The View From This Rear Window
This one, right here.
June 26, 2009
This is about 45 minutes squeezed into 30 seconds, just a mere sampling of the goings-on I witness from 73 Steuben.
- A baby riding a bulldog through an open fire-hydrant
-- seen by Chris Conlin - One person sitting at a campfire in the middle of a sidewalk
-- I saw this, the guy borrowed my lighter - A snowman with inappropriately placed carrot and charcoal pieces
-- everyone has seen this, right? - A bear
-- just kidding, but how do you top a baby riding a bulldog?
A few strange things seen on Steuben Street:
Terrible Brooklyn Bar Collapses
Fourteen People Care
June 22, 2009
I've heard the phrase "happy accident" before, but I've never really seen one until yesterday. At about 2 P.M. on Sunday, June 21, a building collapsed on Myrtle Avenue in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. The bottom level of the building housed a bar called "Vesper", a popular hang-out for obnoxious, heavy-drinking Pratt Institute students and obnoxious, heavy-drinking locals. Some of the tenants of the top three floors were inside during the initial phase of the collapse (apparently it happened in several stages), but thankfully only four (corrected) injuries were reported. The collapse also affected the building next door (which will have to be demolished), and a total of 14 people lost their homes.
There's an article here on a Fort Greene / Clinton Hill blog called The Local that's continually updating the story, specifically the investigation into exactly why the collapse happened. An article last evening said tenants of the building had previously reported the building "shaking" and "vibrating" periodically, every day, and the building itself was recently cited by the Buildings Department for having a large crack running up the facade of the building.
I happen to live a block away from Vesper, on Steuben Street between Park and Myrtle. Park Avenue is the only thing separating my block (and that of Vesper) from the Brooklyn Queens Expressway. If you talk to local residents, it's no secret that the older buildings in the area, basically anything built before 1980, have a tendency to shudder when large trucks or heavy traffic rushes past on the highway. The stress is so much that some buildings, like mine, are folding in on the buildings beside them, and some apartments (like mine) are on a solid 10/15-degree slant.
Whether it was construction on nearby buildings or just a faulty foundation, whatever caused the collapse of Vesper was surely encouraged by the rattling, rumbling, and slow-warping that buildings along the B.Q.E. constantly endure. After the initial mess is cleaned up, hopefully the Buildings Department will look at other buildings in the area. It's important to note that the Buildings Department must have told occupants of the building (or their landlord) that the building was safe for tenants to occupy.
If that's true, the City is about to have a lawsuit on its hands. If other buildings in the area are in the same condition, that's obviously incredibly dangerous; if the Buildings Department has inspected similar buildings and incorrectly determined them safe for occupancy, then it would be a small leap for lawyers to declare "unfit living conditions". In that case, as all savvy NYC tenants know, tenants can withhold rent (even back-rent, I think), and seek cost-free renovations.
I hate to encourage that sort of thing since the landlords didn't build the B.Q.E., but hey--if that building had collapsed on a Friday night at 1 A.M., the City would be explaining how a building was inspected and still allowed to operate while in a condition that allowed it to fall down. I'll give my landlord a shakedown for a few home repairs if it means I'm not going to wake up with the roof lying on top of me.
It FELL DOWN. Think about that.