Author: Halden
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Fubar
Tina Fineberg for the New York Times Construction accidents are getting to be pretty routine these days (in case you missed it, another day laborer died in an accident this week), but crikey, today’s accident is anything but routine. The picture above, from the Times, shows what was a four or five-story building. Until earlier…
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DOB Takes Action
Obviously in hasty response to my recent posts, DOB has a series of reforms aimed at improving construction safety in New York City. Actually, the second half of that sentence is true – there’s even a press release. A lot of the press release covers initiatives that have been in place for some time, but…
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421-a
According to the Sun, the real estate industry is gearing up to have another go at 421-a tax abatements when the topic comes before the City Council in December. Their argument is that the changes in the law (which don’t take effect until July 1) combined with the declining real estate market, will slow development.…
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Fixing DOB
Sure, its an ambitious title. But, as Reverb says in the comments to Monday’s post, its great to define the problem, but how do you fix it? First, let’s recap the magnitude of the problem: if you call in a complaint to 311 for illegal after-hours/weekend work, there’s about a one in four chance that…
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Falling Down on the Job
A couple of weeks ago, I posted a link to the new nyc.gov Citywide Performance Reporting (CPR) system. In that post, I summarized the rather spotty performance of the Department of Buildings, at least as measured by the criteria of CPR. One number that jumped out at me was the 6% rate of violations issued…
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Fire on Kent Avenue ≠ 475
As of 8:00 am, WNYC is reporting that FDNY has just gotten a fire under control at a matzo factory on the Brooklyn waterfront. According to the brief report, the fire broke out this morning at a matzo factory next to 475 Kent Avenue (there’s another factory next to the building?). We’ve seen no other…
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Accountability
I haven’t run across the Mayor’s Citywide Performance Reporting system before. Its a neat idea – the system monitors the performance of City government overall and agency by agency (and given the Mayor’s wonkery and geek background, I’m sure this a exercise near and dear to his heart). Overall, we’re doing pretty well. Citywide, 53%…
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Schaefer Dock Gone
I have heard that the water taxi dock at Shaefer Landing was removed over the weekend. Apparently, a new and smaller permanent dock will be installed in “a couple of months”. I suppose that quashes any hope of taxi service resuming any sooner than “a couple of months” from now.
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PS 84 Update
Apparently DoE has backed off and decided not to put a second school in PS 84. According to a flier posted at the school, DoE has determined that “the community clearly doesn’t support the plan”. Hopefully the principal and PTA at 84 can bring the same passion and vigor to improving their school (which DoE…
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Council Updates
Two somewhat stealthy council race announcements happened in the last week or two. First, as reported in the Brooklyn Paper, Steve Levin has thrown his hat in the ring for David Yassky’s 33d Council District seat. Levin, who is currently Assemblyman Vito Lopez’s chief of staff, joins Evan Thies (we told you he wouldn’t be…