The Staten Island Advance reports that work has begun to stabilize the retaining wall that collapsed late Monday in the Dongan Hills neighborhood. Five homes were evacuated after a 50'-by-50' chunk of wall - including boulders - fell downwards from a wall built to support John D'Amato's home, hitting other homes; luckily no one was hurt. D'Amato is notable for two reasons: 1) One neighbor complained that the wall was built illegally back in 2002 and 2) D'Amato is the NYC chairman of Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign.
NY1 reports that the city is now renewing a "free wall inspection" service to private homeowner to prevent such wall collapses. The Department of Buildings says, "[There will be] no questions asked, no penalties, and, at that time, we'll give them the opportunity and advise them whether they'll need to call in an engineer or not"; homeowners can call 311. And a Staten Island City Council member says he'll propose legislation so the DOB will "better monitor" wall construction, because now, the DOB lets independent architects and engineers inspect walls.
As for the Dongan Hlils families who had to leave their homes, it'll take another week or so before they can return.
