Thursday, April 16, 2015

Gas siphoning restaurant tossed out


From NBC:

A restaurant directly across the street from the site of the deadly March 26 gas explosion in the East Village was evicted Monday after its landlord discovered illegal tampering with the gas line and meters there, NBC 4 New York's I-Team has learned.

Stage Restaurant, at 128 Second Avenue, has until the end of the month to vacate the premises, a lawyer for the restaurant’s landlord said Tuesday. He said it is an odd coincidence that the restaurant is accused in a gas siphoning scheme similar to the one authorities are investigating as the cause of the explosion that killed two people and injured nearly two dozen last month.

Con Edison confirmed the restaurant's gas line had been inappropriately accessed. The restaurant's owners declined comment on the eviction, which was first reported by WNYC, an NBC 4 New York partner.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just the thought of this illegal and lethal maneuver is plain scary!

Jackson Heights Johnny said...

I wonder how pervasive this practice is?

The city and Con Ed needs to find out.... NOW!

Yeah, I know.... another major expense and probably subject to bribes....

But, for every illegal hookup that is discovered, lives may be saved.

The thought of being blown to kingdom come while having dinner scares the hell out of me!

And lets not forget Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Staten Island: I'll bet this is done EVERYWHERE!

Anonymous said...

Restaurants should be inspected often by Con Ed....especially the smaller one. Who knows what's going on in Flushing.

One firefighter told me, during a routine inspection, that one Main St. Restaurant had loads of propane tanks illegally stored in their cellar.

He continued that if the should explode it could take half a block out.

Brrrrrrrr. That though leaves me cold.
Peter Koo just twiddled his thumbs pretending, "All OK. No to worry".

Among the Chinese, blood is thicker than obeying local laws. Just look the other way and hold those lunar new year parades. The BID can hang their banners while whore house operate unempeded.


Anonymous said...

The building currently has two stop-work orders but only one is related to gas lines, according to online records. The Department of Buildings issued a full stop-work order on March 30 after inspectors “observed [a] worker in [the] cellar installing new gas pipe and fittings.”

The second stop-work order, issued on April 7, concerned framing, electrical and plumbing work done in three apartments without permits, records show. The building’s tenants are suing the management in housing court for building violations and have a hearing scheduled for Tuesday morning, records show.

Did the restaurant tamper with the gas lines, or did the real estate company that already wanted to evict the restaurant use this as an opportunity to evict the restaurant?

Anonymous said...

The Stage family has released a statement on their Facebook page. It part, it reads: "We at the Stage Restaurant are deeply troubled by the landlord’s false allegations that we engaged in any illegal siphoning of gas. Stage is a long-standing restaurant with deep connections to the community – we have never siphoned gas, and have committed no wrong... the Landlord is seizing on the recent tragic events as an opportunity to wrongfully evict us for reasons unknown to us."

Anonymous said...

What does the I in I-team stand for? I hope it's not "investigating" because they sure didn't seem to do anything close to that.

Anonymous said...

I tend to agree with the Stage owners-- with them now gone (under whatever pretext), the landlord is now free to sell the place for billions.

Anonymous said...

Nice how you label them the "gas siphoning restaurant" based on some lazy half-assed reporting. What the landlord is possibly/likely doing in this case is exactly the kind of thing your blog is against. You should really re-title this post.

Anonymous said...

How did we go from a restaurant being busted for gas tampering whose owners won't comment to this being a plot by the landlord? Commenters should heed their own advice about lazy half assed reporting.

Anonymous said...

This has been going on for decades. Back in the day the meters were slowed down. The father of former bklyn da was locked up for this years ago.

Anonymous said...

http://evgrieve.com/2015/04/stage-owner-roman-diakun-responds-to.html

http://bedfordandbowery.com/2015/04/stage-diner-evicted-amid-absurd-allegations-that-it-covered-up-gas-siphoning/

Who is in the right here remains to be seen, but it should be obvious that the news ran a typical fluff piece. To vilify a business based on lazy reporting is, well, lazy, and just plain wrong.

Anonymous said...

"busted for gas tampering" and being served an eviction notice for supposedly gas tampering are two entirely different things. I suppose you believe in mob rule also.

Anonymous said...

Love that EV Grieve link. Perhaps you missed the following: "He claims that he knew work was being done on the gas lines but that he was unaware he needed a permit. Last week, at a meeting of businesses affected by the explosion, Diakun said his friend, a licensed plumber, had offered to install improvements that he thought would enable the city to give the go-ahead to turn on the gas sooner. “I didn’t think I did anything wrong,” he said. “OK, I didn’t get a permit, but I thought it was an emergency.”"

Sorry I have no sympathy for people who ran a business there for 30 years yet claim to not have known that a permit was required. And I buy the excuse that the dopey contractor left three apartments off the permit more plausible than the restaurant's excuse for doing unauthorized gas line work.

Anonymous said...

Landlord using a fuck up to kick out a small business and replace it with a starbucks for 5 times the rent. Restaurant should have got a permit but let's not kid ourselves on what the landlord wants and will get.