Results tagged “housingprojects”

A 24-year-old man, who was two weeks away from moving out of his East New York housing projects, was gunned down in front of his home yesterday. Robert Castro was fatally shot just after midnight Saturday at East New York's Boulevard Houses with no clear motive and no arrests yet made. Castro was preparing to marry his long-term girlfriend and mother of his two young children. A recently laid off janitor with a previous record for drug and weapon possession was called "the greatest father ever" by Shamica Mercato, his girlfriend of ten years.

Since the New York City Housing Authority implemented a ban on pit bulls, Rottweilers, and Doberman pinschers in public housing projects last April, at least 113 pets have been turned over to centers run by Animal Care and Control, and 49 have been euthanized. Tenants and animal welfare groups are outraged about the ban, which also prohibits any dog expected to weigh more than 25 pounds when grown.

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, a device that could have saved Jacob's life. Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer plans to propose legislation requiring restrictors, saying, "It is unacceptable that the lack of a $400 device might have cost a human life." The study found that in the last five years 75% of Housing Authority elevator inspections resulted in "unsatisfactory" ratings in what Stringer called "a culture of neglect."

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, buildings where tenants are forced to climb a 14-story urine soaked staircase and cross roofs and one where a woman with a young daughter with cerebral palsy had to call police in order to get the child and her groceries up the stairs while both elevators were out. Meanwhile prosecutors are still investigating the death of Jacob Neuman, the five-year-old who died trying to jump out of a stuck elevator in a Williamsburg Housing Authority project last month.