The families of the four Irish students who remain hospitalized with injuries suffered after a balcony collapsed at 2020 Kittredge St. on June 16, killing six and injuring seven, have issued a statement of thanks. Aoife Beary, Clodagh Cogley, Hannah Waters and Niall Murray are all being treated at the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center. This […]
2020 Kittredge St.
Posted inCity, Community, Crime & Safety, Fires
Hundreds gather in Berkeley to remember balcony victims
A month after a fifth-floor balcony snapped off the façade of 2020 Kittredge St. in Berkeley, sending six people in their 20s to their deaths and injuring seven others, hundreds of people gathered at Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park on Sunday to honor them. The event was a “Month’s Mind,” a traditional Irish […]
Posted inCity, Community, Crime & Safety, Housing & Development
Berkeley council approves new laws for building safety
After a deadly balcony collapse in June that killed six and injured seven in downtown Berkeley, the City Council voted Tuesday night to change several laws to improve building safety throughout the city. Council voted unanimously to require periodic inspections of all existing weather-exposed exterior building elements, including balconies, stairs and decks. Those elements now need […]
Posted inCity, Community, Crime & Safety, Housing & Development
Berkeley council to address balcony safety after collapse
The Berkeley City Council may vote next week to amend the municipal code in an effort to make local buildings safer following the fatal collapse in June of a wood-rotted fifth-floor balcony at Library Gardens. The city pledged last month to consider the adoption of stricter rules related to building inspections following the accident at the downtown Berkeley apartment […]
Posted inCommunity, Crime & Safety
Berkeley balcony survivor is making ‘great progress’
The family of a 21-year-old Irish woman who was seriously injured in the collapse of a fifth-floor balcony at the Library Gardens apartment building in Berkeley has posted photos of her progress on a Facebook page. Clodagh Cogley was one of 13 people who fell nearly 50 feet to the ground after the balcony failed on June […]
Posted inCity, Crime & Safety
Berkeley balcony passed inspection before collapse
The fifth-floor Berkeley balcony that collapsed June 16, sending six people in their 20s to their deaths, was inspected less than a year before the accident and found to be structurally sound. The Aug. 15, 2014, inspection report attesting to that was included in a slew of documents that Greystar, the management company for Library […]
Posted inCity, Community, Crime, Crime & Safety
Library Gardens builder seeks to stop DA from examining Berkeley balcony without it being present
Segue Construction, the company that oversaw the building of Library Gardens, scene of an accident that killed six earlier this month, plans to ask a judge today to prohibit the Alameda County district attorney’s office from examining the balcony that sheared off the fifth floor June 16 unless one of its representatives is present. In a […]
Posted inCity, Community, Crime & Safety
Irish Consul General Philip Grant: As balcony collapse victims begin journey of recovery, J-1 visa student community a source of ‘great pride’
Nine days after the fifth-floor balcony collapse that killed six students and injured seven in Berkeley, Berkeleyside sat down with Philip Grant, consul general of Ireland for the Western United States, at the Irish Consulate in San Francisco to review the response, both local and international, to the tragedy. Grant also discussed the status of the students who survived. […]
Posted inCrime, Crime & Safety
DA launches criminal investigation into balcony collapse
The Alameda County district attorney’s office has launched a criminal investigation into the balcony collapse in Berkeley last week that killed six and injured seven, leaving many of the survivors with critical injuries. District Attorney Nancy O’Malley announced the investigation on Wednesday, and provided additional information about it to the media Thursday morning at a […]
Posted inCity, Community, Crime & Safety, Housing & Development
‘Severely dry rotted’ timber found after Berkeley balcony collapse; city plans to stiffen safety rules
Update, June 24, 1 p.m. Teresa Drenick, spokeswoman for the Alameda County district attorney’s office, confirmed Wednesday that the office will be taking a look at the balcony collapse. “The District Attorney’s Office is reaching out to the city of Berkeley and our office will begin looking at this matter,” Drenick said Wednesday by email. “I have […]
Posted inCommunity, Crime & Safety
Church services held for balcony collapse victims
By Tracey Taylor and Francesca Paris The Consul General of Ireland coordinated a church service Friday evening in collaboration with a local priest to remember four of the young college students who lost their lives as a result of a balcony collapse on June 16 in Berkeley. The service was held at Saint Columba Catholic Church on San Pablo Avenue […]
Posted inCity, Crime & Safety, Housing & Development
Protesters demand halt on new construction in Berkeley
By Francesca Paris In the wake of a balcony collapse that killed six Irish students in Berkeley this week, a small group gathered on the steps of City Hall today to ask that the city put a moratorium on commercial construction in Berkeley until it is clear that buildings are being inspected correctly and that codes are being […]