The Blaz cowardly avoids Commissioner Shea's press briefing after a cop got shot

 

NY Post

Where was Bill?

Mayor de Blasio was a no-show at the NYPD’s early-morning Saturday news conference about the shooting of a police lieutenant in the Bronx, and City Hall did not offer an explanation for his absence.

“That’s typical of him,” grumbled one police source of Hizzoner. “He never has cared about police officers. So it’s not surprising he’s showing his true colors with only a few months left.”

Police Commissioner Dermot Shea briefed the media outside Jacobi Medical Center around 4 a.m. Saturday on the status of the wounded lieutenant, who was shot late Friday night in the Bronx while wrestling with accused gunman and documented gang member Jerome Roman, 26.

Roman was taken to the hospital following the episode, and his arraignment was pending Saturday in Bronx Criminal Court, cops said. The officer was treated at a hospital and released after being shot in the ankle. 

Blood on the tracks

THE CITY

A gruesome discovery by transit workers last week — an arm inside a subway tunnel — underscored a troubling trend: a growing number of people ending up on the tracks.

MTA statistics obtained by THE CITY show at least 720 instances of a “person on the roadbed” this year — including one Sunday morning in which police said a man survived after being shoved onto the tracks at Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

That’s nearly as many as the 781 cases in all of 2019 and almost 200 more than five years ago — despite a steep pandemic-driven decline in ridership and the suspension of overnight passenger service.

Some transit workers and homeless advocates believe the overnight shutdown could be helping driving the roadbed incidents.

“When the system shuts down, [homeless New Yorkers] need someplace to go,” Eddie Muniz, a subway conductor, told THE CITY. “They can’t stay on the platforms, they can’t stay on the trains, so they go into the tunnels.”

In addition, the MTA has recorded more than 180 collisions between trains and people this year — creeping past the 182 incidents in all of 2015.

Sarah Feinberg, interim president of New York City Transit, said the figures point to problems that extend beyond the subway system.

“Sadly, these numbers continue to point to the mental health and housing crises we are experiencing in this city,” Feinberg told THE CITY.

The grim figures follow a week in which an E train fatally struck a 54-year-old man Friday inside a tunnel near the Woodhaven Boulevard station on the Queen Boulevard line. Meanwhile, a 40-year-old woman survived being pushed onto the tracks and passed over by two cars of a No. 5 train at 14th Street-Union Square during the Thursday morning rush.

 

Cyclists think rules don't apply to them

From CBS 2:

Surveillance video shows a child run off a bus and get run down by a person on a bike, who blew past the bus’s flashing stop sign.

“Bikers need to abide the laws,” said community activist Gary Schlesinger, who’s been leading a social media campaign that highlights bikers behaving badly in Brooklyn. “Passing a stopped school bus that’s a terrible thing, because it’s almost impossible not to hit a child.”

In May, another bicyclist sped through a bus’s stop sign and hit a child; another raced through a red light and crashed into a woman pushing a baby stroller.

“People feel frustrated at so many accidents happening,” Schlesinger said.

So frustrated, in fact, they’ve begun taking matters into their own hands. One bus nearly hit a bicyclist trying to block him from going past.

“That is absolutely dangerous,” said Schlesinger.

Parents and drivers Layton spoke with said they’re concerned that if the NYPD doesn’t step up enforcement fast, a child might get seriously hurt.

Two squatters injured in Flushing fire

From CBS 2:

At least two people are in critical condition after a fire breaks out at a home in Queens.

More than 100 firefighters responded to the blaze, which started around 2 a.m. Monday at a home on 41st Avenue in Flushing. By the time firefighters arrived, they say the home was engulfed in flames.

Fire officials say the home was vacant, but the two people who get out on their own were squatters who were inside when the fire broke out.

“The fire building is a vacant building, but I am told there were squatters who self evacuated prior to fire department units arriving on the scene and they were transported to the hospital by our EMS,” McSweeney said.

