It only gets more embarrassing for Mayor Eric Adams’ comically toothless “crackdown” on the city’s out-of-control sidewalk scaffolding scourge.
After Adams announced a “Get Sheds Down” program last week to reduce the number of construction eyesores that seem to stand forever, Post columnist Howard Husock revealed that NYCHA, the city’s public housing authority, has more long-standing sheds in place than any private landlord — 26 miles of them.
But immortal-seeming, city-owned scaffold abominations aren’t only at quasi-autonomous, cash-strapped NYCHA locations.
They also blight office buildings that are 100% owned and managed by City Hall itself.
Realty Check found Public Disgrace No. 1 at 2 Lafayette St., a century-old, 21-story, 350,000 square-foot property across the street from the Municipal Building.
Scaffolding has surrounded 2 Lafayette on all four sides — along Lafayette, Elk, Duane and Reade streets.Stephen Yang
The scaffolding sheds have been up since 2017, according to Department of Buildings records.Stephen Yang
It’s run by the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, a sprawling bureaucracy with a $1.3 billion annual budget and 2,615 employees.
DCAS is charged with acquiring, selling and leasing city property, its website says.
You’d think that with the real estate-driven priority, it would know how to properly maintain its own structures and fix any potentially dangerous flaws in a timely fashion.
But sheds have long surrounded 2 Lafayette on all four sides — along Lafayette, Elk, Duane and Reade streets.
The gloomy tunnels cover storefronts and subway entrances and provide refuge for dope-smoking vagrants who harass people coming to work.
The city’s Department for the Aging has offices at 2 Lafayette, but the sheds seem to be ageless.
They’ve been up since 2017, according to Department of Buildings records. Sources in neighboring buildings — and inside 2 Lafayette St. itself — said they rarely if ever see any facade work being done.
2 Lafayette St. is run by the Department of Citywide Administrative Services.Stephen Yang
For good measure, the sheds that are supposed to protect passers-by from falling debris might be dangerous themselves.
The DOB records show an open shed violation at 2 Lafayette from April 5, which states “pedestrian protection does not meet code specifications” due to “deteriorated mud sills in multiple locations throughout shed.”
A DCAS spokesman said the sheds were put up to “mitigate unsafe conditions for the public” as required under Local Law 11, the 1998 legislation that toughened earlier rules for façade inspections every five years for every building at least six stories tall.
Mayor Adams announced a “Get Sheds Down” program last week to reduce the number of sidewalk scaffolding “sheds.”Erik Pendzich/Shutterstock
The building has “planned façade work and will be entering the design phase within the next six weeks.
Design will take an estimated 18 months,” the rep said.
As for the open DOB violations, “DCAS is working with its contractor to assess the violations and make repairs.”
At this rate, Adams will solve the migrants crisis first.
Source link: https://nypost.com/2023/08/06/deteriorated-scaffolding-surrounds-city-hall-owned-2-lafayette-st/