Will the DOB be Able to Man Up?
In a Times piece this morning Jim Dwyer takes a look at all the recent construction tragedies and concludes that “the city’s construction business, particularly outside of Manhattan, is becoming the modern version of the 19th-century coal mine.” Most construction-related fatalities in recent years have been in the outer boroughs, and Dwyer notes that at…
In a Times piece this morning Jim Dwyer takes a look at all the recent construction tragedies and concludes that “the city’s construction business, particularly outside of Manhattan, is becoming the modern version of the 19th-century coal mine.” Most construction-related fatalities in recent years have been in the outer boroughs, and Dwyer notes that at many smaller, non-Manhattan development sites oversight only comes from the sorely overstretched DOB. Although Bloomberg and DOB chief Patricia Lancaster have tried to clean up the agency, hard questions remain about how the city is going to regulate its projected $45 billion in construction growth over the next decade. “It could be they are completely outgunned,” Dwyer writes. “This era may serve as a prologue.”
Building Roulette: The New Victorian Coal Mine [NY Times]
Photo by mkaggen.
The DoB has been playing catch up for decades. Brooklyn contractors have always operated under the radar. The quality of work has declined with the increase in demand. Everyone is a foundation/underpinning contractor now it seems. It’s amazing that more people are not killed.
As for fixing the machine, it seems odd that the DoB’s efforts would be focussed on electronically streamlining the builder’s application/permit process during a time of record growth without hiring new foot soldiers.
Professional Self Certification unfortunately, like boiling meat, requires the occasional clearing of scum that rises to the surface. The Mayor is unwilling to do this.
When they launched 311 and the Building Information System web pages, I doubt they anticipated it being used against them as a tool to document their inadequatcies. For example the retired contractor’s 311 complaint reporting what he believed to be a hazardous condition on a high rise crane in his neighborhood, and having it dismissed.
Take a moment to look up any new development under construction and I bet you will see numerous complaints, stop work orders, DoB violations, and ECB violations. Check out how many of these fines have been dismissed or defaulted on and/or never collected even after several years.
What we need is a superfund, like what licensed home improvement contractors have to pay into to cover lawsuits. There should be a legal service to the homeowner who’s property has been damaged by half assed contractors, free of charge.
We should just let the magic of the free market handle this. I mean it’s worked so well for the mortgage industry.
Limit number of permits issued and make fines prohibitively high instead of cost-of-doing-business. Simple.
Duh! may be the obvious retort, but assuming it will just blow over, or that DOB is useless, isn’t doing a damn thing to protect workers or the public. Unrelenting public outrage and protest is the only way to pressure the city to do something.
The city cries poor, but is losing out on millions of dollars to developers like Ratner, and manages to find the money to host tickertape parades, and countless other money wasting ventures, but can’t cough it up for an important agency that is supposed to be overseeing construction. This should be a priority. People are dying.
This is a reactionary story/political issue that will soon blow over.
All readers of this blog are very well aware that the DOB is understaffed and really pretty much ineffective at enforcing anything, whether it be new (illegal) construction, or enforsing the owner of an unsafe building on the verge of collapse to do anything.
Why do you think so many buildings have collapsed or partially collapsed recently.
DUH!
It seems that coal mines are also a “modern version of the 19th-century coal mine”.