Latest news with #DepartmentofBuildings
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
‘Locking up good citizens': Lawmaker on homeless shelter protest arrests
SHEEPSHEAD BAY, Brooklyn (PIX11) – Politicians are claiming that residents of Sheepshead Bay were the victims of a bait-and-switch – where a lot that was expected to be made into affordable housing is now being built as a shelter. At least seven people were taken into custody during an over 10-hour protest at the Coyle Street lot on Wednesday, according to the NYPD. New York State Sen. Steve Chan has been advocating for voters opposed to the homeless shelter being built there. More Local News 'What the hell kind of mayor is that, that is hellbent on locking up all the good citizens,' Chan said in a video posted to Facebook. Councilmember Susan Zhuang also attended Wednesday's protest. She was arrested last year for biting a police officer at a similar protest of an under-construction homeless shelter in another part of her district, but the charges against her were dropped. 'Today's protest in Sheepshead Bay is another example of the City using taxpayer resources to coerce minority New Yorkers into submission,' she wrote in a Facebook post. Fellow Councilmember Mercedes Narcisse also applied pressure on the Department of Buildings, demanding that protesters be protected on-site and a full review of the permits. More: Latest News from Around the Tri-State 'The original plan, approved by the local community board and City Council, was for mixed-use affordable housing,' she wrote in a letter sent to the city. The shelter is meant for 169 homeless families, some with school-aged children, according to the mayor's office. City officials said the community was informed over a year ago, but conceded that the plans for the site were altered by the owner of the building that's under construction. Erin Pflaumer is a digital content producer from Long Island who has covered both local and national news since 2018. She joined PIX11 in 2023. See more of her work here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
New York Times
29-04-2025
- New York Times
Deadly Garage Collapse Was Caused by ‘Reckless' Repairs, Report Finds
Hours before a Lower Manhattan parking garage collapsed in 2023, killing an employee and injuring seven other people, workers had inadvertently destroyed part of a load-bearing pier on its second floor, a report released Monday concluded. The garage, at 57 Ann Street, near City Hall, had long been plagued by faulty construction and engineering missteps, the report found. Neither the engineering firm renovating the building nor garage workers had reported the unsafe conditions, and they never obtained the permits necessary to fix them, the report said. The report was prepared by a structural engineering firm in collaboration with the city's Department of Buildings, Department of Investigation and the Manhattan district attorney's office, which found no evidence of criminality. In a statement accompanying the report's release, Jimmy Oddo, New York City's buildings commissioner, said the 'reckless' repair work was partially to blame for the collapse of the garage. 'The extensive multiagency investigation into this catastrophic collapse makes one point abundantly clear: This tragedy in the heart of Lower Manhattan was entirely preventable,' Mr. Oddo said. On April 18, 2023, a bit before 9 a.m., workers began removing bricks from the load-bearing column, leaving behind a gaping hole near the ceiling of the garage's second floor, the report said. A few minutes after 4 p.m., a garage employee drove a car across the roof, directly above the column. Seconds later, the building collapsed, killing Willis Moore, a 59 year-old manager who had worked at the garage for more than a decade. Several other garage workers were injured, including one who was trapped on an upper floor and another who fell from the second floor to the first, according to ABC7. Though the demolition work on the column caused the building to collapse, engineering and construction missteps over the years made the building unstable, according to the report, which spanned more than 3,000 pages. When the building was constructed in 1925, builders didn't connect the pier to a wall shared with a neighboring building. This set the stage for the piers to deteriorate in the near-century that followed, the report said. Photos of the garage's second floor taken the year before the collapse show large cracks running down the second-floor column. The company operating the garage, Little Man Parking, had chosen Experion Design Group, a New York-based architecture and engineering firm, to make repairs to the building to comply with a 2021 law requiring routine inspections of parking structures. The Ann Street garage would have had to file its first inspection just nine months after the collapse. Neither Little Man nor Experion reported the cracking to city authorities, which they are required to do under city construction codes, the report said. A renovation plan by Experion failed to identify that the column was made entirely of load-bearing brick, according to the report. The Little Man employees performing the repairs were doing so without city permits or approved engineering plans. After employees removed the bricks from the pier, the garage's general manager texted a photo of the hole left behind to a project manager at Experion. Roughly an hour before the collapse, the project manager told the garage workers to put the bricks back, but 'did not communicate urgency,' the report said. Representatives for Experion and Little Man could not be reached for comment Tuesday. Jeff Roth, the city's deputy mayor of operations, said in a statement that the collapse highlighted the importance of the city's construction regulations. 'The tragedy at Ann Street reminds us that every time un-permitted work occurs, it could literally lead to loss of life,' Mr. Roth said. Two decades before the building collapsed, its owner was cited for structural issues and fined $800, according to a summary of the violation. City records show no sign issues were ever fixed. The garage was cited again in 2009 for exceeding its capacity. The collapse on Ann Street drew attention to problems in parking garages across the city. A New York Times report in 2023 found that more than three dozen parking garages had serious structural issues. Though no criminal charges will be filed in relation to the collapse, the Department of Buildings issued civil citations, including seven to the building's owners. The agency also ordered third-party reviews of all parking structures in the city that were operated by Little Man or worked on by Experion. The report included several recommendations for strengthening city oversight of parking structure repairs and inspections. In the statement announcing the report, the Department of Buildings said it had created a 'proactive enforcement unit' to inspect parking structures that have fallen into disrepair. The unit will begin operating later this year.