Deck collapses with 50 people on it

From the Daily News:

A gathering in Brooklyn turned into a nightmare as a deck on the second floor of a building collapsed, injuring 13 people early Sunday, witnesses and FDNY officials said.

The collapse happened at a building at Bushwick and Willoughby Aves. in Bushwick around 12:45 a.m., an FDNY official said.

None of the injured was seriously hurt.

As many as 50 people were on the deck when it buckled, the official said.

A Department of Buildings official was on the scene to inspect the deck. It was unclear why it fell in, officials said.

Maybe because it had 50 people on it?

Vision Zero not helping Queens as much

From the Times Ledger:

Make Queens Safer, a grassroots street-safety advocacy organization, contends Queens is falling behind the other boroughs in reducing traffic injuries and fatalities over the past year.

The group’s statistical analysis of Queens’ progress in Mayor Bill de Blasio’s signature traffic safety project Vision Zero finds that the borough is struggling with traffic enforcement and motorist injuries, according to a report released this week.

Queens has faced a 2.3 percent uptick in injuries to motorists and passengers since 2013 and is now the only borough where injuries to drivers and passengers exceed 2013 levels, when Vision Zero began, the report said. Throughout the rest of the city injuries to motor vehicle occupants are down, declining by 7 percent in Brooklyn and in 16 percent in Manhattan. Queens also had a 9% increase in cyclist injuries compared to 2013.

“In five districts (Community Boards 1, 4, 7, 12 and 13), implementation of Vision Zero has been particularly weak and action to jump-start street safety improvements is most urgently needed,” the report said.

Compounding the problem, several Queens neighborhoods are seeing significantly fewer traffic tickets written for these violations by their local police precincts relative to 2013 levels, the advocacy group said. The biggest declines occurred in the 109th and 110th precincts, where ticketing was down by more than 30 percent, with the most significant drops in tickets for cell-phone use.

As part of the Vision Zero effort, NYPD received resources to hire additional traffic safety officers.

“Based on the statistics presented here, there is little evidence that these greater workforce numbers are translating into greater enforcement on the ground. NYPD should provide an accounting of how it is using its Vision Zero budget allocations,” the report said.

Man almost killed by pothole

From the Daily News:

A man in his 50s was critically injured when he hit a pothole on his scooter in Queens on Sunday, police said.

The man was riding at 37th St. and Review Ave. in Long Island City when his tire hit the hole around 3:45 p.m., police said.

Speaking of scooters and potholes, what ever happened to NYCScout? You know, the little vehicle that used to ride around and report potholes to be filled? According to their website, they aren't going out anymore. Has the program been suspended?

Zero Vision?

Resorts World bus crashes on Woodhaven Blvd

From PIX11:

A bus crashed into a building at the intersection of Woodhaven Boulevard and 63rd Avenue Monday afternoon, leaving multiple people injured.

A Resort World Casino NYC bus operated by the Trans Express Bus Company in Brooklyn demolished part of a three-floor building at 2:30 p.m. Monday.

A witness told PIX11 the bus driver was pinned inside and people could be seen climbing out of the vehicle.

EMS reported the bus driver in critical condition was transported to Jamaica Hospital, and is expected to survive. Part of the second floor collapsed, leaving the driver pinned under loose brick, according to the FDNY.

Six people were hurt in total, one person who was inside the building at the time of the crash, according to the FDNY.

City fails to maintain bike lane, causes injury

From the Daily News:

A bicyclist was injured when he hit a pothole and impaled his neck on a nearby fence in Queens on Sunday, authorities said.

The cyclist, a man who appeared to be in his 40s, was rolling along near Stockholm St. and Woodward Ave. in Ridgewood when he hit the hole and crashed about 11:42 a.m., officials said.

The man fell off his bike and hit his head on the ground, stood up, stumbled, and then fell onto a metal fence, impaling his neck, police sources said.

"He hit his head really hard," said one witness who declined to give his name. "Then, in a daze, he starts stumbling onto this fence. He falls onto the fence and skewers his neck. (It went) all the way through his neck. It was the most gruesome, weird thing I have ever seen."

