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Philly Shrug not just annoying. It's deadly.

The Market Street building collapse is a deadly reminder about how dangerous the Philly Shrug can be.

A WOMAN WALKED UP to the chain-link fence on the 2100 block of Market Street and gently placed a geranium on the sidewalk.

She took a step back, a deep breath and then closed her eyes and prayed.

In front of her was debris, all that's left of the building that collapsed a week ago. Behind her was Shirley Braswell, who was decidedly less serene.

"The arrogance," Braswell nearly spat, "of the people in charge now saying they're not responsible."

A week after the collapse, which killed six, here's where we are: When men in suits aren't announcing "broad investigations," they're playing the blame game. Some are doing both at the same time.

So far, only the excavator operator has been arrested. Sean Benschop, who authorities say had marijuana and painkillers in his system that day, is charged with six counts of involuntary manslaughter.

Anyone want to venture a guess on the ETA of a public perp-walk for the guys with high-priced lawyers?

My phone's been ringing off the hook with people who want to share what they know about the collapse of a partially razed building onto the Salvation Army thrift store, when they knew it, and about other shoddy demo work around the city. By the sounds of it, there's a lot.

Good - stay on it, because while there are multiple lessons to be learned from such an unnecessary and preventable tragedy, I hope every Philadelphian remembers this one: That Philly Shrug I've been harping about since moving to the city isn't just irritating. It's potentially deadly.

Kimberly Finnegan won't get to walk down the aisle and marry her best friend because the city didn't look into a contractor's qualifications before giving him a demo permit. Shrug; the city doesn't really require demo contractors to show they're qualified.

The bright futures of childhood friends Anne Bryan and Mary Lea Simpson were stolen because no one noticed that Griffin Campbell Construction was apparently ignoring basic industry standards. Shrug; who was going to notice? OSHA? L&I? Not even Campbell - who was on the scene the day of the collapse, his lawyer claims - noticed that Benschop was using the excavator for demolition. He was supposed to use it only to remove debris.

Immigrants Borbor Davis and Roseline Conteh's American dream ended in a pile of rubble because a rich developer was allowed to let his properties crumble. Shrug; what's a little more blight in a city full of it?

Salt-of-the-earth Juanita Harmon is an afterthought while city and federal officials and lawyers, lots and lots of lawyers, play a disgusting game of pin the blame on someone else - anyone else.

And nothing that's happened so far convinces me that anything will truly change once the deadly collapse is out of the headlines and only the families who've lost their loved ones are left to cope.

I've criticized my fellow Philadelphians for their tendency to shrug off, well, almost everything. And if I'm being honest here, a nagging part of me wonders if the tragedy could have been prevented if more people who predicted the building was going to come down spoke up before the collapse.

The city has maintained that only one citizen complained about the demo, and with the wrong address. But what if 10, 20 or 30 people called the city on the disastrous project? That's why my colleague Ronnie Polaneczky's suggestion that we take up New York's program to make it easier to report unsafe-looking work sites isn't just a great idea, it needs to happen, like today.

It's not up to regular citizens to police demolition projects. We assume that if development or demolition is happening, then it is activity that is governed and licensed and monitored. Only now do we know what a naive assumption that is.

The blame rests on a deadly mix of bureaucratic incompetence, complacency and negligence. But it's also on us to hold on to this sense of outrage that at times yesterday was palpable at the site and in the sky, where a plane towed this banner: 6 DIED & NO CHANGE - RESIGN NOW NUTTER!

It's about holding accountable the people whom we pay and elect and who too often let us down. It's about who let down six people who died and 13 who were injured.

But it's also about our civic responsibility to one another. When we don't shrug things off, when we don't allow our leaders to shrug things off, we make a difference.

It's about being good neighbors, good people, and realizing that we have to watch each other's backs, because if this tragedy should teach us anything, it's that there is no guarantee anyone else will.

Before walking off, Braswell shook her head in disgust. "It's a shame that people have to die before what should have been taking place takes place."

A damn shame.

Phone: 215-854-5943

On Twitter: @NotesFromHel