Pity the Poor Builder
Construction industry reps say the city’s new safety regs are totally harshing their mellow, according to articles in Crain’s and the Daily News. Consider: There were 1,403 stop-work orders on construction sites in April, compared to 785 in January. Unions, construction workers and developers won’t go on the record about the situation because they’re worried…
Construction industry reps say the city’s new safety regs are totally harshing their mellow, according to articles in Crain’s and the Daily News. Consider: There were 1,403 stop-work orders on construction sites in April, compared to 785 in January. Unions, construction workers and developers won’t go on the record about the situation because they’re worried the DOB would exact retribution, but off the record, builders say that the SWOs are costing them a lot of money and that jobs are getting shut down for very minor infractions. Louis Coletti, president and chief executive of the Building Trades Employers’ Association, claims that the increase in SWOs is happening because [DOB] inspectors are all afraid of losing their jobs. Acting Buildings Commissioner Robert LiMandri says that the increase in SWOs has happened because the DOB is inspecting more construction sites nowadays.
Stop-work Orders Soar in Crackdown [Crain’s]
Builders Rip Crackdown [Daily News]
Photo by Steve Hopson.
An engineer named Sanchez quit and made DOB shut down about 900 sites.
ditto on folks knowing a lot more about zoning, construction etc. And more should learn – it might be a good idea for community groups to hold information sessions in various neighborhood where there is frenzied construction going on. would make the city a lot safer to increase the number of eyes supplementing the DOB
Agreed 12:47pm..
And I love: “builders say that the SWOs are costing them a lot of money ”
Um, pay to play (unfortunately) in NYC. You break the law, you get shut down and fined (now, about paying those fines…)
You work within the Code, safely and legally, no problems with DOB (or residents, community watch dog groups or politicos either).
Seems pretty straight forward to me.
And 1:03pm, you’d be surprised how much about construction (and zoning) practices many folks know who are not in the trades. Rather, were forced to learn because of all the knuckleheads out there. And those pesky SWOs.
Tough nay-nays (hope that one makes it by the censor). Seriously, if builders and contractors hadn’t been so woefully lax, they wouldn’t find themselves in this position.
Cry me a river.
I agree with 12:37. The DOB really went down-hill from the Giuliani, Dinkins and Kock administations. (I am, of course, being facetious.)
Pressuring and cracking down on the whole community of developers and builders is a good thing. The builders who have good safety records need to pressure the unsafe bad-apple builders to get in line. Let the whole community of builders be involved with this. Nothing wrong with that. It’s their industry and they should care more about what everybody is doing, not just their own company.
And what does the public know about the means and methods of construction. About as much as they do about zoning regulations?
And people should realize that it’s all Bloomberg and Lancaster’s fault. If they had advocated responsible development and proceeded with proper safety and inspection standards, while pushing for community input in many of these projects, then the city would probably be developing at a respectable pace and not have killed so many people or exposed their now outed carefree “safety standards” and unaccountability. It’s actually very easy, do things the right way and with transparency and they work out great for everyone. Bloomberg shot himself in the foot, but who knows, maybe he reeled in lots of cash for himself from political favors.
“totally harshing their mellow?” you haven’t been hangin’ out at stroud park, have you?