(Photo credit: Jason Decrow- Associated Press)The first thing I did yesterday after hearing that a crane had collapsed on 51st and Second Avenue was to call my daughter. She lives only 3 blocks uptown from the scene of the accident.
On a Saturday afternoon, she takes care of grocery shopping and picking up dry cleaning in the immediate area. She could have easily been at that spot. She was not, as it turned out, but others were. I am heartbroken for their families.
But I am also mad, especially at Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his administration. They have unleashed one of the biggest building booms in New York City without making sure that the Buildings Department, the one agency directly responsible for overseeing construction sites, had a large enough and sufficiently trained staff to handle the extra load put on that agency.
Increasingly, it has fallen on local residents to monitor construction sites. But a call to 311 does not make a site safer from dangerous violations if inspectors show up three weeks later.
Shame on Mayor Bloomberg. He was quoted in the Washington Post as saying:
"Sadly, construction is a dangerous thing. We don't know why this happened. We will do an investigation. We will find out."
How dare he. I think we all know what happened. In New York City, under his administration, developers have been given carte blanche. With an understaffed, sometimes very incompetent Buildings Department left to monitor the construction sites, it was a recipe for disaster.
Tragically, people have been paying with their lives.
With a single minded interest in residential development, our present administration has turned New York City into the wild, wild West.
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3 comments:
I think you are jumping the gun and without knowing how this happened. It is called 'knee-jerk' reaction.
Building department maybe understaffed and underfunded - but who is willing to increase income taxes to pay for more staffing? Especially when schools, police, fire etc are more visible and needy?
The amount of construction in this city is sign of a healthy economic climate. Are you suggesting we return to the days when few were willing to build, live, etc here. DO you prefer the days when many more people and jobs/corporations were leaving NYC?
This is not an excuse if someone or department was negligent or serios violations overlooked. BUt to make such blanket accusations without knowing what caused accident is a bit irresponsible.
I stand by my statement. It is irresponsible to have a Buildings department that is overburdened, overworked and is unable to monitor all the building sites in the city.
It is a dysfunctional department and it needs to be fixed. A Buildings Commissioner who feels that 18 violations are an acceptable amount of violations at a construction site in the middle of Midtown Manhattan should be ashamed of herself.
Building high-rises is dangerous, we all know that. Therefore, it is
extremely important that the construction sites are carefully monitored and visited daily by inspectors if need be.
And more than anything, it is important that developers and contractors know that there will be real consequence if they do not follow codes and regulations.
Under Mayor Bloomberg's administration, far too many building permits have been issued.
Either we demand that he fixes D.o.B. or we demand that the number of permits be reduced.
But something has to give.
YOU ARE RIGHT ON! Katia Thank goodness your daughter was okay!
There is most definitely a very dangerous pattern afoot here in NYC..So-called "Progress" is coming to signify acceptable collateral damage in termsn of innocent human lives, and that is a dark notion for a city as great as NYC indeed. Bloomie needs to stop apologizing for Lancaster and clean up his act and that of the DOB before even MORE innocent people get hurt! Look ath just the 2008 record (courtesy of the LOST CITY BLOG)
"16 March 2008
Department of Disaster
*March 15: A large crane fell away from a tower under construction at 303 East 51st Street, hurtling down to smash buildings blocks away and kill at least four people and injure 17. Fully 39 complaints had been filed against the site. A complaint on March 4 by a former contractor had warned that the crane was not properly attached. A DOB inspector concluded "No violation warranted for complaint at time of inspection." "Enough is enough," said Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer. "We've closed restaurants that have fruit flies, but we don't close construction sites that have major safety violations. We have to revamp the construction protocols.We have failed this borough and the people of the city. It is unacceptable and it has to be stopped." (Picture courtesy of Curbed.)
*March 8-9: The Trump Soho tower was closed after a chain attached to equipment swung about, smashing a bunch of windows.
*March 4: A Jared Kushner building, which had been failing for months, completely collapsed near 124th Street and Park Avenue. Metro-North Hudson, Harlem and New Haven Line train service was temporarily suspended. The DOB actually admitted to screwing up on this one.
*Feb. 1: A crane collapsed at a construction site at Washington Street and Watts Streets in TriBeCa.
*Jan. 30: A worker at a 13-story building in Clinton Hill was reportedly blown from a window on the top floor due to "a wind-tunnel effect" and fell to his death.
*Jan 14: A man fell from the 42nd floor of the rising Trump Soho to his death. The wooden scaffolding he was standing on had collapses.
Is It Time for DOB Commissioner Patricia Lancaster's resignation?"
(from Lost City)
I would say yes is it time for her to go and time for new rules and inspectors at the DOB at once!
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