A Small Taste Of Bruce Ratner's Competence
Yes, accidents will happen...and happen and happen:
Eyewitness News
(Brooklyn - WABC, April 25, 2007) - The parapet of a vacant building under demolition as part of the Atlantic Yards project collapsed onto the street in the Prospect Heights section of Brooklyn Thursday morning.
The parapet is the barrier at the edge of a structure employed to prevent persons or vehicles from falling over the edge.
No workers were reported injured, and there were no pedestrians struck, officials said.
Emergency services personnel are now in the process of evacuating nearly 100 apartments after a parapet fell.
Officials are worried about the stability of the building and the possibility of additional collapse, so they are evacuating the building next door at 800 Pacific Street. There are unconfirmed reports that perhaps 350 people could be displaced.
It is literally criminal for Bloomberg and the ESDC to allow this voraciously greedy and desperate developer to continue without oversight. Already in the small amount of work he has done in the footprint, Ratner has racked up one illegal demolition fine, shut the water off for residents, collapsed a street and now this. Imagine if he were given a free hand.
No doubt Ratner's spin machine is hard at work - I predict that Ratner will use this accident to justify razing Ward's Bakery on the grounds its structurally unsound.
Over at Brownstoner someone commented:
All the residents of the adjacent homeless shelter were evacuated. Women with babies in arms and many young children could be seen standing around on Dean St. I hope the city will find somewhere for those families to go. Especially since there have already been complaints by residents of Dean St that the asbetos abatement going on at the Ward Bakery is being done in a very sloppy way.Bruce Ratner is more than greedy - he's so greedy that he's williing to kick out 87 year old tenents, kick high school kids out of their building, steal land, divert state funds for personal profit and now, have kids breathe in asbestos. This is the new 'elite' of New York City. This is whom Mayor Bloomberg and Spitzer thinks worthy of receiving billions in state and city funding and land.
