It's not really all that non-sequitur. Part of the reason that this is happening now is that the City of Oakland is facing many millions of dollars in lawsuits from the family members of the deceased for the city's failure to enforce its laws and regulations. Part of the reason they let it go was that they thought an arts community like the "ghost ship" was a cool thing to have for the life of that struggling city [[which it probaly was), and that the sort of catch-as-can construction and flouting of building codes, etc. was part of the low-cost artistic "scene" and was essentially harmless.
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