Milwaukee. Milwaukee is the most segregated city north of the mason dixon line. North Milwaukee is almost entirely black, and a lot of the landlords are as well. This is from decades of redlining. Any issue that affects north Milwaukee is going to disproportionately affect black people. Acknowledging that isnt racist.
> 
> ...


You are right in the middle of it there. When I was in Milwaukee, the city had very strict rules about only allowing electricians to do electrical work. Maybe it is the same way still, but no one can afford to have electricians work on those houses. The article mentions some relaxation of the rules to allow other to replace outlets and what not, but that doesn't really solve the problem. Maybe the city could get some grant money to have electricians fix this stuff properly. Yeah I know, another social program, but where I am now I get a city grant to cover 50% of my sewer lateral replacement.


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## dspiffy (Nov 25, 2013)

EJPHI said:


> You are right in the middle of it there. When I was in Milwaukee, the city had very strict rules about only allowing electricians to do electrical work. Maybe it is the same way still, but no one can afford to have electricians work on those houses. The article mentions some relaxation of the rules to allow other to replace outlets and what not, but that doesn't really solve the problem. Maybe the city could get some grant money to have electricians fix this stuff properly. Yeah I know, another social program, but where I am now I get a city grant to cover 50% of my sewer lateral replacement.


To be clear, I currently work full time in a different field in Milwaukee. I live in Madison. All electrical jobs I've had have been in Madison or surrounding areas. I still do some electrical work on the side as time allows.

A few years ago, Scott Walker passed some very strict statewide laws affecting electrical work. Without a license, you're not even supposed to change ballasts in your own home or store. This resulted in a LOT more work being done under the table and a LOT more skirting of the rules.


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## EJPHI (May 7, 2008)

Wow the whole state. When I was there I worked one summer for Julius Pieper in Milwaukee rewiring older houses. You can imagine with him involved there was no problem with licenses!!


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## dspiffy (Nov 25, 2013)

EJPHI said:


> Wow the whole state. When I was there I worked one summer for Julius Pieper in Milwaukee rewiring older houses. You can imagine with him involved there was no problem with licenses!!


Not sure if any of those laws were struck down by the courts. It was a big deal when they passed. A lot of small business owners were very upset.


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## Djea3 (Mar 8, 2019)

In many states a rental property must be considered "habitable" in order to collect rents. Some of the things that are required are functioning septic systems including kitchen and at least one bathroom, no leaks in the roof, a properly functioning heater (air conditioning is not required just heat), the property must be free of any known unsafe conditions, plus all amenities included in the lease be functioning.
In those states the tenant only has to send two written notices. The first notifies the landlord that a repair must legally be made. The second is sent at the end of the time to correct the deficiency (usually 3 days if safety or septic conditions). The second is a notice to the landlords that they are in violation and that they may no longer charge rent. After that the landlord may not collect any rents until after all repairs are completed. 
Believe be a judge WILL NOT allow back rent and will not allow eviction, in fact if it is public safety the judge may throw the landlord/owner in jail.
Also, in many states notification of unsafe conditions creates CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE for any landlord who fails to make the necessary repairs and causes injury. I have no idea about WI, but I would bet that any legal notification of unsafe conditions that is not rectified does allow for criminal negligence charges and if death is the result it would be considered murder 2 in most states. I think that Milwaukee needs to re-evaluate how they deal with this issue and send a few to prison for 15 years or so. This will end the issue instantly.


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## EJPHI (May 7, 2008)

An update from the Milwaukee Journal.

If the mention of race makes you uncomfortable you can skip this post.


*No one is checking electrical safety in rentals in Milwaukee anymore, so we did. Five takeaways from the Journal Sentinel investigation.*
*John Diedrich**Raquel Rutledge**Tamia Fowlkes*
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
*View Comments*
Over four days this summer, the Journal Sentinel conducted a series of inspections of the electrical systems in rental properties on Milwaukee's north side in an effort to gauge potential fire hazards.
The inspections follow a Journal Sentinel investigation published in August that found the risk of electrical fires in the 53206 ZIP code is five times higher than the rest of the city with the burden falling hardest on low-income Black renters. It also found the city no longer conducts inspections of rental units.
The news organization hired a Milwaukee-area master electrician to conduct methodical inspections of a random selection of single and two-family rental units in the 53206 ZIP code.
Here are five takeaways from the Journal Sentinel study:

Forty-seven violations of the city electrical code were documented in 15 rental homes, the most common infractions being improperly installed service panels and lack of working outlets that forced tenants to rely on extension cords. Other violations included no electrical grounding; loose outlets where plugs didn't fit snugly; open junction boxes; and improperly hung or spliced wires.
The design of the study and the participation rate suggest at least 80% of the 3,300 single and two-family rental properties in the ZIP code studied have electrical code violations. A national fire expert called the Journal Sentinel study “pioneering work.”
Tenants told of living in fear from dangerous electrical conditions but feel trapped in a system that often fails to hold landlords accountable.
The Journal Sentinel provided inspection reports to tenants and landlords. Half the landlords said they would fix the problems immediately; others would not comment or did not return calls.
While elected leaders at local and state levels have vowed changes, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett has repeatedly refused requests for interviews on the issue. The city’s commissioner of building inspections also would not agree to an interview for this story.


The quick summary of the code violations does not seem that bad; about an average of 5 violations per residence. But I don't know the details. It would be nice to see the report.


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## micromind (Aug 11, 2007)

EJPHI said:


> Forty-seven violations of the city electrical code were documented in 15 rental homes, the most common infractions being improperly installed service panels and lack of working outlets that forced tenants to rely on extension cords. Other violations included no electrical grounding; loose outlets where plugs didn't fit snugly; open junction boxes; and improperly hung or spliced wires




I see only 2 of these as being an actual hazard.........if an outlet doesn't work and if it's a loose connection and/or bad splice, that can be a hazard. 

