Queens is burning again: Makeshift boarding house goes up in flames and kills 3 people in Jamaica Estates

Update. 17 people were living in this house. Queens Borough Redundancy/President Donnie Richards called the fire "preventable", which is pretty far-fetched considering these boarders could only afford to live virtually on top of each other because the city built a bunch of towers in the city's housing connect system that were 80% market rate. The landlord decided to put the fire out himself and waited to call 911. The City Of Yes will fix this.

 Firehouse

Three men died in a Queens fire early Sunday that tore through a house full of illegally converted apartments — with panicked survivors leaping out of windows to escape the flames, FDNY officials said.

The two-alarm blaze broke out on Chevy Chase St. near Henley Road in Jamaica Estates about 1:30 a.m., officials said, with the inferno soon bursting through the windows and roof.

FDNY officials described the house as a firetrap, with no apparent smoke detectors, makeshift walls and occupants packed into apartments on the first and second floor as well as the cellar and attic.

One of the survivors described making a desperate escape as his father died leaping out of a second-story window.

“There was a lot of smoke inside. We cannot get out. I broke the window so we can just get out of the window. This is the only way,” said Abdullah Zaher, 25. “There was no flames upstairs. Smoke! My father jumped, my brother jumped, and I jumped in the end.”

Zaher’s hand bled heavily from breaking the window as he spoke to the Daily News hours later. His father didn’t survive.

“He was everything to me, literally everything to me. He was a friend, he was a father, he was a giver. Literally everything. There was food, he would give me the food,” Zaher said. “He’s still working, trying to survive. He was a chauffeur.. Uber driver.”

Firefighters found three men dead at the scene, ages 45, 52 and 67, according to police.

“There’s no evidence to us at this time that there’s a working smoke detector in this house,” FDNY Commissioner Robert Tucker told reporters at the scene. “And there’s a lot of evidence of extension cords and other carelessness.”

At least eight residents were hurt but survived, including three injured jumping out of second-floor and attic windows, according to police sources. One of the survivors is in critical condition, according to FDNY officials.

FDNY Chief of Department John Esposito described the scene in the house.

“When our units arrived, they had fire out the windows of the first floor. The fire had extended to the second floor and attic and these were all living spaces,” he said. “There were makeshift walls. The means of egress were substandard, exits blocked, stairways blocked.”

“There was a wall through the middle of the kitchen, which was very abnormal,” he added. “There’s makeshift access to the second floor, which allows the fire to spread much quicker upstairs.”

Four firefighters suffered minor injuries in the blaze, which the FDNY brought under control by about 3 a.m.

The house is listed in city records as a single-family home, but dozens of Buildings Department complaints dating as far back as 2008 show neighbors and residents complaining that it was illegally converted into a roominghouse.

The most recent complaint, from February 2023, reads, “The home owner [has] a mental disabled individual living in the basement. The homeowner built a half wall in the kitchen so someone can live there … there is approximately 12 to 14 people in the house.”

“It’s so frustrating because we’ve been watching this unfold for years. I called 311. My husband called 311. Many of the neighbors called 311,” said Steve Fischer, 67, who lives across the street on the upper-class tree-lined block. “We knew based on what we saw that it was being used as an illegal roominghouse.”

“It wasn’t for lack of many people trying to alert the city that there was something illegal going on,” he added.

Buildings Department officials said the owners of the house were hit with a violation in 2010 for illegally converting the basement into an apartment and in 2016 for work without a permit when they constructed two wood-frame structures in the back and side yards.

Since then, the Buildings Department has received several 311 calls complaining about illegal conversion conditions — but inspectors were unable to get into the building for one visit in 2020 and three visits in 2023, agency officials said.

“Calls would prompt people from the city to show up. Supposedly they would knock. The guy was not an idiot. He wouldn’t answer the door,” Fischer said of the landlord. “It’s so frustrating because it was so avoidable. … I hope he is charged criminally.”

The cause of the blaze is under investigation.

Tony Rock, 40, who paid about $1,000 a month to live in a first-floor room, dived out of a window to escape the fire.

