Results tagged “thedob”

Seething over their many, ignored complaints about new construction at 808 Columbus Avenue, residents of Park West Village held a rally to demand an investigation. All 280 apartments at one Park West building, 784 Columbus, were evacuated when a retaining wall collapsed at the 808 site on Wednesday night. However, there were a number of calls to the Department of Buildings from 784 residents, complaining that the building was shaking as workers blasted in the 808 site.

Residents of 784 Columbus Avenue are saying "I told you so" as the Department of Buildings continues its investigation into the retaining wall collapse at 808 Columbus Avenue. Residents at 784 have been complaining about the new constructions for some time and detailed how they've been wearing earplugs and noise-canceling headphones.

City Councilman Bill de Blasio, whose Brooklyn district covers Borough Park, Carroll Gardens, is asking the Department of Buildings to stop all of architect Robert Scarano's current projects. According to the Sun, DeBlasio says Scarano, who has hundreds of projects in various stages of progress, "should not be allowed to build while under investigation by the State Education Department for professional misconduct."

Almost exactly two years after a 150-foot part of a 600-foot retaining wall next to the Castle Village apartment buildings collapsed into the Henry Hudson Parkway, the Department of Buildings is ready to release its report. The Post have the exclusive and says DOB investigators "determined that the managers of the apartment complex and an engineering firm brought in to examine the wall knew the structure was at imminent risk of falling." The DOB feels the firm could have warned the city about the wall's instability, since its engineers had seen the "65-foot-high wall move 9 inches away from the hillside in less than a week."

Finally, the Department of Buildings realizes that it needs to take more serious action against illegal advertising on city construction sites. Many buildings and advertisers ignore the $2,500 fines since they are pittances in the scheme of things, so now the DOB will start covering up the ads with vinyl sheets!

The overwhelming amount of development in Williamsburg and Greenpoint development gets a NY Times write-up today. Not only are residents are getting evicted or priced out of their apartments, construction has been damaging adjoining buildings. Which makes area residents wonder if the Department of Buildings can handle overseeing all the new construction.

Last year, the department issued 24,610 permits in Brooklyn, including 1,924 for demolition and 1,740 permits for new buildings. That was roughly double the demolition and new construction of five years earlier, and it was all handled by 25 inspectors.

Continue reading "Brooklyn Development: "Out of Control""

The Department of Buildings is launching a safety outreach campaign after a number of construction accidents in the past month. Some of the incidents: A few workers fell from scaffolding in separate incidents (one died), a worker was killed when a building he was working in collapsed, and part of a crane fell onto a street and hit a cab. The DOB will be reminding constractors to make sure their equipment complies with regulations as well as encouraging workers to speak out if they see dangerous work conditions (anonymously, if they must).

While billboards generally attract complaints from area residents just don't want billboards period, many advertisers and building owners just ignore them, interested in getting their message out and keeping the coin respectively. But, sometimes the advertiser is willing to fold and take their signs down, even without intervention from the Department of Buildings: The strip club Flashdancers has a big sign up across from a public school in Brooklyn. The NY Times is particularly funny when describing it:

A new billboard went up on Monday across Baltic Street from Public School 133 on the western fringe of Park Slope, Brooklyn. The sign is aimed at the drivers going by on busy Fourth Avenue, but the students at the school, who range from kindergarten to fifth grade, can also learn a lot from it.

Continue reading "Telling Kindergartners to Go to Strip Clubs"