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April 13, 2006

Safety Takes Back Seat to Fun at 340 Bond

340 Bond
It's good to know that recent tragic events have led to increased on-site safety vigilance. We wonder what the official DOB position is on children playing on heavy machinery at work sites? Amazing. GMAP




Posted by Brownstoner at 9:27 AM | Comments (33)
Categories: Development

Comments

are you implying the architect is at fault for a contractor allowing children on the job site? explain yourself, please.

Posted by: annoyed... at April 13, 2006 9:36 AM

To reiterate, as stated may times before by many different people - ARCHITECTS HAVE NO AUTHORITY AS TO THE ONGOINGS AT A CONSTRUCTION SITE - the only legal responsibility an architect has at a construction site is to notify the Owner and contractor immediately if an unsafe situation exists. Period.

I'm no lover of Scarno's work, believe me, but the fingerpointing at the industry in general is getting to be annoying.

Posted by: Anonymous at April 13, 2006 9:41 AM

take your sons/daughters to work week :p? or poor guy couldnt find babysiter for the day. anyway its better than him getting arrested for leaving kid at home right?

Posted by: armchair warrior at April 13, 2006 9:57 AM

Hey, at least he's wearing a hard hat! And how do you know that's a child and not an extremely short adult?

Posted by: babs at April 13, 2006 9:57 AM

At least the kid is wearing a hard hat.

Posted by: Whitbo at April 13, 2006 9:58 AM

Jeez. Give the operator a break. He wants to bring his kid to work one day. And it must be a dream come true for the kid to put on a hard hat and be a construction guy for a day. What's amazing is your BS, PC outrage.

Posted by: south slope at April 13, 2006 9:58 AM

i agree with south slope. lighten up!!

Posted by: armchair warrior at April 13, 2006 10:01 AM

i bet you this could become the hat thing in park slope lol. you guys should find something better to do before it goes the way of that "boy" hat :p.

Posted by: armchair warrior at April 13, 2006 10:03 AM

I'm very sceptical of Scarano's claims of innocence and ignorance; however, this post of yours has nothing to do with that, and you really do a disservice to safety issues by conflating this picture with real disasters that have happened..

I see a picture as take your kid to work day, but I read the text as too clever by half.

--an architect in Brooklyn

Posted by: Anonymous at April 13, 2006 10:04 AM

This little kid looks like he's having fun and is well supervised. I don't get what the big deal is.

Posted by: Anonymous at April 13, 2006 10:23 AM

bstoner's post doesn't say anything abt an architect. am i missing something? just because he's knocked scarano et al before doesn't mean he's blaming them here.

Posted by: Anonymous at April 13, 2006 10:38 AM

I'd be more upset if it was a little kid in a suit with square glasses ;)

Posted by: Anonymous at April 13, 2006 10:38 AM

"This little kid looks like he's having fun and is well supervised. I don't get what the big deal is."

The big deal is he could die.
Wouldn't that be fun?
We are assuming he's a kid. If he is, he has no business being in that place.
His father bears responsibility for him being there. As for the Park Slope hat business...the comparison is absurd.
Nobody got hurt in the arguments over gender roles and a kid's hat.

Posted by: famdoc at April 13, 2006 10:47 AM

looks like brownstoner changed the post from earlier this AM

Posted by: Anonymous at April 13, 2006 10:53 AM

My father worked heavy machinery and it is great thrill as a boy to see the machines in action. Certain people who have never done manual labor in their lives are perturbed, what else is new. The whole PC overly protective Park Slope mindset in nauseating. Get a life.

Posted by: GrandPa at April 13, 2006 10:54 AM

"The whole PC overly protective Park Slope mindset in nauseating...."

J___ H. C____! What else do we want to blame Park Slope for? Avian flu?

Dude, I live in Park Slope and I'll grant you it can be the capital of the easily offended, but Bstoner lives in Clinton Hill. We don't have to take the rap for this one.

BTW, my dad was a delivery truck driver and I'm otherwise with GrandPa on this one.

Posted by: Anonymous at April 13, 2006 11:00 AM

Regardless of who's responsible, can anyone really say that it's cool for a little kid to be standing on a palette that's being lifted by a crane? Waddup?

Posted by: Brownstoner at April 13, 2006 11:49 AM

I took the picture and sent it over to Brownstoner. That is indeed the developer/owner. I've had the dubious pleasure of meeting with him. Before father and son took the ride down on the pallett and before I could get to my camera they were standing at the edge and I doubt that caution tape would have prevented a fall had there been a misstep. I think Brownstoner's commentary was meant to be tongue in cheek given the recent safety issues at other projects. This is indeed a Scarano project (matter of public record). Brownstoner had a good point a month or so back. Basically, architect know thy client.

