The Surfside memorial wall is coming down.
The stuffed teddy bear clutching a pink heart, the green star that proclaims “Faith,” the blue-and-white flag of Uruguay, the beat-up red bicycle, someone’s beloved headphones, the Virgin of Guadalupe candle, the “Surfside Strong” banners, the handwritten prayers. All those photos of smiling faces, too many to bear, the happy times carefully laminated against the unforgiving South Florida sun.
Those heartwrenching mementos to the 98 lives lost June 24 when the Champlain Towers South condo fell are being packed up for preservation by HistoryMiami Museum. We know it’s a necessary part of healing. The site where the 12-story building stood is now for sale, too.
But we will not — we cannot — forget what happened or stop demanding answers and accountability.
The investigation into what happened that night, and why it happened, is continuing. The national investigation team released footage of the now-cleared collapse site to the public last week, a good start in keeping us all informed. Local scrutiny of older buildings is paying off, with Miami-Dade’s historic downtown courthouse and others shut down or evacuated for safety reasons, and cities beyond our county borders are starting their own inspections or discussing them.
There will be much more to be considered in the coming weeks and months, including the results of a Florida Bar task force looking into potential changes to state statutes governing, among other things, how condominium boards operate and manage reserves for maintenance and repair costs. We must press for better oversight of older buildings and stronger safety measures.
The flower-covered fence that stretched for close to a block in Surfside was a tangible reminder of what we lost as a community. Removing it doesn’t change the loss. And it cannot change our determination or urgency to get to the bottom of what happened.
