A study released yesterday showed that the elevator in the Williamsburg building where 5-year-old Jacob Neuman died last month had failed 17 of its previous 21 Housing Authority inspections. That elevator was also supposed to be renovated back in 2004, but it was put off twice due to spending cutbacks. The renovation would have provided the elevator with a door restrictor that doesn't allow doors to be opened while the elevator is in between floors,......

Today's NY Daily News paints a scary picture of the operating conditions inside some of the worst elevators within Housing Authority projects, comparing them to a ride on the House of Horrors or the Cyclone. Their survey of the ten worst elevators in city projects produced a laundry list of horrific situations such as one where the outer door simply wouldn't open and residents risked losing fingers while jimmying the door open to get out,......

The police are reporting a 10 5-year-old fell to his death down an elevator shaft in a Williamsburg apartment building this morning. The boy, who was apparently with a friend, fell from the 11th floor (at 70 Clymer Street), which is about 110 feet. The boy was pronounced dead at Brooklyn Hospital; according to WCBS 2, "sources believe the boy may have been trying to escape from the elevator after it became stuck." UPDATE: Apparently......

A 22-year-old woman was hospitalized last night with a head injury after falling six floors in an apartment building elevator, NY1 reports. After visiting her neighbor on the sixth floor of 90 Pinehurst Street in Washington Heights, Jessica Carter entered an elevator which malfunctioned and crashed to the basement. No details yet on the extent of her injuries, but she was admitted to St. Luke's Hospital around midnight with head injuries. And residents in the......

The city has a new message to spread: "Take the Stairs!" As part of an effort to get people to "Burn Calories, Not Electricity" the city's health officials are putting the posters up everywhere, hoping to get you to think twice before hopping on the elevator. The efforts will benefit both the environment, by reducing energy consumption, and your health, by burning calories -- but will a simple sign work? Officials stated that studies show......

Last week, the plight of production manager Nicholas White's 41-hour elevator ordeal at the McGraw-Hill building was detailed in the New Yorker. After a time-lapse video of his near-two days trapped in an elevator was put online, thousands of people have watched and shuddered at the thought of being in a similar situation, allowing media outlets to call it an "Internet sensation." White was interviewed by Good Morning America and he explained he still......

Sure, it’s not as sexy as last week’s 11 page George Clooney spread (what is?), but the article on elevators by Nick Paumgarten in the current New Yorker makes for a fresh read. It begins with the story of one Nicholas White, a former production manager at Business Week who got stuck in an elevator at Rockefeller Center while at work one Friday night in October, 1999. White’s distressing tale is teased out as a......

Police arrested a man yesterday as a suspect in the rapes of two women in the Van Dyke Houses complex in Brooklyn. Thomas Boker was charged with rape and robbery after being taken to Kings County Hospital for a psychiatric examination. Police say that 29-year-old Boker was about to be charged when he started to act disoriented and didn't seem to know who he was. Cops linked Boker to the rapes with forensic evidence. The......

Cops have recently arrested a suspect in the January knife-point rape of a 34-year-old woman in an East Harlem building's elevator. The alleged perpetrator is 21-year-old Kevin Rios, who police believe followed the victim from the subway to the building on 105th St. between 1st and 2nd Aves. Ironically, the woman held the elevator for Rios, who then put a knife to her throat and sexually assaulted her. WABC News describes a different scenario, with......