BY ED FELIEN
A 15-month-old baby boy is recovering in critical but stable condition at Hennepin County Medical Center where doctors are calling him the Miracle
Baby. Musa Dayib probably crawled through the stiles (the railings) on the balcony in his family’s 11th floor apartment at Riverside Plaza.
Miraculously, after falling 11 stories, he landed flat on his back in soft mulch just a few feet from concrete sidewalks and metal utility boxes. He
suffered fractured arms, ribs and back, bruised lungs and a concussion.
“How a child fit through 5 1/2 inches, we don’t know yet,” Riverside Plaza owner George Sherman said. The Plaza just completed a $65 million renovation in 2012. The City of Minneapolis was responsible for directing $16,875,000 of public money into the project. New patio doors, screens and locks were added during the renovation, but somehow the city agreed that the project did not touch the balconies so they did not require Sherman to bring the stiles on the balcony up to code. In 1994 city code required that
balcony stiles be no more than 4 inches apart.
Abdi Warsame, the council member who represents the building, was executive
director of the Riverside Plaza Tenants Association and served as the board chair of the Cedar-Riverside Neighborhood Revitalization Program during the renovation and before he was elected.
Southside Pride has contacted his office asking whether the city will now require Sherman to repair the balconies to conform to city code. He has not returned our calls.
