Goliath Crushes David in Greenwood Heights
Greenwood Heights isn’t known as the Wild West of the development world for nothing! A couple of weeks ago, things went badly off track at the site of 227 34th Street, a new seven-unit building squeezing into the lot next to the modest two-story house at 229 34th Street. The offending site was slapped with…
Greenwood Heights isn’t known as the Wild West of the development world for nothing! A couple of weeks ago, things went badly off track at the site of 227 34th Street, a new seven-unit building squeezing into the lot next to the modest two-story house at 229 34th Street. The offending site was slapped with a Stop Work Order, which is still in effect. The exact offense? “A partial collapse of concrete block parapet wall onto roof of adjacent property causing sever [sic] damage to bldg.” The family next door was forced to relocate and, get this, hit with a violation for, we hear, an illegal extension. Ouch! Talk about kicking a man when he’s down. If anyone knows more about the details of the accident, please let us know. GMAP
ACTUALLY,
BOTH 8:55 PM AND 9:57 PM ARE RIGHT.
THE TWO PROPERTIES ARE TIED TOGETHER…AND THE FRAME HOUSE IS FALLING DOWN OF ITS ACCORD ALREADY….
HOWEVER, NO REBAR, AS EVIDENCED IN THE PICTURE, = VERY VERY DANGEROUS. VERY LUCKY THAT NO ONE GOT HURT.
STRANGE THING IS, THE APPROVED DRAWINGS ON FILE AT DOB CALL FOR METAL STUD PARAPET….
I TEND TO BLAME THE CONTRACTOR MORE THAN THE DEVELOPER.
PERHAPS CONTRACTORS LICENSE SHOULD BE MORE STRICT…IF YOU AREN’T GOING TO BUILD TO PLANS AND PUT PEOPLES WELFARE ON THE LINE, YOU SHOULD BE RESPONSIBLE FOR IT…
AND NO, I’M NOT THE DEVELOPER…
The wind didn’t tilt the ironwork. Nor can it blow over cinder blocks if they’re tied into the structure as they should have been.
Sometimes we get it right on people pretending to be ‘developers’.
I live around the corner (acutally half a block away) from this place). The ‘developer’ that is building this place actually owns the building to the right and was planning on pulling it down anyway as it was falling apart.
What exactly happened was during those very gusty winds a couple of weeks ago (they were in the 50 mph range) some of the cement blocks from the roof blew over and fell into the rear of the house next door. From what I’ve heard in the hood noone was really upset but they were all just really happy and thankful that nobody got hurt.
But, this is The Brownstoner blog so I’m sure everyone will think it was intentional and/or some kind of conspiracy. You people need to get over your initial need to attack every developer for every project.
Poor dear little house with porch, like a sweet little paralyzed orphan left in his wheelchair in the middle of the Interstate.
The new construction needs to be torn down. The ironwork is not square. It’s actually listing toward the west, away from the damaged structure. I’m not kidding!
The cinderblocks making up the parapet wall fell over because there was nothing holding them in place. That tells you what ‘quality there is in it.
Ms. Lancaster, tear down this wall!
Why aren’t people throwing bricks at the developer?
Why would anyone with a house to themselves even want to live in a multi-unit condo building with strangers? Not to mention next door, and in the house that ate your home? Talk about adding insult to injury!
This is actually a new trick for an old dog. When contractors attack it’s usually from below, undermining and cracking their foundation. Much more subtle than dropping a ton of bricks through their roof. I’m going by the above photo but isn’t that masaonry work at least 40′ feet above ground without proper sidewalk shed or bridging to protect the persons/property? Scaffolding no where to be seen?
Lancaster has to make a trip out to Brooklyn one day and see first hand what kind of collateral damage these local cowboy contractors are inflicting on the neighbors. These folks in that little house will have to scrape together the funds for the emergency repairs. Hopefully the contractors have insurance. It is not a given.
If the neighborhood had a clearer sense of identity, a clear name, and clearer boundaries, developers would have a tougher time jerking it around and knocking down it’s houses.