Posted by: Anon at April 13, 2006 11:54 AM

actually, i think it's cool. my father is an architect, and when i was a kid, he and his business partners (of a 120+ person firm with 4 offices nationwide) would take all the kids out for supervised site tours every now and then. these were big jobs, and no one was hurt or died. lighten up. the kid is wearing a hard hat. in his mind, his dad is waaaay cooler than some other kid's dad who sits in an office all day long and pushes paper around. how tragic.

Posted by: Anonymous at April 13, 2006 11:58 AM

Out of interest, of those who think it's cool and no big deal, how many have kids?

Posted by: Brownstoner at April 13, 2006 12:49 PM

no kids here, but that attitude is the same as telling others how to rear their own children. my guess, brownstoner, is you also drive around in a volvo with a "baby on board" decal in the window. to each their own. now if the dad was holding a 40 oz. and the kid was smoking a doobie, then that might be another thing...

Posted by: Anonymous at April 13, 2006 1:53 PM

No "baby on board" stickers--sorry to disappoint--but we do put our kids in car seats, it is true.

Posted by: Brownstoner at April 13, 2006 2:00 PM

in a volvo?

Posted by: Anonymous at April 13, 2006 2:04 PM

What about Darwinism?

Posted by: Wallis at April 13, 2006 2:05 PM

i'm 11 a.m. cool, no big deal, 2 kids.

Posted by: Anonymous at April 13, 2006 2:07 PM

No Volvo, sorry.

Posted by: Brownstoner at April 13, 2006 2:44 PM

at the top of the comments, I was in the "no big deal" camp, but now, at the bottom, I'm in the this Dad is crazy camp. This is not a cherry picker / scissor lift these two are riding on kids (i.e. designed to carry people), it's a glorified forklift, and they are riding on the forks after putting a piece of wood between them. This is STUPID. This machine isn't meant to lift people, never mind children. Did this idiot actually make one of his workers lift him and his kid up from ground level on this contraption? (fyi he's not operating any controls in 'front of him- they are just holding on)
This scene is the definition of "accident waiting to happen" aka "it was all fun & games until someone got hurt"

Posted by: will at April 13, 2006 4:03 PM

I'm curious are the same people that are complaining about this dad bringing his kid to work the same ones who think its so much fun to bring their kids with them when they go drinking...

Posted by: Anonymous at April 13, 2006 5:55 PM

Forget the kid--riding a pallet atop a fork isn't OSHA approved....maybe architects aren't responsible for all the jobsite safety issues, but as the senior professional on the project, this one isn't setting a reasonable example.

Posted by: anon at April 13, 2006 8:54 PM

what an entertaining thread!

this reminds me of the michael jackson hanging the kid off of the balcony outrage last year or whenever it was -

i hate to be harsh, but the person who actually took time out of their day to pull out the digi and document this atrocity - and then to sprint home and punctuate it with photoshop flourishes - needs to be confronted and quarantined ASAP for the general health of the borough -

Posted by: franz fanonymous at April 13, 2006 9:28 PM


This is the first time I can recall disagreeing strongly with Brownstoner and I've been a Brownstoner addict for a couple years.

IT'S AWESOME TO RIDE HEAVY EQUIPMENT WITH YOUR DAD AT A CONSTRUCTION SITE!

Brownstoner, I know you're a father and all, but holy cow, you need a beer or two ASAP!

Posted by: ebomb at April 13, 2006 11:43 PM

I know a good number of adults who should never be allowed any where near a construction site, let alone kids. Scarano has a whole lot more to worry about that whether the developer's kids are riding on fork lift.

Posted by: Anonymous at April 17, 2006 2:34 AM

i am the father in this picture, and all i can say is that i was holding on to my son the entire time that lasted for less then five minutes from entering the site till leaving it.
it was my decision to take him up on the fork lift to the 2nd floor (9 feet) then to carry him up on a ladder. I am osha certified and I made this decision as the safer choice.
Not me or my son were playing on heavy equipment I have 1 year old twins and my son did not have school so I gave some vacation to my wife.

I was in the military(I hope this will not piss you of)and a construction manager for six years I had the DOB on my site many times and never got any violations for safety

Posted by: Anonymous at April 17, 2006 9:23 AM

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