A Day Later, A SWO for Guttman at 187 Plymouth Street
After we reported about some suspicious activity at the Joshua Guttman-owned work site at 187 Plymouth Street yesterday, DOB got right on the stick and went to check things out for themselves. Turns out that, surprise, surprise, Guttman’s crew has overbuilt beyond the scope of the permitted work. The approved plans call for the building…
After we reported about some suspicious activity at the Joshua Guttman-owned work site at 187 Plymouth Street yesterday, DOB got right on the stick and went to check things out for themselves. Turns out that, surprise, surprise, Guttman’s crew has overbuilt beyond the scope of the permitted work. The approved plans call for the building to be 13 feet tall, but in actuality it is built to approximately 20 to 26 feet tall, enough room to add another floor; in addition, a masonry wall was built that does not conform to the approved plans. Unfortunately, this is an area where the current building code does not have enough teeth to act as a deterrent to rogue developers. Typically, in a situation like this, a developer can just go back and file an amendment after the fact and, after an inconvenient but hardly painful pause, just pick up where he left off. It’s not clear at this point whether that’ll be the case here. We’ll have to just wait and see.
The Mysterious Case of 187 Plymouth Street [Brownstoner] GMAP P*Shark DOB
Brownstoner,
Can you verify what 1:42 states? That the “DOB is allowed, and in fact required, to issue permits, regardless of unpaid fines?”
I find that hard to believe.
Hey 12:53. DOB is allowed, and in fact required, to issue permits, regardless of unpaid fines
11:33,
10:01 here….I hadn’t considered Yassky or his office as possible suspects, but hey – you never know how deep this stuff gets. Good idea – they should be interrogated on this too. Too bad the DUMBO residents didn’t document their concerns and spread them around a little more back in August.
I will say this – The brownstoner link to the DOB permit (above, in blue) for 187 Plymouth states very clearly that the owner of the property is named Guttman.
As another poster pointed out yesterday, the DOB is not allowed to issue permits to those who owe fines for previous violations.
Seems to me that the DOB has now incriminated itself with physical evidence of, if nothing else, gross negligence.
10:01. Is this a joke? The clerk that answers a phone call and looks up a permit is not being offered bribes. Why aren’t we “investigating” Yassky and his “alleged letter”?
Oooooh! It’s like CSI: buildings.
Mr. B,
This enrages me so much that I can’t stand seeing it happen anymore without anything being done! I can’t get back to work! Ahhhh!
Anyway, based on yesterday’s 187 Plymouth update, and assuming I was the proud and earnest detective now in charge of finding and eliminating DOB corruption, I’ve got lots of questions I’d love to know the answers to:
I’d like to know what David Yassky’s office has to say about the DOB saying they never received his letter. Was it not sent via certified or registered mail, or, better yet, hand delivered with a signature coming back from the receiving end? Hope it was, but maybe it wasn’t. Either way, I’d say that DOB Commissioner Patricia Lancaster has a MAJOR problem on her hands if her stinkin’ mail isn’t even being delivered. (Hint: Oh my God! Maybe someone at DOB didn’t want her to see the letter? The heresy!)
I’d also like to know more details about the cops at the 84th who called the DOB, and who they spoke with at DOB. That sounds like a pretty good first step and/or lead to finding the corruption, dontcha think?
Naturally, I’d next like to know the name of the DOB employee that spoke to these cops and who claimed that the permits are “retroactive.” Because, according to DOB rules, permits AREN’T retroactive. So maybe, just mebbe, there’s a slight, teensy weensy chance that that employee is, OH MY LORD, corrupt! Is this possible? Might wanna look into that, people…
Someone is obviously lying, maybe a few people are – perhaps even dozens of people are for all we know; but come on! This is not rocket science, so it shouldn’t be too terribly hard to figure out where the bribes are going inside the DOB.
Prosecuting the lowlifes at DOB who are aiding these scum scammers like Guttman might actually be a good start to extinguishing the madness, if you will.
Just a thought.
Vinegar Hill has so much potential. Its is such a shame that seemingly nothing can be done to stop this scumbag. This will be his third project with one (50 Bridge) half sold and numerous lawsuits against Guttman for awful construction, while the other two are being done illegally.
Does anyone have any REAL suggestions as to how he can be stopped?