Pillaging Clifton Place MMG-Style

backyard
Haven't we seen this movie before? The contractor responsible for bringing you countless worker injuries and collateral structural damage--Staten Island-based contractors MMG--is at it again, this time on the Clinton Hill/Bed Stuy border. While they haven't even started construction on the 12-story tower that will be nestled in among the 3-, 4- and 5-story buildings that line the block of Clifton Place between Classon and Franklin, this crew of so-called professionals has already racked up 31 complaints according to the DOB website. Here's some first-hand color from a resident who has the unfortunate luck of owning a house adjacent to the project:

The demo has been extremely unsafe and unprofessional. MMG's workers don't wear hardhats and we've watched the backhoe operator drink beer at lunch and then get back behind the wheel. I called and spoke with MMG's owner Marie Grasso one day when I looked out our back window and they had workmen 20 feet up on the wall above our yard, prying off cinder blocks off directly above the head of my 2-year-old son who was playing in the yard and my wife who was hanging the laundry. This is without any kind of protective fence or netting. When I called MMG, I was told that what I just saw did not happen and that if any damage happens to my house during their demo, it is my fault not theirs. This week they dropped a steel I-beam that made our entire block shake like an earth quake, at which point MMG told us, "that's how it's done."

Evidently, that is how it's done in Brooklyn these days. There's a meeting tonight at 7:30 at Bistro Lafayette (338 Franklin Ave. btwn Greene & Lexington) for all area residents who are disturbed by the conduct to the developer and his henchmen. GMAP

Addendum: We originally reported--erroneously--that Bricolage was associated with this project. This is not the case, it turns out. Apologies for the mistake.

Comments

Odd as it may sound, I would call the union offices and tell them what's happening. No hard hats? These guys can't be union. No netting, protective measures? Doesn't sound like a union job to me. The union will get on their asses either way. And hopefully residents are taking pictures.

Posted by: Bx2Bklyn at August 7, 2006 10:26 AM

They are definately non-union. Union work in this part of Brooklyn? Whatareyakiddingme? The developers who are doing these kind of projects swear that they can't afford union work, and I have to agree with them that it's mostly prohibitively expensive.

MMG is a demolition contractor, and they don't do anything else. They've been recommended to me by numerous developer friends as the "fastest, cheapest way to get a building taken down".

It's pretty obvious how they can stay so competitive. A lot of developers hire the cheapest contractors to keep profit margins up, with little or no concern for public safety.

Economics may be a wertfrei science, as Iceberg loves to point out, but the purpose of goverment regulations (the DOB) is to keep those who are value-free (these kind of developers) from harming the rest of us.

Posted by: Shahn Andersen at August 7, 2006 11:06 AM

Keep taking pictures. Try to document the beer drinking. Send the pictures to local news media. If you see something obviously dangerous, call 911.

Posted by: Hal at August 7, 2006 11:21 AM

Birds of a feather, Radusky and Grasso. Call your community board. Call the B.E.S.T. squad. Don't expect to get to much help until someone gets buried alive or worse. Get your video camera ready. Did you get your certified letter informing you about the demo? Typical demo will involve lack of safety equipment for the workers, no dust control, asbestos exposure, lead dust, improper construction fencing, late night work and weekend work, vandalism, physical threats of violence against your person if you say any thing to her or her workers...you name it.
Then once the demo is done the real fun starts, knowing that your safety is being "looked after" for the next two years by self-certifying Bricolage minions.

Posted by: imby at August 7, 2006 11:22 AM

Ahhh, MMG and mechanical demo. Any chance she has LEGAL mechanical demoo permits? I'd guess not. Call 311, your community board and the your local electeds ASAP!

And stay the hell away from the demo site. if the flying debris and dust doesn't get you, Ms. Grasso might come over and push you around herself (all 300+ pounds).

Same game, different location. What's it gonna take to get MMG outta biz, or at least outlawed in Bklyn? Hello DOB? (though I would not wish that monster on any borough)

I agree, call BKLYN News 12, NY 1 and the local Brooklyn papers (Brooklyn Papers and Courier Life Publications). Their writers are VERY well versed with the MMG way of doing things...or not doing things.

Posted by: lostinbrooklyn at August 7, 2006 11:39 AM

Any time MMG is on the job, you can be sure that they have the wrong permit for the kind of work they are doing. I know from first hand experience that it is a real pain to get mechanical demolition permits. You know it's hard our here for a developer...

Posted by: Shahn Andersen at August 7, 2006 11:46 AM

I'm with everyone else: take pictures like a tourist, and have your neighbors do the same. If they don't have cameras, get disposible ones. There has to be a record. Call the tv stations, who's running Arnold Diaz's "Shame on You" now? Call all of them, someone will bite. Call your local pols, community board, etc. Be a royal pain in the ass. The thought of your child playing anywhere near them - Shudder!

There is no excuse for unsafe practices, not for the people around the site, or for the workers themselves. The company can afford it, God knows they probably aren't paying the workers all that much, and most of them either don't know they have rights, or are afraid to make waves. It's disgusting. I hate greed, especially at the expense of other people's safety.

Posted by: CrownHeightsProud at August 7, 2006 12:25 PM

OK, want the media? Here's the story: cement blocks and asbestos falling on your 2-year-old. It's about heart-rending video, people. I'll bet your 2-year-old is cute. Swing your cam from him/her (preferably cuddling a teddy bear) up to the bastards cutting loose their cement and toxic waste overhead. Tell the TV phone-answering guy, "I have video of my 2-year-old in the same frame as a guy pulling off asbestos and cement overhead. It's yours exclusively if you cover the story." Start with 2, 4 and 7 and only go to NY1, 12, Fox or 'Your 9' if they don't bite. Prepare your quotes beforehand to get the "money quote" polished and airworthy. Now get busy!

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at August 7, 2006 12:31 PM

get photos of the crane operator drinking beer too. if you're going to a news station you could videotape what's going on, would they used home video? that would be cool! you should do a re-enactment with your son.

Posted by: TonyTone at August 7, 2006 2:13 PM

Can some folks shed some MORE light? Radusky? Did someone pull the plans @ DOB or has that lovely gentleman put his firm's plaque out front?

DOB's BIS says nothing really and the DOB and ECBs go back years. As per usual, MMG lists as "owner" which is a typical LIE and tactics to get the permits...and hide the LLC. Any word on the developer?

Many questions...answers?

Posted by: lostinbrooklyn at August 7, 2006 7:14 PM

Ah, MMG, dear Marie Grasso...She is the queen of illegal mechanical demolition. Her antics just cost a developer over here the right to even build his high rise. Video tape (use a time stamp) EVERYTHING. She almost NEVER has a permit to use that backhoe...she knocked a 20 foot high brick building into everyone's back yards over here. If the DOB does not respond (although I think they are getting the picture about this particular demo person) call the police. Call 311 and MAKE them take the complaint and give you a number. A precedent has now been set about illegal demolition...she needs to be stopped. She should NOT even be in business. The building unions will be happy to do an picket line...won't do a whole lot...but enough complaints and the hard hats, safety nets and
sidewalk sheds DO eventually show up.

Posted by: mlou at August 8, 2006 4:31 PM

We are meeting this Monday, August 14, at 7:30 pm at Bistro Lafayette, 338 Franklin Ave. between Lexington & Greene. All are welcome.

Posted by: Stephen at August 12, 2006 8:00 PM

This will just shock everyone who's commented here so far, but guess who finally got a stop work order for having the wrong permit?

Posted by: Anonymous at September 1, 2006 4:14 PM

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August 7, 2006

Pillaging Clifton Place MMG-Style

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