Landlords and tenants in agreement against City Council's mandatory sprinkler regulations

Habitat

The New York City Council will consider a bill on Wednesday that would require all residential buildings over 40 feet tall – single-family homes, rental apartments, and co-ops and condos – to install sprinklers by 2029. The proposal, known as Int. No. 1146-B, has already generated vigorous pushback from co-op and condo advocates, homeowners and landlords.

“The astronomical cost of such an endeavor is equaled only by the stress of chopping into each and every room in the building to install the sprinkler system,” says the Council of New York Cooperatives & Condominiums, which plans to testify today in opposition to the bill. “Mandating the tremendous capital expenditure for sprinklers will surely divert scarce funds and attention from other urgent goals of carbon reduction, energy conservation, etc. with minimal impact on public safety.”

 “This law will have a catastrophic impact on lower-density neighborhoods where owner-occupied multi-family buildings are common,” says a Change.org petition against the proposal started by the 200 Jefferson Avenue Block Association in Brooklyn’s Bedford Stuyvesant neighborhood. The petition has garnered more than 400 signatures since it was put up Monday.

Flushing Meadows playground sprinkler turned into a viral petri dish last July

Flushing Post


Parts of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park have been sanitized following a Shigellosis outbreak that infected 32 people.

In mid-July, during the blistering heat wave, scores of Queens parents took their children to cool down in the water sprinklers across NYC parks.

However, many parents who took their children to Flushing Meadows-Corona Park to escape the heat came to regret their decision.

Within a few days many children became feverish, nauseous, and/or had diarrhea.

The Health Department said in a statement that it investigated a Shigellosis outbreak associated with the park after “several individuals reported symptoms after playing in a playground with a splash pad or a large fountain.”

The Health Dept. noted that there have been 32 cases associated with the park and that it worked with the Parks Dept. to sanitize a number of areas to reduce the risk of Shigella transmission. One section that was targeted was the Playground For All Children, located by 111th Street in Corona.

The Parks Dept., in a statement, said that it “cleaned and disinfected Playground For All Children’s spray shower and other water features to [Health Dept.] specifications. As an additional precaution staff also cleaned and disinfected all other spray showers in Flushing Meadows Corona Park.”

Apparently, lead isn't the only thing in the city parks pipes you have to worry about.

East New York to be a basement conversion "guinea pig"

From CBS 2:

“We’ll use East New York as the guinea pig of how this program can work and whether or not it will work,” said Councilman Rafael Espinal, who sponsored the pilot program. “If we’re able to create a successful program, then the hope is that we'll expand it citywide.”

The councilman said in East New York, 75 percent of basement apartments are being rented illegally, which he said is dangerous. So the pilot program will offer homeowners low-interest loans to renovate apartments to make sure they are safe.

Espinal told Kramer he worked with the FDNY and Department of Buildings to develop standards, making sure the apartments have sprinklers, adequate exits, windows and ventilation.

“There’s concerns about, for example, the fact that we have boilers and furnaces in the basement. The bill will allow for homeowners to wall-off those furnaces,” he said.

I'm sure East New York enjoys being referred to as a "guinea pig". Seriously, what elected official talks like this about a neighborhood, and to a reporter no less? And what 2-family homeowner is going to take out a loan to install sprinklers when they can just continue renting out their basements illegally for tax-free $$$ the way 75% of their neighbors do?

Did we land in Oz?

Shore Towers condo units illegally converted into storage

From NBC 4:

A group of Astoria condominium owners says a cluster of apartments converted into unlawful storage units has turned their building into a fire trap. Chris Glorioso reports.

Kissena Park tennis courts need better maintenance

From CBS 2:

They claim the city has left their local tennis courts in disarray.

The Har-Tru clay courts require a lot of water to stay solid and safe. When they dry out, holes develop in the clay and nails start to surface.

Residents said the sprinkler’s timer system lasted only one season. Now someone from the parks department manually turns the sprinklers on, but the water doesn’t even reach the entire court.

CBS2 asked a parks employee to explain, but he wouldn’t say much.

“The people who put it in, they were supposed to – well, I don’t want to say,” he said.

Open hydrants pose safety hazard

WNYC

From AM-NY:

Opening up a fire hydrant to cool off is a longstanding New York tradition, but it's one with a high and rising cost.

There have been 4,458 complaints to 311 for open hydrants running in full as of July 6, according to public records, a jump from 3,845 calls during the same period last year and 4,020 in 2013.

The city's Department of Environmental Protection said it takes those complaints seriously because one hydrant can disperse 1,000 gallons of water a minute, risking lower water pressure for surrounding buildings and damaging the hydrant in real emergencies.

Cracking down on hydrant violators

From the Queens Gazette:

As summertime approaches with the promise of warmer temperatures, city officials are reminding Queens residents that they could face a stiff fine, or jail time, if they open fire hydrants without an FDNY “spray cap.”

Officials at the city Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) are again warning Queens residents that opening a fire hydrant without a spray cap can lower water pressure and make it difficult for firefighters to extinguish fires.

DEP officials also warned that the powerful force of 1,000 gallons per minute from an open hydrant could cause injury to young children.

DEP officials will be sending enforcement agents into neighborhoods throughout Queens as temperatures rise, to track down offenders reported to the 311 system and others caught using hydrants without the approved spray caps, agency officials said.

