Manhattan parking garage collapse cause still unknown after a year. Here’s what the city just ruled out.

NEW YORK — New Yorkers still don’t know what caused the deadly parking garage collapse in Lower Manhattan more than a year ago, but investigators just ruled out at least one possibility. 

James Oddo, commissioner of the New York City Department of Buildings, told the New York City Council on Thursday the garage on Ann Street did not collapse because it was overloaded with cars or machinery. 

The city council’s Committee on Housing and Buildings has been eyeing ways to prevent future collapses in response to concerns about aging infrastructure. A committee hearing Thursday focused on new bills related to inspections, weight limits and more. 

Preventing future collapses

The committee is considering a number of bills aimed at improving building inspections, including one announced by Council Member Pierina Sanchez of the Bronx, where an apartment building partially collapsed in Morris Heights in December. 

Sanchez wants to create a new building inspection program and increase penalties for landlords who don’t fix violations. 

“If we are honing in on the worst actors, then maybe we’re catching things a little bit earlier. Maybe that heightened scrutiny doesn’t allow them to hire whoever is more likely to make a mistake,” said Sanchez. 

“All my things was destroyed, memories, things that you maybe keep for years and your entire life, and in one moment everything disappeared, and it’s really hard,” said Juan Ricart, a tenant of the building that partially collapsed. 

Oddo said the cause of the Bronx collapse is still being investigated, too. It was at least partially caused by a private engineer who mistakenly said a column of the building was decorative, Oddo previously said.