Loose outlets where the plug does not fit snugly also can be a hazard but the outlet would need to be pretty old in order to be loose. 

I don't know what an improperly installed panel would be, maybe it's a hazard but most likely not. 

No grounding....2 wire outlets? That would also explain loose fitting plugs. 

An open junction box rarely constitutes a hazard.

Improperly hung or spliced wires can be a hazard but likely not. 

The hazard level these items depends mostly on the inspector. 

Most of this sounds like devices aging normally and work done by handymen. 

Some of it may be abuse by tenants......a half-dozen 1500 Watt heaters will strain the best systems and wreck a system that was compliant in the 60s.


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## Djea3 (Mar 8, 2019)

micromind said:


> I don't know what an improperly installed panel would be, maybe it's a hazard but most likely not.
> No grounding....2 wire outlets? That would also explain loose fitting plugs.
> An open junction box rarely constitutes a hazard.
> Improperly hung or spliced wires can be a hazard but likely not.
> ...


no grounding, inspections by a licensed home inspector would require that a 2 prong plug or GFCI circuit be installed. A call out of NO GROUNDING, would mean that there is no GFCI and that there is NO GROUND. Clear violation of code and law as well as being unsafe. No device that requires grounding should be able to plug into an ungrounded, unprotected circuit.
Any loose connection IS by definition a fire hazard. Especially loose plugs and neutrals as they heat up very quickly and can expose the pongs to flammable materials as well as spark. These are the very causes for AFCI protection we all hate to have to install and are now required.
Open Boxes are a violation of code and are dangerous for MANY reasons. How about rats and vermin (ever seen a fire caused by rats or squirrels), how about urine from those rats on the wires and connections (degradation of wires and insulation at the wire nuts causing errant current flow)? How about a loose connection causing heat and a fire without a cover (oxygen is available and insulation is exposed (usually blown in and covering the box) that can actually burn under the right conditions, or possibly even explode with heat under other conditions, like certain kinds of dust present), I don't even want to think about kids climbing around in an attic with open junction boxes. you can't tell me that kids don't climb in attics.
With regard to space heaters....if the central system is working properly it is usually a LOT cheaper to operate than a space heater. So the question is WHY would a tenant need a half dozen space heaters if the landlord maintained the heat system as required by law (in every state that I know of)? Also, if replaced the heat systems should be required to meet current efficiency codes, which I am pretty sure the landlord doesn't care about.
I have no idea what an "improperly installed panel" means, much too general a statement, and what year code was it installed to, did it meet code then? However, if it was installed by a landlord/handyman without a licensed EC doing the job that should be a VERY serious offense, possibly even criminal by definition.
IMPROPERLY SPLICED WIRES NOT UNSAFE? GIVE ME A BREAK.
The hazard level has NOTHING to do with an inspector, it has to do with the actual CONDITIONS PRESENT. An inspector follows an inspection sequence and method with predetermined levels of findings. If you had ever been any kind of inspector you would know that the inspector makes no personal judgement, just findings to set standards using predetermined methods and standard tools and specifications.
I am a Fabrications and structural inspector (journeyman) as well as machined parts inspector. I was a Quality Manager and Quality Engineer. I am also a GC and an electrician. It really bothers me when someone claims to be a professional in a trade and seems to not understand the basics, especially the basics of inspection. The standard for an inspector should be:

is: Condition as found
S/B: condition per quoted specification
Then the inspector should note the level of the violation from minor to dangerous accordingly.

Example:
Is: ungrounded, unprotected 3 prong receptacles
S/B: two prong receptacle installed, or grounded circuit or GFCI protected per NEC 406.4 (D) (2)
Serious condition as no personal protection from electrocution exists when using devices that require ground protection.

I hope this helps you understand the issues better.


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## splatz (May 23, 2015)

This is interesting but I wouldn't put all that much weight to it. 

Older places were built compliant but to less stringent codes. For example ungrounded receptacles and maybe services, and the rules for spacing out receptacles. Maintenance is done over time, junction boxes lose covers over time. Things just wear out - they mention receptacles not holding plugs as they should. To be honest I bet you a lot of the sub $1 receptacles at big box stores don't pass a retention test the day they are sold. Improperly hung cables most likely means cables over drop ceilings not tied to independent supports or longer than code allows from last support to light, etc. Improperly spliced wires sounds like the most likely to be an actual hazard but that's a hallmark of halfass maintenance or DIY work, not old work. 

I have said this a long time, but I will cover any bet that if you give me a little time I'll find a code violation in any building around here, including the expensive, modern and reasonably well maintained commercial buildings I work in. If it's an old plant, I can probably let you stand me anywhere in the plant and I can spot one without moving  Usually there's low hanging fruit, you don't have to pop too many tiles to find an open junction box. 

What would you expect to see if you gave a numerical rating 1-10 to the electrical systems of any group of dwellings ... would you expect the more expensive places to generally rate higher? I would. So this is not necessarily racist code enforcement, more an example of something with an economic causation and correlated to race where there's a correlation between race and economic outcome. Bringing race into it makes me question the reporter's motives. 

If a landlord got a call from the media about a rental property, I couldn't fault them for suspecting they might not get a fair shake or a chance to tell their side, the media has abandoned principles of journalism that would demand they hear both sides a long time ago. 



EJPHI said:


> An update from the Milwaukee Journal.
> 
> If the mention of race makes you uncomfortable you can skip this post.
> 
> ...


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