“I heard screaming, the guy upstairs above me … begging to get out of the room. He’s in there dying,” Rock said.  “I saw him jump out the window.”

Nearly 20 years of complaints on four pages on the NYC Buildings website

 

Expressway Haunted Mansion

 

Riding along the Van Wyck Expressway while it's still under construction, I did a double take and saw this huge house on the corner of 105th ave.

 

Parking is forbidden by the entrance but it hasn't discourage this ricer car owner. Although it looks like this house had a steady occupation by squatters for some time.

A full dumpster indicates gut renovations.

 

Like every other abandoned house or vacant lot, the plywood fence is covered with numerous posters of festivals coming to town.

 

It kinda looks like the Bates Motel.

Mother?

 

Looked up the address on the Buildings Dept. website and there isn't much information about who is renovating this house. But it did have a record of multiple families living in this quasi-mansion from 30 years ago, which surely still continued considering the number of satellite dishes. But with the City Of Yes coming, the owner of this house can get away with building a little more housing for another 10 families and a dozen single men delivering food on motorcycles.

Sanctuary City For Sale

THE CITY

It was already dark when Mayor Eric Adams and his security detail pulled up to the curb of the Wyndham Garden, a drab hotel next to a strip mall in Fresh Meadows, Queens.

At the time, his administration was paying for the hotel to shelter more than 100 formerly incarcerated New Yorkers integrating back into society after their release.

But the mayor wasn’t here to check in on one of his criminal justice initiatives. On that November evening nearly two years ago, Adams was visiting Winnie Greco, a top mayoral staffer, who had recently moved into one of the rooms at the Wyndham Garden.

Adams got out of the car, walked through a side door and went up to Greco’s specially arranged suite on the 11th floor, according to two sources with knowledge of the visit.

The mayor had been to the hotel before. Its owner, Weihong Hu, had thrown two campaign fundraisers with Adams present when he was running for mayor in 2021. Now Hu, who was reaping millions of dollars in city business through this very facility, was housing Greco in a room paid for by taxpayers, business and government records obtained for this story show. 

Greco ended up staying at Hu’s hotel for more than eight months, initially as she recovered from surgery, according to two sources with knowledge of her stay.

The lodging arranged for the mayor’s advisor is just one facet of a mutually beneficial relationship between Adams, an aggressive campaign fundraiser, and Hu, an ambitious hotel operator who bundled tens of thousands of dollars in campaign checks for his mayoral campaign and subsequently scored behind-the-scenes benefits and millions in contract dollars from his administration, an investigation by THE CITY, The Guardian US and Documented reveals.

The details of how this relationship blossomed in the odd setting of a hotel-turned-shelter offer a rare window into the way transactional dealings have taken shape in the Adams era. 

This report is based on a review of thousands of pages of city and business records and interviews with more than 20 of Hu’s former associates and current and former government officials. Nearly all sources spoke on the condition of anonymity citing fears of retaliation from Hu or the administration. Several provided reporters with photos, text messages, emails and videos to back up their claims.

In Hu’s case, multimillion-dollar city-funded contracts to her companies’ hotels continued to flow as she befriended a tightly knit core of the mayor’s longtime associates, some the subject of law enforcement investigations and ethical controversies who multiple sources say pledged to go to bat for her with city agencies.

It was at a 2021 fundraiser with Adams at her hotel that Hu became acquainted with a longtime pal of the future mayor, John Sampson. Formerly a state senator, Sampson had been released from federal custody only a month earlier, after being sentenced to a five-year prison term for trying to obstruct a probe investigating allegations that he embezzled more than $400,000. 

Hu named Sampson as CEO of one of her hotel companies in early 2023, and, according to a former city official familiar with the situation, he committed to helping her land a lucrative contract for a migrant shelter at a hotel she operates in Long Island City, Queens. A month later, the Department of Homeless Services approved a city-funded migrant contract slated to disburse $7.5 million annually to the hotel.

