When "Stop Work" Means Jack
The Park Slope Courier has a story this week about another developer gone wild (anyone smell a tv show?) in the South Slope–and we’ve got the first-hand photos to back it up. In a nutshell, the demolition company working on 226-230 16th Street had already received multiple violations prior to February 15th, when a brick…
The Park Slope Courier has a story this week about another developer gone wild (anyone smell a tv show?) in the South Slope–and we’ve got the first-hand photos to back it up. In a nutshell, the demolition company working on 226-230 16th Street had already received multiple violations prior to February 15th, when a brick wall collpased, injuring two workers. DOB then issued a stop work order. The next afternoon, the demo was back in full-swing, causing more complaints to the DOB. By the time the stop work order was lifted on February 21, a significant amount of demo and clearing had already been done. When asked, the DOB first pointed to how overworked their inspectors are and then passed the buck to the NYPD, which it says is responsible for enforcing stop work orders. The longer we live in Brooklyn, however, the more and more we realize how much corruption there must be in the police department.
16th Street Demo Continued [PS Courier] GMAP P*Shark
Stoner, hang in there. Many of us have been and continue to be in the exact position. I have absolutely no tolerance for drug dealers or drug abusers. There is no greater hate in the world then the hate that I have for these criminals. I wish them all death a hundred times over.
I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiment that the police is either complicit or directly culpable for some of the drug trade in Downtown Brooklyn. Putnam and Grand; Fulton and Washington; Fulton and Classon and Carlton and Myrtle are all well known drug corners and the cops simply turn the other cheek. The same goes for ares in CG, BH, RH and PLG. It’s pathetic. The police and local poltiicans are not really concerned with the problem, unless some child gets murdered and the media gets involved.
More importantly, the violence that the drug trade brings directly to your door step is the bigger issue. Something has to be done about it and we need to do something drastically to bring the issue to the forefront of politcal discourse. Where’s Latitia James and rest of them doing with respect to this issue? Are you telling me that neighborhoods can band together to protest Ratner but we can’t work collaboratively to end this
cancer that’s eating away at that fabric of our community? Something is seriously wrong on all sides…..
We modified the language in the last sentence of the post slightly to make it clearer to the literalists out there that obviously we don’t think every cop in the city is corrupt–but we stand by our initially feeling that there’s plenty of money and, as others have pointed out, political pressure to not always do the right thing.
I think, first of all, that iceberg IS a developer.
But, seriously, why not leave developers alone altogether? Forget about safety once the job starts, why should they have to file permits to build at all?
It’ll be just like the good old days…before there were any kind of housing laws. Back to the tenements everybody…
maybe the police arent neccessarily corrupt…they just DON’T DO ANYTHING!
I don’t know why I’m bothering, but here I go:
Iceberg, you don’t – or won’t – understand that a lot of the developers in question are working unsafely from Day 1. They don’t need pressure from the buildings dept. to work too fast and too sloppy than is safe – They are forcing their workers to do that ALREADY. They are cutting corners and creating unsafe conditions and they -bottom line- DON’T CARE about their undocumented workers getting buried in a pile of cinderblocks and steel.
Their behavior is irresponsible – dangerous. Maybe they are crossing their fingers and hoping the retaining wall doesn’t collapse – That’s not enough!
We are talking about people who aren’t holding up their end of the social contract. They are bad developers. They are the problem.
Did you ever think that starting a blog on Brooklyn real estate would have you constantly have you in the thick of debates on race relations and police corruption?
David’s right. Brownstoner, you say that you believe that the police are corrupt in controlling the drug trade in your neighborhood and you provide evidence (anecdotal at least) of that. Fine.
But in your original post, you are not-so-subtly saying that the reason the police are not enforcing the stop-work order is also that they’re paid off. And you provide no evidence (anecdotal or otherwise) except the abovementioned stuff about drug enforcement in another precinct. Not fair, unless you think it’s fair, based on what you heard about the 88th, to assume that anytime the police fail to do something, it’s because they’ve been bought.
By the way, I’m sorry but this is totally on-topic–you made it the topic when you accused the 72nd pct. cops of corruption.
Just wanted to add something- the police cannot stand around watching construction sites to check on violations, they can only respond when called. It is also worth remembering that the real corruption is in the city government and with the politicians who do the back room deals and tell people to look the other way.The construction industry controls huge amounts of money and trust me- they ain’t paying it to the cops. They’re paying it to the politicians who get the permits and change rezoning laws. And who issue orders to the heads of departments who then tell the rank and file to do what they say. Sure there are some bad cops but by and large they are the finest. Hey- anyone who is willing to risk their life for me as part of their job deserves my respect and my gratitude. Of course they are still fallible human beings(and some of them sadly more than that), but who among us is not fallible?
You think 24 inspectors is a small number for DOB. HPD has one inspector for all Certificate of Non-Harassment claims in 5 boroughs!