New York Post
29-04-2025
- New York Post
'Professional squatter' pays no rent, 'terrorizes' LIC neighbors
A tenant who hasn't paid her $100-a-month rent in more than a decade is back in court, fighting to hold on to the two-bedroom Queens apartment she inherited through a controversial death-bed adoption, The Post has learned. Maria DeTommaso, 74, has lived in the rent-controlled railroad flat on the bottom floor of a Long Island City row house since at least 2002, where neighbors say she causes many problems. 'I think she's a demon in human skin because of what she puts people through,' said Anjanie Narine, who has lived next door to DeTommaso for more than 20 years. 'Every interaction with her is negative. She terrorizes everyone, and acts as if she owns the building.' DeTommaso scored her sweet rent deal when she moved in with an elderly former dock worker, Nicholas 'Nicky' DeTommaso, who had the original lease on the apartment. Days before he died in 2009, the then 58-year-old Maria convinced the 85-year-old retiree to adopt her. Advertisement 9 Maria DeTommaso has been fighting eviction from her $100 per month rent-controlled apartment in Queens for years. A fellow tenant who lives on the same floor called her 'a demon' who has rented rooms in the two-bedroom flat on Airbnb. Brigitte Stelzer 9 DeTommaso moved into the apartment after initially cat-sitting for a friend in the 90s, according to a neighbor. She is pictured at the apartment last week. Brigitte Stelzer Nine years later, the state's Division of Housing and Community Renewal granted DeTommaso 'successor rights' to the apartment, keeping its rent at $100 and allowing her to stay in perpetuity. Similar units in the building now rent just below $2,000. Advertisement During the time she has lived in the unit, neighbors say she has 'terrorized' them by renting out part of the apartment on Airbnb, ushering in a steady stream of dozens of tourists from around the world who rented rooms from her for $55 a night, according to complaints made to the Department of Buildings and online ads. One longtime fellow tenant in the six-unit building said DeTommaso, who is also known as Pamela Becker and Prema Deodhar, has even changed the locks on the front doors and invited a steady stream of veterans from a nearby shelter who have caused havoc in the building. 9 Maria Detomasso and Nicholas 'Nicky' Detomasso, who adopted her shortly before his death, in an old photo where they are celebrating together. Angel Chevrestt 9 Maria DeTommaso convinced Nicholas DeTommaso to adopt her as his daughter in the weeks before his death, and then gained succession rights from the state to his $100-a-month apartment a few years ago. Advertisement For years, The Post has documented attempts by the building's octogenarian owners, Sugrim and Kowsila Outar, to evict DeTommaso from the apartment. They are scheduled to return to Queens Housing Court on May 6. 'Her case has already gone through five of the judges here in Queens, and benefited from every change in the housing laws since COVID,' said Elan Layliev, the attorney for the Outars who is fighting to evict DeTommasso. '[It's been] a wild ride. Ms. DeTommaso has utilized every loophole in the court system to prolong and delay this trial.' For her part, DeTommaso told The Post last week the claims against her are exaggerated and designed to kick her out of her home. Advertisement 'I won the succession,' she said. 'This is sick. I'm the legal tenant. I have every right to be here and I don't know how people can lie so much. They are trying to evict me, but my lawyer says I don't have to worry.' 9 The building where DeTommaso lives, which is also occupied by her landlords, whom she has been in a 10 year protracted legal battle with. Helayne Seidman 9 The owners of a six-apartment complex in Long Island City have spent years in court trying to evict a rent-controlled tenant who hasn't paid rent in more than a decade. Brigitte Stelzer DeTommaso's lawyer, Zara Feingold, is a legal aid attorney who works with the New York Legal Assistance Group, according to court documents and her LinkedIn page, which means DeTommaso doesn't have to pay her for representation. Under New York law, she also doesn't have to pay rent while the legal case with her landlords is ongoing, which is currently a decade. Still, she has prevoiusly said she puts rent money into an escrow account so it can be paid after the legal matter is settled. DeTommaso, who lives with her two dogs — a miniature grey hound and a dachshund — told The Post she recently broke her hip in the apartment because the landlords have not done necessary repairs. She said her oven doesn't work, and complained about roaches and mice in the living space. However, according to Layliev, DeTommasso will not allow workers contracted by the Outars into her apartment and has previously hired homeless veterans to do the work and told them to present the bills to the owners. 