Hu also enlisted the help of another trusted Adams advisor, Rev. Alfred Cockfield II, whom she introduced to colleagues as a “consultant,” according to one former associate who said he attended business meetings with Hu and Cockfield. The former associate and another source with direct knowledge of the matter said Hu enlisted Cockfield to help her reverse city orders halting construction at two major hotel developments in midtown Manhattan.

Cockfield is a politically wired pastor who, after Adams won the mayoral primary, launched a political action committee, Striving for a Better New York, which he told Politico was intended to uplift “moderate,” “pro-business” candidates in the Adams mold. 

“The work I’m doing is God’s work,” he said. 

Yet campaign finance records show the PAC paid Cockfield $144,000 in wages and consulting fees — many times more than what it ever gave to an individual candidate. It also gave $60,000 to a charter school Cockfield leads. Last year, the school returned the entire sum after the state’s Division of Election Law Enforcement sent inquiries to the PAC about some of its allocations. 

The mayor’s son, Jordan Coleman, dressed in black and pushing a roller suitcase, and an unidentified woman also stayed in a room in November 2022 at the Fresh Meadows hotel where Greco was staying, according to a former worker at the hotel. That room, too, was among the 148 paid for by taxpayers.

Coleman hung up on a reporter and didn’t respond to text messages seeking comment. In a phone call, Hu’s attorney, Kevin Tung, denied that the mayor’s son stayed at the hotel overnight, but said he may have visited to discuss business with Greco, who has at times accompanied him to events.

The administration’s largesse flowed back to Hu in a variety of ways, the investigation’s findings show. After Adams came into office, his administration authorized the renewal of Hu’s six-month shelter contract at the Fresh Meadows hotel four times, reaping her business $6.2 million a year in income. 

It also finalized a second contract sending $6.3 million a year to Hu’s hotel in Long Island City, despite a history of elevator breakdowns and minimal housekeeping detailed to reporters by former workers and claimed in court documents. 

Last year, the Department of Homeless Services twice approved a more lucrative arrangement for the Long Island City hotel, bumping its annual potential revenue to a total of $8.8 million, government records show.

The help a close Adams ally can offer was evident on two occasions in which, according to sources, Hu tapped Cockfield for assistance with city authorities.

After a building inspector halted construction at one of her hotel developments, near Bryant Park on West 39th Street, citing a serious safety issue, the minister made a late-night call to top Department of Buildings officials and urged them to allow construction to proceed, according to a source familiar with buildings department operations. 

Roughly an hour later, the agency reversed the stop work order, which department records show was lifted just after 11 p.m.

At the second hotel development, Hu retained Cockfield to help lift a city Department of Buildings stop-work order issued after Hu’s team had begun an illegal demolition of rent-stabilized apartment buildings on West 35th Street in Manhattan, according to a source who said he attended meetings with Hu and Cockfield about the situation. That source said Cockfield and another individual he couldn’t identify promised to call city agencies on the hotel owner’s behalf. 

In late 2022, the Department of Buildings gave Hu permission to resume construction on that site, approving a plan that ignored a previous commitment to neighborhood leaders and the city’s housing agency to preserve affordable apartments.

Sneaky Shelter

 
Queens Chronicle

During a Cambria Heights Civic Association Zoom meeting last Thursday, many residents aired their concerns about what will become of a defunct area Rite Aid, located at 222-14 Linden Blvd.

Throughout the online forum, several people said they had heard rumors that the new owner of the former pharmacy’s lot intends to transform the space into a transient shelter and worried that could destroy property values and create safety problems.

Under the city Department of Buildings certificate of occupancy, or CofO, Comments section, it was noted that “the facility shall be operated by a philanthropic or non-profit institution, sponsored by [the Department of Homeless Services] ... This certificate shall expire when the ownership operation and use by an institution or public agency ... ceases. The Class B multiple dwelling classification of this building is lodging house.”

DOB’s job filing data says there are no work permits filed, but the zoning information, scope of work and cost affidavit sections have proposals for a transient lodging house, which would include a community facility, a cafeteria and eight dwelling units for 120 beds. If the proposal were to go through, the project is expected to cost $607,170 in property alterations.

