LAST Saturday’s crane collapse on Manhat tan’s East Side serves as a sad indictment of the city’s failure to guard against the pub lic-safety hazards resulting from New York’s historic development boom.
A century ago, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire caused the deaths of 148 workers, leading to improved factory standards. Thankfully, the death toll from last week’s tragedy was far smaller.
But it’s clear that the city’s building-inspection process simply doesn’t work. We need a thorough and probing examination of current procedures for ensuring construction safety – and we need that review to occur now.
Again and again, we find that construction sites are operating while serious violations are pending, violations potentially far more serious than the health-code problems that can cause the city to shut down restaurants for days. The city’s Department of Buildings describes as “normal” for a project of its size the 13 pending violations at the collapsed crane’s site. A record like this should be seen not as normal, but as outrageous.
Development is key to our city’s economy and its future. But if we don’t solve this problem, we risk creating a climate of community opposition that will make it impossible for projects to move forward, as they must.
We don’t need any more evidence to demonstrate that current inspection procedures are failing to safeguard those who live and work in our city. The sad fact is that last weekend’s crane collapse wasn’t an isolated incident:
* Last week, a worker died on a construction site in Brooklyn.
* Earlier this month, a building collapse in Harlem shut down train service for thousands.
* In January, a worker fell 42 stories to his death at a SoHo construction site.
* Last month, federal regulators said they were citing contractors at the former Deutsche Bank building for negligence that contributed to the fire that killed two firefighters.
* Just a few weeks before that tragedy, construction caused a retaining wall to collapse on West 97th Street, necessitating the evacuation of hundreds of terrified residents.
In many of these projects, the contractor had weeks to respond to violations while work was permitted to continue. In others, community residents registered repeated complaints about unsafe conditions, yet Buildings Department inspectors found the site in compliance.
I’ve urged that the Buildings Department increase its staff, provide better training and review its protocols. I’ve also asked for an independent, interagency approach to construction safety, in which building inspectors look at construction issues, fire inspectors look at fire-safety planning and police look for criminal activity – all of which affect a site’s safety.
To help communities become the eyes and ears of construction safety, I have formed the Manhattan Construction Watch Task Force, set to begin its work in early April. It has received the endorsement of the Uniformed Firefighters Association, Manhattan’s community boards, elected officials and others, and will be headed by Catherine McVay Hughes, a trained civil engineer and first vice chairwoman of Manhattan’s Community Board 1.
But more needs to be done. Not another person should be exposed to danger because the city hasn’t reconsidered the way it oversees its development boom. As crucial as new construction is to our economy and to the city’s future, residents and workers must not be put in harm’s way.
Scott Stringer is Manhattan borough president.