The horses have left the barn.

so the judge feels that the city owned the property, and the city has no recourse over the previous owner.

My opinion would be, the city knew about the asbestos potential prior to expropriating the property. They also new about the people that did not make it out of the fire as well, so how can they claim ignorance to the increased costs of demolition. Originally I think the low bidder was below $50,000.00

The city blew it on this one. Expropriate the property and then expect the prior owner to pay for events he had no control over. Highly doubtful. Seems this smells of the same kind of thing the city tried with I believe, the black orchid escort service.
I just wonder how much money the city is spending on legal fees to try and save face. I am sure it would be more than enough money to fill 20,000 pot holes or more.
It is certainly not the "A" team in charge at city hall. They remind me more of the gang that could not shoot straight.

Go Rob, Go!!!!!

Lets be honest. What can you expect from an X-sportscaster. Sportscasters arent' exactly the rocket scientists of broadcasting anyways. Even if they were to win thier case, they would be in court for how any years (at our expense) trying to collect? He couldn't even pay his taxes, what makes them think he can pay for the cleanup? Did the city own that building without having insurance? The bank tells me I can't own my house without insurance so why wouldn' there have been insurance on that building to pay for this? If the previous owner managed to get the insurance money and then the city expropriated the property after that, they are stupider than I thought.

I do believe the incident happened prior to Danny boy became the mayor. Anyway, he should still have the ability to say, enough. Of course, he would have to set up a committee to come to such a big decision. Then I am sure he would have it set up so that internally it could be appealed. Then he would have to set up another committee to review the appeal. Then set up a third committee to re-evalutate the original committees recommendation.

I guess we voted in the crew at city hall I remember that I voted Danny boy in that was a mistake. I voted Mr. Skakun in and I would vote him in for mayor the next turn around.