Bryan Block, the president of CHCA, said there were about 60 objections to the proposed project as of April 11.

Some of the objections to converting the space include a lack of egress, the parking layout, the elevation of the lot, the noncombustible rooftop hatch and whether the property was in a flood zone, according to DOB.

“The civic was not notified about this and nothing came to the community board,” said Block, “Yes, there was a rumor going around, but there was nothing filed until a couple weeks ago. So, when we said it was a rumor, it was because we didn’t have anything in writing from about three weeks ago. We don’t go on rumors, we go on what we get from the city and we still haven’t gotten anything from the city.”

The lot is zoned R3-2, which in general denotes residential districts that allow a variety of housing types, including low-rise attached houses, small multifamily apartment houses, and detached and semidetached one- and two-family residences. It is the lowest-density zoning district in which multiple dwellings are permitted in Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island and the Bronx, according to the Department of City Planning.

“The site where the building is located is ... zoned residential, but it has a commercial overlay, which allowed the Rite Aid commercial use there,” said Steven Taylor, a CHCA board member. “The point I’m making is, they have the ability to make this for residential use even though we’ve always looked at it as a commercial use.”

The lot is 20,460 square feet, including the 10,000-square-foot commercial building and 30 parking spots. It is a six- to 11-minute drive from five Long Island Rail Road stations, the E,F, J and Z subway stations and the JFK AirTrain. It was put up for sale on Dec. 12, 2023 and sold for $5 million on Feb. 16, according to several real estate websites.

State Sen. Leroy Comrie (D-St. Albans) said seeking an injunction against the DOB to prevent a shelter from being erected in the space could be a possibility.

“I’m going to check with the councilmember if one has not been filed,” Comrie said.

 

Avalanche at B.J.'s

Getting high while building high

 CityLand

On October 30, 2023, the Department of Buildings announced a new initiative to help combat overdoses among construction workers. A recent Department of Health survey Health revealed that construction workers led occupational groups in overdose deaths. In response to the Department of Health’s survey, both the Health and Building Departments are taking action to address the dangers of substance abuse and highlight the tools provided by the City to construction workers. Staff from both agencies will visit construction sites and discuss substance abuse issues, fentanyl, Naloxone use and its role in preventing a fatal overdose, work site safety, and how to keep themselves safe on and off construction sites.

The Department of Health survey found that in 2020, 269 construction workers died of an overdose. National data held similarly, with a finding that the construction industry saw the most fatal overdoses out of all other occupations according to the US Centers for Disease Control analysis. The data in the Department of Health’s survey showed that between people 18 to 64 of all races and ethnic groups, those with jobs fitting the ‘Construction and Extraction’ field, which covers multiple specific occupations in the construction industry.

Overall citywide, there has been a steep increase in fatal overdoses, with Fentanyl involved in more than 80 percent of drug overdoses in New York City. Fentanyl is mostly found along with heroin but has also been traced to other substances including illicitly manufactured pills.

To combat this, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene provides free programs to New Yorkers in an effort to increase awareness around overdoses. This effort includes, free naloxone and fentanyl test strips, city-run medication for opioid use disorder programs, and harm reduction resources. More information about how to obtain a free naloxone kit is available here and New Yorkers can call 988 for free confidential crisis counseling, mental health and substance use support, information and referrals.

The Department of Buildings will require all construction workers working on larger and more complex sites to take 40 Site Safety Training which includes a two-hour drug and alcohol awareness class. This class will focus on the harms of substance abuse and the consequences of chemical dependence. The Department of Buildings will also be requesting that contractors and site safety professionals in drug and alcohol safety information be included in their “tool box talks” or pre shift daily meetings.

Mayor Eric Adams said, “The opioid crisis has hurt people in every community and at every phase of life, so we must be comprehensive in our efforts to tackle it and keep New Yorkers safe. New York City is facing a deadly and devastating opioid crisis, and that’s why last month, our administration convened elected leaders, public health officials, and law enforcement from across the nation to develop strategies around reducing and preventing drug use. By educating construction workers on substance use disorders and providing them with the support they need, we are addressing this dire issue and helping the New Yorkers who build and maintain our city.”

