Nearly two months after a construction crane crashed into a shed in their development, fifty Park West Village residents questioned the New York City Department of Buildings.
Wednesday night’s meeting with two DOB representatives at the Second Presbyterian Church on 96th Street sought to address concerns about the accident at the rising Columbus Square on Oct. 8, and to allow residents to voice concerns about a perceived lack of neighborhood input on the development.
Sponsored by Westsiders for Public Participation, a local nonprofit group, the meeting arose from residents’ calls for more information about the accident in which part of a crane fell and hit a pedestrian sidewalk shed, causing it to collapse.
Michael Alacha, assistant commissioner for engineering and emergency operations at the Buildings Department, explained that the crane accident was a mechanical failure.
“I wish I had a crystal ball to see when every piece of metal was going to fail,” Alacha said. He emphasized that annual inspections and frequent maintenance usually catch such problems, and that inspectors will be working to determine the cause of the failure.
Both he and Paul Bunten, president of Westsiders for Public Participation, said that residents who see anything out of place at the construction site—which stretches from 97th Street to 100th Street,—should call 311 to report them. Sites with registered complaints will be visited more often by inspectors.
A number of people pressed Alacha and Donald Ranshte, director of community affairs for the DOB, on whether it has an adequate number of inspectors.
“We’re not equipped to be out there every day enforcing the law,” Bunten said.
Ranshte said that their department is growing, but does rely on the community to act as extra eyes and ears.
“It’s tough, when there’s a lot of construction in New York City. There will never be enough people. Ten thousand people wouldn’t be enough,” Ranshte said.
The accident was penalized with three code violations, but Alacha described them as the standard response to an accident that did not reflect previous negligence.
Ranshte also said that two more cranes will be coming to Columbus Avenue within the next two months, and unrolled the physical safety plans to indicate the procedures for stopping pedestrian traffic.
City council member Melissa Mark-Viverito, who led the discussion with Bunten, said that the council has passed or has been working on about 20 pieces of legislation to make construction safer since a crane accident on 50th Street on March 15, 2008 killed seven people.
Already, Ranshte said that certain changes have made contractors more accountable. “Now, we can shut them down on a moment’s notice. Three, four years ago we couldn’t say that, and nobody wants that,” he said.
The second part of the meeting focused on the idea that the Park West Village development was constructed without input from neighborhood residents and businesses due to its as-of-right status—which meant that an environmental impact report was not mandated.
As a result, residents say they are now dealing with blocked traffic and reportedly longer emergency response times.
“We haven’t seen the end of as-of-right development in this community, and I hope we’ve learned enough to include the community in the future,” said Bunten. “We do think that what happens here is emblematic of New York City.”
Jean Green Dorsey, who has lived in the neighborhood since 1972, said that the city’s lack of interest in local voices was disheartening. “When we moved here, it wasn’t fabulous, it was funky.
Marginal at best. We built this neighborhood, and now they can’t treat us like we don’t matter,” Dorsey said.
Susan Susman, who lives on 97th Street, expressed concern that these types of discussions ultimately are not productive.
“Unless legislation addresses this, my concern is how do we get to the point of enforcing community involvement, not just at community discussions,” Sussman said. “I tend not to have a lot of confidence in these meetings because they don’t have to listen to us. They always send their public relations people, so I’m glad someone from cranes came tonight.”
COMMENTS
Comments will be moderated in accordance with our comment policy