Emergency responders cut off a portion of the waist-high fence in order to treat the man. He was taken to Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in stable condition, sources said.

Build bike lanes.
Encourage people to use them.
Fail to maintain them.
Repeat.

Building collapses in Bed-Stuy

From WPIX:

A four-story building at 1438 Fulton Street in Bedford-Stuyvesant collapsed suddenly around 2:30 p.m.

A person walking by the building was injured in the collapse. The extent of their injuries is unknown at this time.

Adjoining buildings at 1440, 1442 and 1444 Fulton Street are being evacuated as the FDNY and Department of Buildings evaluate their stability.

It’s still unclear if there are any occupants trapped in the debris.

Crane drops A/C, injures 10 people

From the NY Post:

At least 10 people were injured when a construction crane dropped a massive heating and air-conditioning unit nearly 30 stories at a Midtown building Sunday, officials and witnesses said.

Workers were attempting to lift the unit into one of the Madison Avenue office building’s control rooms when the rigging strap holding it broke, sending it plummeting to the street around 10:45 a.m., said a source familiar with the investigation.

The metal rectangular unit struck the side of the building multiple times as it fell, sending glass and building debris raining down. The unit landed in the middle of Madison Avenue between 38th and 39th streets.

Juniper Valley Park playgrounds are hazardous

From the Queens Courier:

Juniper Valley Park in Middle Village has cost taxpayers at least about $300,000 over the last decade due to personal injuries claims, according to a new report.

The green space tied for second place for playground-related personal injury claims filed against the city from 2005 to 2014, which citywide cost more than $20.6 million, City Comptroller Scott Stringer said.

Stringer’s analysis also found that annual claims in the city rose 53 percent from just 45 incidents in 2005 to 69 last year.

Of the 577 park- and playground-related injury claims over the decade, 111 accidents occurred in Queens. That number is much less than city leader Brooklyn, which set the bar at 209.

Juniper Valley Park had six injury claims filed against the city over the decade for accidents related to missing matting, holes and defective swings. Five of those claims recorded a combined $297,500, according to Stringer’s analysis. The amount of one was not given in the report.

Local residents say Juniper has a numerous issues, including holes, defective equipment, cracks and other trip hazards, and that the Parks Department neglects to take action and fix the park, even though problems have been reported.

Fire kills man in Jamaica

From the Daily News:

A 64-year-old man was killed and his 89-year-old mother was injured when a fire tore through their Queens home before dawn Monday, cops said.

The blaze apparently broke out in the basement of 168-37 118th Road in Jamaica about 3:30 a.m., an FDNY spokesman said.

About 60 firefighters responded and pulled the mother and son out of the smoke-filled home, officials said.

The man was rushed to Queens General Hospital but couldn't be saved. His mom was taken to Franklin General Hospital in stable condition. A third person was injured but refused treatment, officials said.

Another basement fire leaves man critical

From the Daily News:

A man was critically injured in a Queens house fire, officials said Saturday.

The blaze broke out just after 11:30 p.m. Friday in the basement of a three-story home on 66th St. near 50th Ave. in Maspeth, according to FDNY officials.

Firefighter Frank Busener of Ladder 136, met with choking smoke and heavy fire in the rear of the building, found the victim unconscious near a stairwell.

With help from Firefighter Roger Rudzewick and Captain Brian Neville, Busener brought the victim outside to waiting EMS workers, officials said.

The victim, who appeared to be about 30 years old, was in respiratory arrest, but EMS workers managed to get his pulse back as they rushed him to Elmhurst Hospital, where he was listed in critical condition.

Safety of pre-K kids in question

From the NY Post:

Mayor de Blasio’s frenzied push to expand pre-K programs has had dangerous consequences — hundreds of serious violations at unprepared centers since the start of the school year, including at least 78 for hazardous infractions that have still not been remedied, a Post review found.

The most alarming violations were cited at three centers that failed to report significant issues to the Department of Health — allegations of child abuse, the arrest of a staff member or an injury to a child — within 24 hours, as the oversight agency mandates.