 

Department of Buildings warns public not to fall from buildings on Independence Day

 

DOB ADVISES NEW YORKERS NOT TO BECOME A “JULY 5TH STORY”

Don’t risk life and limb just to get a better view of the fireworks display! Stay safe this July 4th holiday to avoid becoming a tragic headline the next day

 

New York, NY –The Department of Buildings today is sounding the alarm to all property owners and residents to be especially mindful of existing safety regulations for the proper use of rooftops, terraces, balconies, and fire escapes in New York City this Independence Day. Ignoring these safety regulations to get a better view of holiday fireworks displays can lead to a deadly accidental fall, providing yet another tragic story for the papers and the six o’clock news the next day. Regulations around these elevated structures apply all year long, but are particularly relevant this month as New Yorkers look for vantage points to view the Macy’s Fourth of July fireworks display, which is scheduled for this Tuesday evening. Unlawful gatherings on fire escapes and rooftops that are not specifically designed for regular occupancy have tragically led to multiple fatal falls in New York City in recent years.

 

“This Fourth of July holiday we are once again strongly urging patriotism-loving New Yorkers and firework enthusiasts alike to prioritize safety,” said Department of Buildings Commissioner Jimmy Oddo. “It simply isn’t safe to watch fireworks from an unsecured building roof or a fire escape, where one false step can have life-altering consequences. For those planning to enjoy the rockets’ red glare tomorrow, our message is to select an appropriate place to watch the show in order to avoid becoming a July 5th story.”

 

Property owners and tenants should closely follow the following safety rules to avoid becoming a headline in the news on July 5th:

 

·         Do not access building rooftops to watch the fireworks, unless the rooftop has an approved deck or other approved space for gatherings, equipped with code-compliant guardrails, multiple emergency exits, signage indicating the maximum legal occupancy, and other required safety features.

·         Do not gather to watch the fireworks on fire escapes, which are not designed nor meant to be used as a balcony. For the safety of everyone in the building, fire escapes must be kept free of obstructions at all times.

·         Do not overcrowd terraces, balconies, or legal rooftop spaces. Overcrowding these spaces can pose a serious hazard to occupants.

·         Do not prop open emergency doors or disable door alarms leading to rooftop areas of a building that are not meant to be legally occupied. Unsecured rooftop spaces can pose a serious danger to building occupants, especially children.

·         Do not lean out of a window, over an edge, a parapet wall or over a railing for a better view of the fireworks display.

·         Avoid approaching any building edge that is not protected by a wall or railing.

 

Property owners are legally obligated to maintain their properties in a safe condition. New Yorkers are encouraged to call 311 to report unsafe building conditions to the Department, and call 911 to report emergencies.

Dob employee with fake georgia temp plate parks front of queens borough hall daily

 

If you walk by borough hall on queens boulevard in queens, monday through friday during business hours you will see a white bmw with a fake temporary georgia plate and a department of buildings vest in the dashboard.

 

 

 

The temporary georgia plate is fake as the paper is not cardstock and printed from a printer, missing the georgia state seal sticker logo, some blurred ink printing and the color of the vehicle only the 1st letter should be capitalized not the whole word

 

 

 

 

The commanding officer of the 102 precinct and the queens borough president's chief of staff Michael Mallon were notified about this and several 311 complaints were made, but still this department of buildings employee is allowed to drive around with a fake plate, unregistered and uninspected vehicle and to make it worse put his department of buildings vest in the dashboard and park in front of a city building with it. 

 

How lovely that us hard-working law abiding taxpayers who pay exorbitant amounts to register and inspect our vehicles properly in new york are forced to observe this direct violation of the law in front of a city building where our Borough president's office is. Apparently the law only applies to non city employees.

Department of Buildings blew off vetting of laborers that led to blow ups of buildings

NY Post

The city Buildings Department is turning a blind eye to safety by allowing unlicensed or unqualified laborers to perform gas piping work in new or reconstructed developments, an explosive lawsuit filed by the plumbers union claims.

