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August 16, 2007
A Special Kind of Blackout Courtesy of Con Ed
A distressed reader writes in with this week's gripe against everyone's favorite utility:
Near my house on Carlton Ave, ConEd has been digging up the sidewalks. Work seems to be done, but instead of re-paving and restoring the original cement, they left this mess. Even my dog doesn't like to walk on it! What can we do?
Good question. You can be sure a homeowner wouldn't get away with this!
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Comments
I would call 311 about the problem....Is there a business on the corner?? if so ask them to also call about the problem..
I hope this helps
Good luck
Posted by: mysideofstuy at August 16, 2007 9:44 AM
This is probably just temporary... they put this stuff down until the sidewalk contractor can get out there and pave it properly.
I'm just wondering if the person tried to contact ConEd about it??? If that doesn't work, make a complaint to the public service commission.
Posted by: guest at August 16, 2007 9:46 AM
Con Ed uses sub contractors for all this work. Chances are very good that they have scheduled the re-paving for the near future and a crew will show up unannounced and do it. This happened on my block.
Posted by: guest at August 16, 2007 9:47 AM
they're doing similar work in the heights on pierrepont and monroe. i've been told it's temporary, and will be restored - hopefully, it's the same temporary situation on your corner.
Posted by: guest at August 16, 2007 9:49 AM
311 or Con Ed Public Affairs. I don't know where on Carlton, but there are some very serious problems with underground electrical close to Fulton from Western Clinton Hill (Wash/Clinton to Adelphi/Carlton). I am starting to wonder about myself hearing things at night, (gunshots and all) but several times I heard extremely loud humming around this area/Eastern AY area. I called 311 which sent me to Fire Department 2X who came out to check for underground electrical fires. Around that time, there was a fire explosion caused by electrical fires at Clinton/Fulton. Con Ed had been busy at Clermont/Fulton repairing insulation etc and I had a good conversation with one of the supervisors who told me that there is a lot of work that has to be done in the area and the noise I was hearing was shorting (2 phase shorting for techies) in the system. He knew about the fire explosion on Clinton/Fulton.
Anyway, the bad news is that the OP has to deal with their sloppiness, the good news is that they are addressing the problems.
Posted by: donatella at August 16, 2007 9:54 AM
9:46 and 9:47 are right, this is standard procedure. Someone (not Con Ed, a subcontractor) will come out and replace the sidewalk. You can probably call Con Ed and (eventually) find out when it will happen.
Posted by: WBer at August 16, 2007 9:56 AM
I'm on the phone with Con Ed with the nicest guy I've ever spoken to at that company and he looked up my address (as we have a big patch of black tar in front of our house) and he looked up a bunch of our neighbors' address but he couldn't find anything for 2007. He took my name and number and said he'd have his manager contact me (I know, we'll see). If I get any news, I'll share it. As I told him, I'm bothered by the big patch of black tar but even more bothered by the fact that they put all the concrete they dug up into a huge, unmoveable bag and left it in the street. There are three of them on our block which means we're down 3 parking spaces. That's okay for a few days but not for a few weeks.
Posted by: ClintonHill at August 16, 2007 10:28 AM
I'd be more worried about the RAGING FOXY BROWNS
Posted by: Gringcorp at August 16, 2007 10:40 AM
Foxy Brown is nuts... too bad, I had a crush on her when I was younger. She's still smokin', just completely nuts.
Posted by: guest at August 16, 2007 11:16 AM
Equally unattractive patches in place on Lexington at Grand. Bleh.. I hope this gets fixed.
Posted by: guest at August 16, 2007 11:35 AM
I know - tear up the rest of the sidewalk and replace it with asphalt so it matches!
Posted by: guest at August 16, 2007 11:56 AM
I live on this block of St. Marks and almost considered blogging / complaining about this same issue, but assumed it would be temporary...
Posted by: sstrudeau at August 16, 2007 2:17 PM
There was the exact same scenario at Grand and Lorimer in Williamsburg recently and within a month or so a contractor had come by to totally replace it all with standard sidewalk fare. Its actually looks far better now than it did before they started all the digging.
Posted by: lewchoo at August 16, 2007 2:20 PM
In general, the sidewalk and especially pavement patching in New York is poor. Contractors are not held to any reasonable standard. I recently visited several other cities while on vacation - the pavement is patched to be smooth with barely a lip or dip, so we know it is possible to do this job right. There must be a cost to car suspensions I recently contacted the DOT in advance of a patch job on my block to ask that they monitor the patching to ensure it was level. They called back right that day to ask if I had called 311 - in other words, they were looking to solve a complaint after the fact, when I was simply saying, let's raise standards to a reasonable level for contractors.
Posted by: guest at August 16, 2007 2:38 PM
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