And dozens of additional centers failed to conduct required security-clearance checks on their workers, according to DOH records, which show that at least 22 of the programs have not yet done so.

Experts said de Blasio’s pre-K cheerleading could be behind the rash of violations, which include failure to provide “competent” oversight of kids, not properly maintaining fire extinguishers and not having metal guards on windows to prevent a child from falling.

Stop work order at Flushing Commons

From the Daily News:

Work has been halted at a major Flushing development site since Friday, when a baseball-sized boulder flew across 39th Avenue, shattering the window of a bank and injuring a security guard.

Construction workers were chopping rocks at the Flushing Commons site on Aug. 8, as part of excavation for the $1 billion mega-development, when the dislodged stone flew over the 8-foot wall and soared like a well-struck chip shot across the crowded downtown street.

A security guard from the Woori America Bank was hospitalized from the shattered glass with serious but non-life threatening injuries, an FDNY spokesman said.

Developers said they held a safety meeting on Tuesday and were working with the city Department of Buildings to rectify the situation.

Some sidewalk sheds pose a hazard

From New York World:

Sidewalk sheds have become a fixture of New York City’s landscape, with the number of permits more than doubling since 1998 to nearly 10,000.

The sheds are mandated by the city whenever construction, remodeling or demolition is taking place and several private contractors specialize in building the structures.

But the city’s effort to ensure that the structures are safe and effective has faltered, a New York World investigation found.

Among the findings:

● A special Scaffold Safety Team, created in late 2007 by the Bloomberg administration to monitor construction scaffolds and sidewalks sheds, has seen its staff reduced from 14 field inspectors in 2008 to 9 in 2013.
● The number of violations issued for faulty sheds has plummeted, from 855 in 2009 to 337 in 2013.
● At least 39 pedestrians and construction workers have been injured since January 2011 in accidents involving sidewalk sheds

While no deaths have been recorded over the last four years, victims have suffered serious injuries, including concussions and electric shock.

In most cases reviewed by the World, the shed collapse occurred during the construction or removal of the shed, as the result of falling construction debris, or from high winds.

There are also instances when sidewalk sheds fail but no one happened to be walking under the shed at the time.

The World found a dozen cases between 2012 and 2013 when portions of a sidewalk shed collapsed without injury to pedestrians or workers.

For instance, on February 1, 2013, a sidewalk shed partially collapsed outside of the Hanson Place Central Methodist Church in the Fort Greene section of Brooklyn.

The DOB issued a violation against the church for failing to maintain the shed, and the inspector noted that additional sections of the shed were in danger of collapsing.

F train derails in Woodside

From CBS:

A Brooklyn-bound F train derailed Friday morning in Woodside, Queens.
The derailment happened at around 10:40 a.m. in a tunnel at 65th and Broadway.
The MTA reports the train was on the express tracks.
The FDNY is using access points to get to the subway and bring stretchers to the train.
There have been several minor injuries, according to CBS 2′s Kathryn Brown.

Sad day in Harlem

From the Daily News:

In the months before a gas leak leveled two E. Harlem buildings, there were telltale signs of potential trouble.

Tenants say they complained repeatedly about strong gas odor in the buildings, making calls to 311 as recently as Wednesday morning.

And as of Wednesday, the city had yet to check to see if the owner of one of the doomed buildings had ever repaired a dangerous wall crack discovered in 2008.

Nine months ago a contractor installed a new gas line from the basement to the 5th floor in one of the buildings, and was allowed to sign off on his own work under a common practice known as “self-certification.”

At the time, the installation was “audited” by the city to ensure there were no leaks and as of Wednesday officials said there was no suggestion the new pipe caused the leak.

Rare owl found injured in Flushing

More photos at WINORR on Facebook.

UPDATE from WINORR - Wildlife In Need of Rescue and Rehabilitation at 7:30pm: "I am very sad to say that he has passed. The trauma was too much for him to overcome."