The Manhattan Supreme Court suit accuses the DOB of failing to comply with a city law that tightened up licensing requirements for gas piping installation following deadly explosions in East Harlem and the East Village in 2014 and 2015.

“DOB’s complete dereliction of its duty to enforce gas and welder qualification requirements has facilitated wholesale non-compliance with these safety rules throughout the City and created a public safety time bomb,” claims the suit, filed by Plumbers Union Local 1.

The 2020 law imposed restrictions on who can perform such hazardous “gas work,” making it illegal to do so without a DOB-issued Gas Qualification permit.

But the 45-page complaint cites examples alleging DOB approved of illegal gas work on taxpayer funded public projects, unlicensed workers performing piping installations and cases of “unverified inspections” by contractors.

Licensed union plumbers provided affidavits as part of the legal action, claiming they witnessed shoddy workmanship being performed in buildings and other workers without a “gas qualification” license.

The union claims the DOB is turning a blind eye while granting hundreds of gas approvals in large residential towers, schools, luxury hotels and other buildings, according to the suit.

YIMBY Density Housing Development Switcheroo

 

 

Impunity City 

 While Southside Queens in the 1141 zip code areas is notorious for it’s McMansions and other ostentatiously tack developments, I never would have thought that one of these things would be coming to South Richmond Hill, an aesthetically ugly and density based apartment building that’s out of scale with the rest of the area. What was normal to see built in officially gentrified enclaves in Brooklyn under the guise (and the cudgel) of affordable housing has now reached all the way on the east side of town. (Not counting the luxury public housing building in Ozone Park and the three mammoth towers at nearby Sutphin Blvd in Jamaica).

Ulrich folds 'em

 

 Queens Chronicle

Eric Ulrich has resigned from his position as city Department of Buildings commissioner, the Mayor’s Office announced this morning. 

The move comes after Ulrich, formerly a three-term Republican councilmember representing District 32, reportedly became a focus of a criminal gambling probe by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. He was tapped by Mayor Adams in May to lead the DOB after serving as a senior advisor for the administration.

“This morning, Eric Ulrich tendered his resignation as DOB commissioner in an effort to, in his words, avoid ‘unnecessary distraction for the Adams administration,’” Fabien Levy, spokesperson for the Mayor’s Office, said in a prepared statement this morning.(Sure Fab, when Mayor Adams throws you under the bus at least he leaves you with some dignity-JQ LLC)

He continued, “We have accepted his resignation, appreciate him taking this step, and wish him well. We have no further knowledge of any investigation and, out of respect for his and his family’s privacy, have nothing further to add.”

In the meantime, First Deputy Commissioner Kazimir Vilenchik will serve as acting commissioner and no city services will be impacted, according to the statement. 

Ulrich was reportedly approached near his home in Rockaway Park by investigators with a search warrant on Tuesday, according to The New York Times.

The scope and focus of the investigation are not yet known but outlets have reported that, according to sources, the conduct relates to his time in City Council, not in the DOB, and involve debts racked up during back-room card games.

 

 

The Gambler

 

 

 NY Daily News

Eric Ulrich, Mayor Adams’ Buildings commissioner, was questioned by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office Tuesday as part of an investigation into illegal gambling, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Manhattan DA investigators grilled Ulrich after serving him with a search warrant near his Rockaway Park home, the sources said. The New York Times reported that the investigators also seized Ulrich’s cellphone.

Ulrich did not return a request for comment on his face-off with investigators. Danielle Filson, a spokeswoman for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, declined to comment.

“Our administration has no knowledge of any type of investigation,” said Fabien Levy, a spokesman for Adams. “If an investigation were to be be conducted, we would expect any member of this administration to cooperate fully.”

Ulrich served as a special adviser to the mayor before he was appointed to his current post in May.

Before news broke of the search warrant targeting Ulrich, Adams was abruptly whisked away from a City Hall press conference by an aide Tuesday morning.

Ulrich, who served as a member of the City Council for 12 years before joining Adams’ administration, has a history of gambling.

