The garage’s decay had long been obvious to Kansas City leaders. After all, they park there. But fixing it had not been an urgent priority until nearly 100 people died last month in the collapse of a condominium building in Surfside, Fla. Since then, the pedestrian plaza above the publicly owned City Hall garage has been fenced off, dozens of municipal workers have been told they must soon park elsewhere and officials have discussed how to identify and fix other decrepit structures in the city.

Across the country, local officials have looked nervously to their own skylines and wondered whether a crisis might be looming. Since the tragedy in Florida, plans to step up inspections, enforce existing rules or crack down on problem properties have emerged in Los Angeles County, Washington, and Jersey City, N.J.

“There is a true structural and, I think, life threat in not addressing the core infrastructure issue,” said Mayor Quinton Lucas of Kansas City, who said the Surfside collapse made him think more deeply about the implications of parking in a troubled garage. “I just don’t think we are thinking about dangerous buildings in a broad enough way.”