MEMENTO MORI: 10 days after a piece of fencing blew off the West 12th Street side of the Greenwich Lane condominium construction site on March 17th, killing young passerby Tram-Thuy Nguyen, these fading bouquets remained to remind us of the life that was lost. And across the street the Department of Buildings’ Stop Work order, imposed after the accident, was apparently being observed.
However, since there didn’t appear to be any of the usual DOB notices visible, WestView called their Press Office for an update on the official status of the construction. We were informed that the name of the project, Greenwich Lane and its general location (on the former St. Vincent’s Hospital site), was not an acceptable I.D., and that we needed to call them back with the precise street address. So we Googled—where else—St. Vincent’s Hospital! And after checking their records the Press Office sent us the following report:
Subject: 1 7th Avenue MN
Good afternoon,
Background:
*Full Stop Work Issued on March 18th 2015 for failure to safeguard site after a piece of plywood came loose and hit pedestrian.
*Stop Work Order fully rescinded March 26, 2015 following a resolution of the underlying unsafe conditions and inspection of site by the Department.
Thanks!
No mention was made, however, of the 11 violations against Greenwich Lane already issued by the Department between May and November 2014 that, according to the DOB spokesman quoted in the New York Times March 19th account of the accident, remained open, which was, he said “pretty much normal.”
On the same day as the Times piece, there was an unrelated story in Crane’s New York Business headed Crackdown on Buildings Dept. Corruption isn’t Over reporting that “On the heels of a massive bust of building inspectors, the city’s in-house corruption investigator said Wednesday he is far from finished with the notoriously problematic Department of Buildings.”
One can only hope that Community Board 2’s subsequent resolution, “calling on the mayor and the Department of Buildings to create a program parallel to Vision Zero”—the traffic safety initiative—will lead to a DOB insistent upon the stringent application of vital safety regulations.