The "affordable housing" development of death

Documented 

On April 6, Holger Molina, a 46-year-old immigrant from Ecuador, was removing plywood as part of his job in the construction of a 17 story tower. It is slated to become the tallest building in the area bordering Ridgewood, Queens and Bushwick, Brooklyn. It was raining when, at 3 p.m., Molina slipped and fell from the first-floor stairwell approximately 20 feet through a hole into the basement. He was rushed to Wyckoff Hospital and the next day was declared dead from the injuries sustained in his fall, according to the safety incident report filed by his employer.

After the accident, a Department of Buildings inspector visited the construction site and “observed no safety measures to safeguard workers,” according to the violation report, which considered the incident an aggravated offense level two, the most serious violation from the agency. The judge of the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings in New York upheld the violation and slapped the contractor, AB Capstone Builders Corp, with the maximum penalty — a $25,000 fine. For that single incident, the Department of Buildings would issue additional violations for penalties worth $55,000 in total. 

The penalties were imposed after the project, slated to be called Myrtle Point — a mixed-use complex with four floors of commercial space and 133 residential units, of which 30 percent would be an “affordable component” — had been fully suspended on three instances since 2021. As of today, the Department of Buildings has issued five full-stop work orders after considering that the work on any of the 90,000-square-foot property was unsafe for workers. 

That’s an inordinate number of stop-work orders for a construction project. For example, the 47-story office tower at 425 Park Avenue scheduled to be completed next year — a complex renovation project that added 75% new construction to the old building’s structure, costing more than $900 million — has over 90 safety violations, according to Department of Buildings records. However, this agency has never issued a stop-work order for that renovation project, which started in 2016.

Knock and leave a citation three times

 Since when does DOB go back a third time? Glad they did, though.

 

Roof pool uncool with DOB

Eric Ulrich is commissioner of the Department of Buildings

 

NY Post

Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday named an ex-City Councilman as his Buildings Commissioner and an ally of disgraced state lawmaker Hiram Monserrate to be the Big Apple’s next sheriff.

The two appointments came as Hizzoner traveled to California for a technology-related conference.

The new buildings chief, Eric Ulrich, was first elected to represent Queens at City Hall in a February 2009 special election and departed last year under the term limits law.

Adams initially hired him in January as a senior adviser, where he helped vet candidates for other key positions in the administration.

 

Construction worker falls to his death at luxury public housing tower development site

QNS 

The Myrtle Point development, also known as Ridgewood Towers, located at 3-50 St. Nicholas Ave., will be 17 stories — making it the tallest building in the area once completed. The mixed-use building will be used for retail and residential spaces.

According to the DOB, the first four floors will be dedicated to commercial use.

In the months leading up to this fatal incident, DOB issued a total of eight violations regarding safety conditions at the construction site. These violations could total thousands of dollars in fines pending an Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings investigation.

One violation issued in March cited a “failure to institute/maintain safety measures resulting in worker injury due to inadequate housekeeping at time of inspection…”

Ted Renz, the executive director of the Myrtle Avenue Business Improvement District, said that this accident was a tragedy. 

“We are deeply saddened by this tragic accident and loss of life at this construction site,” Renz said. “This is a major development in the Myrtle Avenue Business Improvement District that will bring major retail and new housing opportunities to the community.”

On March 23, just a couple of weeks before the fatal fall, DOB issued safety violations after another worker was injured due to “poor safety conditions.”

The Ridgewood Towers project was originally met with much opposition from the local community and its leaders when it was proposed over five years ago.

Queens is still burning: water pressure difficulties led to supply store inferno

 

Queens Chronicle

Two fires hit Jamaica last Wednesday just hours apart. The first was at 101 Plumbing & Electrical Supplies and the second at a two-story vacant commercial building that was once used as a Nissan car dealership.

The blazes at both locations were so severe that the city Department of Buildings held an interagency meeting at the site of 101 Plumbing on Tuesday with representatives of other city agencies, the owner, Lakhinder Multani, and his private engineer, and it also issued a full vacate order for the former car dealership directly after the March 30 fire, which remained in effect after a follow-up inspection on Monday.

