The quote often misattributed to Albert Einstein, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results,” feels particularly relevant to a recent article coming out of Pittsburgh.
In this troubling piece, one detail stands out — and yet seems largely overlooked:
“At the home on Webster Avenue, inspectors returned to the property 44 times after their first visit — nearly once a month — flagging the same violation again and again.”
Let’s pause for a moment. What exactly is happening here? The property owner is “the city,” and the inspector is also “the city.”
This means the city is effectively spending time, money, and resources revisiting the same abandoned property over and over, only to repeatedly document violations that remain unaddressed. But property damage or code violations will not magically disappear. And when action is taken, it would logically be the city correcting its own violations. So why are inspectors being sent back again and again with no resolution?
If this repeated inspection process were designed to track the speed of a property’s deterioration to prioritize demolitions or other interventions, it might make sense. Unfortunately, that does not appear to be the case.
Instead, this behavior highlights an example of “checking the boxes” — mechanically following procedure without any regard for the bigger picture.
At its core, this potentially reveals a deeper, systemic issue. When 5, 10 or 44 inspections result in no meaningful action, one has to ask: Is this the exception or the rule? And why hasn’t anyone, internally or externally, stopped to shout: “Enough!”
I truly hope (believe?) that this is an exception and not the rule, yet in these instances the cycle must be broken. Whether through better oversight and/or reformed processes, municipalities cannot afford to waste time and resources on endless, repetitive and unnecessary tasks. It’s time to focus on solutions — not just procedures.