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Comments

• [1] Albert from Brooklyn May 31, 2007 - 10:30AM

  hi brian,

  i used to work at construction sites (mostly in queens and brooklyn) as a laborer albeit for my father who was the developer. in any event, there is some truth to the statement that oversight is lacking and much of what goes into a building depends on a certain level of trust with the developer. there is a great (profit) motive for a developer to skimp on materials/labor especially during the housing boom of the past few years when speed was everything. it is really up to the city's building department to reign them in by increasing the frequency of inspections and the administration to clean up whatever corruption still exists in the department. fact is, to cash in on the city's housing boom many of the developers are first-timers who have nothing really vested from a business standpoint -- not unlike the daytraders who tried to profit from the internet boom of the late-90s.

  
  
• [2] Halley Sikes from Boston, MA May 31, 2007 - 10:35AM

  Construction groups are often cornered into low-funded solutions because the designers of these developments are cornered into spending the rest of their money on excessive repairs/demands for the city itself. To do work on a city sidewalk, a developer might get talked into repaving/repairing half the road in order to get the proper building permit. The problem is at the core of the cities main facilities/utilities management. It is a domino effect.

  
  
• [3] Jim Conry from Brooklyn May 31, 2007 - 10:44AM

  I am a union electrician ,[20 years experience],who last worked on a job for the Human resources Administration, the general contractor employed foreign workers, who were not certified in any apprenticeship program. The general contractor lost the contract to another non union contractor who in the past was accused of stealing a million dollars. This is generally how the city operates, without any oversight. I have also worked on Erasmus High School in Brooklyn, where the work was inferior, and most likely is already falling apart. The city is gutting it's own working class by allowing these contractors to operate, as well as jeopardizing the general public. Case in point, the whole stray voltage incidents all over the city. Con Ed is hiring livery cab drivers to watch these places instead of having trained electricians fix the condition. Is this the kind of city we want to live in? Pride, craftsmanship, and productivity. Live Better, Work Union.

  
  
• [4] J. Rapaport from Manhattan May 31, 2007 - 10:47AM

  The deaths of construction workers on poorly supervised construction sites is horrendous, as is the entirely rampant luxury condo boom generally.

  Another bit of fallout is in the hazard to city pedestrians in the carelessness and badly arranged construction of scaffoldings for construction sites. Yesterday alone there were two instances within about a 3-block radius in which workers were standing on partially erected platforms handing huge metal beams to other workers over the heads of the people walking by underneath. No attempt had been made to warn pedestrians or reroute their path. It was absolutely an accident waiting to happen. A bit later, I foudn a cop and mentioned it to him, and his advice was to call 311. He did not offer to check it out.

  
  
• [5] Michael from Manhattan May 31, 2007 - 11:11AM

  I am an architect in Manhattan and I want to correct a statement that was made by Brian Kates on your show regarding self certification. Architects and engineers who self certify do not certify their drawings. Drawings are submitted for approval from the Department of Buildings. Licensed professionals can only self certify that the projects as constructed conform to the city-approved drawings. Your conversation seemed to suggest that no city review is taking place and this is not the case.

  Additionally. the statements made about the mezzanine law are also not accurate. To say that a building that is supposed to be 20 stories can be built as 21 stories implies that the building is built beyond approved heights. Abuses to the mezzanine law affect the ratio of occupied to non-occupied space within a building but are separate from issues related to height.

  The self certification rule can certainly be abused, but by and large it exists to make construction more expedient and economically feasible for everyone from developers to ordinary New Yorkers doing work on their apartments.