The DOB on Tuesday approved plans by Multani to demolish the electrical supply store, located at 138-14 101 Ave., and work was expected to begin that day, according to a spokesman from the agency. An update on the status of the demolition will be issued later this week.

The fire at the plumbing store, went to five alarms, according to the FDNY’s acting chief of department, John Hodgens.

“We had heavy smoke coming from a one-story commercial building ... and a collapse of parts of the interior of the building,” Hodgens said at press conference on March 30.

The blaze at the store, which housed a shop and an industrial warehouse, required the deployment of more than 200 firefighters and EMS workers dispatched from 44 units, according to the FDNY.

“We have no injuries reported,” Hodgens said of civilians. “Our chief concern is containing this fire and preventing it from spreading to the building on either sides of it. We are going to be here for a while.”

The city Department of Environmental Protection had to step in to help contain the fire because of water pressure issues, according to Hodgens.

“We didn’t have enough water coming out from the hydrant main system,” said the fire chief. “We needed DEP to step in and help us isolate [the problem] to get better water pressure.”

Cars had to also be moved for firefighters to put out the blaze, added Hodgens.

“Sometimes we have to use tow trucks to move them,” he said. “We need to get the apparatus into the building to be effective.”

Houses also surrounded the electrical supply store, which was also a cause of concern for Hodgens.

“We addressed that immediately,” said Hodgens. “The fire is contained to 101 Electrical Supplies.”

The fire at the supply store was under control at 1:11 a.m., according to the FDNY.

The city Department of Buildings arrived March 30 and conducted structural stability inspections, according to a DOB spokesman. Inspectors documented extensive fire damage to the property, including the collapse of the building’s roof. The adjoining premises, 138-18 101 Ave, suffered damage to its garage and due to the severity of the damage and the interest of public safety, a full vacate order was issued last Friday.

Man killed by dumpster at Flushing house where illegal renovation was going on

NY Daily News 

No city construction permits had been filed at a Queens home where a 32-year-old man was fatally hit in the head by a dumpster door, city Department of Building officials said Tuesday.

The inside of the home on 191st St. near Northern Blvd. in Flushing was undergoing a “full gut renovation” when the door to a massive dumpster in the driveway popped open, striking a 32-year-old neighbor in the head, according to city records.

First responders found the victim pinned between the dumpster door and the house. He died at the scene.

A truck was dropping off the dumpster when the door popped open, police said. Jiangtao, who lived down the street, was talking to a construction worker at the site when the door hit him.

City building inspectors issued a stop work order, halting all construction, after determining no work permits had ever been filed for the construction.

A truck was dropping off the dumpster when the door popped open, police said. Jiangtao, who lived down the street, was talking to a construction worker at the site when the door hit him.

City building inspectors issued a stop work order, halting all construction, after determining no work permits had ever been filed for the construction.

Emergency At The Umbrella Hotel

 

Impunity City 

This is the Umbrella Hotel, where the first homicide of departing mayor and lying lowlife Bill de Blasio last year in office took place, after a fight broke out from a hotel room where another raucous party was being held and spilled outside  in front of the building’s entrance and three men got shot during a rumble between two groups of men, one of them fatally. 

 The 19-year-old killer was actually already in custody for another homicide in Queens when he shot a man to death at a karaoke bar in Flushing over a fight about a gold chain the victim was wearing.

 The Umbrella Hotel is actually a mixed use building featuring once touted luxury residences on the higher floors. But the hotel itself had persistent trouble filling vacancies, so the management decided to let a homeless service provider fill the rooms with homeless people, which the city would pay around $2,000 to $3,000 a month to shelter them.

Curiosity beckons to ask why was a NYPD patrol van standing guard idling on the common area of egress for the remaining residents of this "luxury" building? Was there a fugitive they trapped in there? Couldn't be because the freight entrance was opened. Closer inspection found that this excessive exhibition of authority probably didn't warrant this much excess.

Or did it?...