Hoidy toidy fountain breaks yet again

From DNA Info:

Long Island City parents got a burst of relief Monday when the children's sprinklers at Gantry Plaza State Park turned on for the first time this summer — but then the spray showers were closed off again the next day.

The waterfront "sprayground" had been closed since last fall, when it was damaged by saltwater that flooded the park during Hurricane Sandy. The problem appeared to be fixed earlier this week when the sprinklers were finally spouting water again and open to frolicking kids.

But on Tuesday, though the spray showers were still flowing, they were blocked off with barricades, to the disappointment of neighborhood parents.

The high-tech spray showers first debuted at the Gantry Park playground last summer, complete with an on-duty lifeguard and a button that allows children to control the sprinklers' water pressure.

Hoidy toidy fountain keeps breaking

From LIC Post:

Many Long Island City parents were excited last week when the sprinkler system at Gantry Plaza State Park was finally repaired and their children could finally run under the water keep cool.

But that initial joy that the “Rainbow Park” sprinkler provided was short lived. The sprinkler broke after 2 ½ days of operation.

“The sprinkler was damaged after Superstorm Sandy and it required a big stink for it to even come on last week,” said Kris Schrey, the head of the Long Island City Parents Group. “Now we are battling for it to be repaired yet again.”

The system’s design is the source of the problem. The designers, in a quest to be environmentally conscious, shied away from a regular system where the water would have run off into East River.

Instead they adopted a system that recycles the existing water through a filter (with chlorine), much like a swimming pool. “Unfortunately, this is an expensive, fragile and error prone system,” Schrey said.

The system also requires two employees to operate it. One employee has to monitor the chlorine levels every hour, while the other handles health & safety issues.

Translation: It takes 2 park employees to hose down yuppie spawn in LIC.

Illegal hotel operator sued by the City

From Wall Street Journal:

Mayor Michael Bloomberg's administration filed a lawsuit on Monday against what is believed to be the largest operator of illegal hotels in New York City, seeking $1 million in damages and the creation of a restitution fund for tourists who have been duped and exposed to dangerous conditions.

The lawsuit in state Supreme Court accuses Smart Apartments LLC and Toshi Inc., a related company that was dissolved last year, of operating illegal short-stay rooms in as many as 50 residential buildings in Manhattan and Brooklyn. The suit also named as a defendant Robert "Toshi" K.Y. Chan, the companies' principal executive, who appeared in an Academy Award-winning film, "The Departed," and is known for throwing lavish parties in New York.

"Illegal hotel operators create hazardous conditions and place the lives of guests in danger," Mr. Bloomberg said in an email. "With this lawsuit, we are sending a clear message to operators of all illegal hotels: Our administration will remain vigilant in its commitment to combating this public safety problem."

Mr. Chan declined a request for an interview. Jonathan Nelson, an attorney representing Smart Apartments, said in a statement that the litigation "apparently is directed toward situations that have allegedly occurred in the past."

Why do they get a pass?

From the NY Post:

The building slated to become a mosque and community center near Ground Zero now hosts weekly prayer services for several hundred worshippers despite two open violations for "immediately hazardous" conditions, The Post has learned.

The safety violations -- for holes in floors and the lack of an automatic sprinkler system -- were issued by city inspectors Aug. 3 and Sept. 1, but that hasn't stopped owners of the 152-year-old building from getting temporary permits from the city to use it.

"The two violations will not impact the current temporary place-of-assembly permit, which allows the space to be occupied," said Buildings Department spokesman Tony Sclafani.

This crap doesn't fly in NJ. From Fox 5:

Ground Zero mosque imam Feisal Abdul Rauf must reimburse Union City, N.J. officials for costs associated with keeping an off-duty police officer on guard at one of his dilapidated apartment buildings, The Jersey Journal reported Friday.

Rauf was ordered to pay $12,960 to city authorities who were fired up after having to front the ten days¿ worth of pay earned by the officer keeping fire watch while the imam made repairs ranging from faulty fire alarms to moldy bathrooms and bedbugs.

Over 200 health and fire code violations were found in the building, and Rauf has until Oct. 9 to fix them. Union City is suing the religious leader for ignoring some 30 tenant complaints from 1996 to 2010.

Bushwick hell house still a problem

From NY1:

Over a year ago, the homeowner came to NY1 For You to complain of an illegal boarding house next door. At the time, there was a serious fire violation in the house, since there were 30 men living there with no sprinkler system.

NY1 called the Fire Department and they inspected the house and ordered the building to be vacated. In response, Miracle House Incorporated, the company which runs the boarding house, installed a sprinkler system. Now, Tarrats says everything else went back to the way it was.

"The police have come on several occasions in answer to some disturbances of people that had to be removed by force," says Tarrats.

He believes the boarding house is a rotating door for recovering drug addicts and homeless people, but cannot say for sure since he has never spoken to anyone in charge.

"We don’t know for certainty what’s going on in there. We just know that we have strangers come in and a few weeks later they’re out," says Tarrats.

NY1 called the administrator for Miracle House Incorporated and he declined to comment.

The station then called The Department of Buildings and a spokeswoman told NY1 the agency sent inspectors to the home and found the three-story, two-family home was being used illegally as a boarding house with 30 beds.

DOB inspectors issued a violation to the owner for exceeding the occupancy allowed by the Certificate of Occupancy. The owner needs to pay a $12,000 fine and file an application to amend the Certificate of Occupancy to reflect the new use and meet all the necessary requirements for that use.