DOB "More Like an Ambulance Service"
In an editorial yesterday generally praising Mayor Bloomberg for his long-term thinking about the city’s infrastructure, Daily News columnist Michael Goodwin points out one of the areas where Bloomie has taken his eye off the ball–construction. [If he listens], he’ll learn about architects and builders who thumb their noses at his Buildings Department, especially outside…
In an editorial yesterday generally praising Mayor Bloomberg for his long-term thinking about the city’s infrastructure, Daily News columnist Michael Goodwin points out one of the areas where Bloomie has taken his eye off the ball–construction.
[If he listens], he’ll learn about architects and builders who thumb their noses at his Buildings Department, especially outside Manhattan. The agency acts more like an ambulance service than a regulating body. It only seems to show up when there is a disaster, which helps explain why nearly 100 workers have been killed in construction accidents since October 2001, according to federal statistics compiled by my colleague Brian Kates. Every time a worker falls from scaffolding onto a street or into a vat of concrete, count on the Buildings Department to show up and say, yep, there were safety violations. No kidding.
C’mon, Mikey!
A City Plan with Room to Grow [Brownstoner]
Sara Goldsmith
GoForIt,
Why don’t you?
Go buy a piece of property and do whatever you want — within the boundaries of the laws that the rest of us have to abide by. No one is stopping you.
The issue here and in the article is that our City and it’s administration, in it’s zeal to create and encourage development, has put the cart before the horse.
There has been no forethought about the ramifications of allowing zoning variances (which in case you are not aware means that they are being allowed to “BREAK THE LAW”), not to mention the City’s ability to enforce the zoning laws already in effect. If you have a house (even a concrete bunker if that’s what makes you happy), the laws are supposed to protect your property from being damaged by the large steel and concrete piece of shit that might be going up (illegally) next door. Also I am quite sure that you would not be too happy about paying skyrocketing taxes and insurance on your 15×20 concrete bunker so that a bunch of Millionaire Developers could get a tax Break (thank you 421a) on all of the illegally built shit boxes. Not to mention the Compensation insurance and other taxes that they don’t pay to the day laborer’s.
Or how about the increased cost of welfare and Medicare which is helping to support the families of the poor slobs that are being used to build these Towers of shit.
If you think that’s all fine then please forward your name and address to the rest of us so that we can tell the Mayor to send you our bills.
I personally don’t think that I should have to pay for something that does damage to my property as well as my health. Why should I have to pay for something that I did not ask for nor approve of?
I don’t know why GoForIt is on spending time on a bronwstone blog when he doesn’t like brownstones.
By the way, there is this City commission called landmarks which won’t let you tear down your building that barely stands up on its own. If that’s going to be the case, it would seem that the should also prevent the go building next door to you from knocking it down too.
uh…you do know, don’t you, GoForIT, that people really have died putting up your replacement “steel, concrete, marble, and oak,” right? And that this isn’t even an argument about preservation v. development, but about ensuring safety v. penalizing unsafe practices?
I say, try to ensure that working construction in NYC doesn’t become the most hazardous job in the city. You say, just fine the bastards and write it off as part of the cost of doing business.
They need to build more. Anything that barely stands up on its own anymore should be torn down and replaced. Any unscrupulous contractors and architects should be penalized so severley that the potential cost savings of shortcuts wouldn’t be considered. Anyone with a problem outside of that is a hypocrite and thinks the rest of us should live and think the way they do.
You have a problem with the new construction? Move out. No one asked you to move here in the first place. If you like to live in a 100+ year old drafty wood frame, with asbestos insulation, 40 year old wiring, lead pipes, lead paint, tiny rooms, one bath, mildew laden basement, well then god bless you. You think I don’t some right to aquire PRIVATE PROPERTY and replace that with some steel, concrete, marble, and oak, who the hell are you? Oh yeah, that’s right, I need your approval to be considered worthy. Their real issue is not about safety. This is about some little fascist group preserving their own Idaho.
Class-action anyone?
I am sick and tired of the bullshit excuses.
Understaffed, Not my job,
Not enough teeth, need more laws, bla, bla, bla.
The city and the DOB is obligated to protect the property and citizens of this city. If they can’t enforce the laws or they are understaffed or whatever other excuses they want to make up, then they (the City and DOB) should not be handing out permits and encouraging development.
Our Mayor is spending millions of our tax dollars to sue gun makers and other states for the irresponsible way that they hand out guns and permits. What he and the DOB are doing is even more irresponsible and more dangerous and costly to the citizens of this city.
Maybe when The City and DOB is sued for a few hundred million by it tax payers then they will start acting more responsible.
maybe if people paid more in their property taxes you would get better service
Didn’t the City Councilpersons just vote themselves a raise?
There aren’t enough DOB inspectors, either for construction sites or the many quality-of-life and zoning issues which the DOB also is charged with monitoring. Hell, they don’t even have enough plans examiners, which was why they let architects self-certify.
But your City Councilperson is worth more than a construction worker’s life…
Where was this photograph taken?