BREAKING: Partial Building Collapse at 170 Smith Street
We’ve just gotten word that there has been a partial building collapse at 170 Smith Street. A reader forwarded us an alert from the MTA, since subway service underneath the building has been impacted by the accident. There are currently NYCTA emergency workers and at least one person from OEM on the scene. There has…
We’ve just gotten word that there has been a partial building collapse at 170 Smith Street. A reader forwarded us an alert from the MTA, since subway service underneath the building has been impacted by the accident. There are currently NYCTA emergency workers and at least one person from OEM on the scene. There has been no confirmation whether anyone has been injured or killed in the building. Hope to have more shortly.
Update: This just in from DOB:
Initial reports from the scene indicate the building at 170 Smith Street is in poor condition, but it has not collapsed. The building’s façade has suffered from neglect. On Tuesday, the Buildings Department issued an emergency declaration to allow the Department of Housing Preservation and Development to install a sidewalk shed. The sidewalk shed is in place, and served to catch pieces of the façade that reportedly fell from the building today. On Tuesday after the emergency declaration was issued, Buildings ordered the owner to allow the Department access to the building to make sure it’s structurally sound. The owner failed to do so, and Buildings called the Fire Department gain access to the building. Buildings inspectors and engineers remain on scene, and operations continue.
Update: Curbed has posted some good photos here.
GMAP
Thank you, owner of a neglected building at 1:48.
There already exist websites about bad buildings and bad neighbors that people have created, all over the country. These tactics are already in use. When the city doesn’t help them, they take it public.
YOU get real. And get with the 21st century, you obvious old guy.
Maybe this collapse immediately following the crane collapse will be the 1-2 that gives the story about these issues and the DOB some legs in the press.
1:26
I would like to hit that pipe you are smoking.
Get real!
We have two neglected buildings on my street. Both owners are crazy and completely beyond shame. One house was recently sold at foreclosure auction (thank god) but not until it had a sprinkler accident that had run unchecked for nearly 12 hours, lost its roof, and caused odorous “seepage” into the houses attached to it.
If 311 and DOB and the city and Marty refuse to do anything about these buildings (there are several in prime Park Slope too) then try a public outing of these buildings as well as the political situation that lets property owners get away with abandonment and neglect. Shame them all into making changes.
There should be a “Brooklyn’s Wall of Shame” website with photos of all the neglected buildings. Name the owners, and document evidence of the neglect. Neighbors can post the dates they have made complaints or sent letters, to show the history of non-response from the city.
Michael Jackson just bought that building a few days ago for $4,8million.
This is no surprise to anyone who lives in the area. 170 Smith and the MTA-owned building next door are both abominations. I’ve spent years complaining to 311, Marty, Yassky, Dept. of Sanitation about these properties, the continued safety and sanitation violations, and nothing ever changes. It’s pathetic.
12:43 is right. NYC owners have powerful rights, even when their neglected property abuts another or even shares a wall. These laws were designed with suburban houses in mind: unattached and far from places where pedestrians thronged. The laws should be different for attached houses or houses that are near busy sidewalks. Right now all the DOB can do is fine. They rarely take a property for neglect. While that’s a good deal from a property rights perspective, it unwisely shortchanges public safety.
12:40: There’s a new sign up on that one offering to build-to-spec as part of a sale/rental.