The current edition of the Fort Greene Courier recounts the public forum with the city’s Task Force on Operations and Improvement of the Department of Buildings held at P.S. 207 a week and a half ago. With fewer than 50 people in attendance, the turn-out was clearly something of a disappointment, the tone a mix of anger and resignation. The Department of Buildings has been broken for a very long time, said Councilmember James Oddo, chair of the task force. But there comes a point in time when you have to stop yelling at them and work with them. Doing away with self-certification was mulled over, but rejected as impractical. There are days when I want to do away with self-certification, Oddo said. But there aren’t enough inspectors. You’ll wait years for a project. There has to be a happy medium. The one thing that everyone seems to agree on is that the penalties for violations must be made much more severe. In light of Bloomberg finally paying attention to the worker safety issue, there’s some reason to be optimistic that the consequences of flouting zoning restrictions or neglecting safety measures may actually increase to the point where contractors and developers start paying attention. Let’s hope so.
Ranting & Raving Aside, DOB Needs Help [FG Courier]
Photo by Andrew Coulter Enright