9 Maria DeTommaso in the brightly decorated apartment in 2013. Helayne Seidman Advertisement 9 DeTommaso holding up a picture of Nicky. She says she still has a good relationship with his family and talks to them regularly. Helayne Seidman DeTommasso was born Pamela Rose Becker on March 1, 1951. She grew up in Washington DC and attended a series of posh private schools. Her father served as US ambassador to Honduras during the Ford administration and her brother, Ralph Becker, is a former mayor of Salt Lake City. A yoga enthusiast, she showed up at the Long Island City building to cat sit for a friend in the late 1990s. When the friend returned, she claimed she had nowhere to live and asked Nicky if she could spend a few days, said Narine. She never left. Nicky, who was known in the neighborhood as 'Uncle Nicky,' had moved to the apartment in 1924 as an infant. He lived there with his mother, three brothers and two sisters, and stayed until his death on July 15, 2009. Advertisement 9 DeTommaso has been accused by neighbors of converting some of the rooms in the apartment and renting them out for $55 a night to tourists. A devoted 'Star Trek' fan, he played stickball on the street when he was a child and chain-smoked cigarettes on the stoop, helping his neighbors secure parking spots when he was older, according to 'Nicky D from LIC: A Narrative Portrait' by writer and artist Warren Lehrer. Five years after moving in, DeTommasso secured Nicky's power of attorney in 2007. When his health was in decline, she drove him around the city to do errands and to see his doctor in a series of cars he bought for her, according to an interview with The Post in 2018. 'He loved me, and his whole family still calls me,' said DeTommaso last week. Advertisement But Narine, an office worker, said she recalled Nicky had allegedly tried to kick her out almost as soon as she moved in. 'He woke up early, and every morning I would hear him curse at her to get the f–k out,' she said. 'I'm next door and the walls are pretty thin.' The protracted battle with the Outars, immigrants from Guyana who also live in the building, has taken its toll on the elderly couple, claimed Narine, adding that Sugrim Outar, 85, has had several heart attacks over the years. 'They are both physically weak,' said Narine. 'I have no doubt in my mind this battle with this professional squatter has taken years off their lives.'
New York Times
24-04-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Why a Law Requiring Gas Detectors Is a Headache for Landlords
Good morning. It's Thursday. Today we'll find out about a requirement for natural gas detectors that many apartment buildings in New York City will be hard-pressed to comply with. And, with the Democratic primary for mayor now two months away, we'll also have details on four new endorsements and one candidate's campaign strategy. A week from today, a statute known as Local Law 157 is scheduled to go into effect in New York City, imposing a seemingly mundane requirement that many buildings will find themselves hard-pressed to comply with. Local Law 157 says that a detector that can sense the buildup of natural gas must be installed wherever there is a gas-powered appliance — in every kitchen with a gas stove and every laundry room with a gas dryer. New York is the first major city to require such devices along with smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors. But for buildings that prefer battery-powered detectors over plug-in ones, there is a holdup: Only one company makes battery-operated units that meet standards set by Local Law 157. Suppliers say that shipments cannot arrive fast enough. That has many building owners and superintendents worried about missing the May 1 deadline. But housing inspectors will not immediately issue violations while the city works out details on enforcement. One City Council member, Eric Dinowitz, a Democrat from the Bronx, said he had circulated a letter signed by 17 other Council members calling on the Department of Buildings to 'intervene and pump the brakes on this thing.' But a spokesman for the agency said it could not stop the law from going into effect. 'The purpose of this law was not to become more of a burden on buildings,' Dinowitz said. 'It's ostensibly to promote safety.' He said the Council was also working on drafting new legislation 'to be realistic about implementation.' Some managing agents fear that having detectors in every apartment will lead to unnecessary calls to 311 or 911 and to building-wide gas shut-offs. They also worry that it could take months to satisfy requirements for turning the gas on again, leaving residents to cook on hot plates and hang their clothes up to dry. It has taken nine years for Local Law 157 to reach this moment. The City Council passed it after three major gas explosions that killed 10 people and injured more than 70 over 18 months. One in 2014 destroyed a building on Park Avenue in Harlem. There were two in 2015, one that leveled three buildings on Second Avenue in the East Village and another at John F. Kennedy High School in the Bronx. But as drafted by the City Council, Local Law 157 was not to take effect until after there was a national standard for gas detectors. The National Fire Protection Association, a nonprofit group that prepares safety codes that state and local governments often adopt as their own, eventually published a standard. The city's Buildings Department, in turn, published its own version last year. That started a countdown — Local Law 157 said it would take effect on May 1 of the year after the standard was finalized — and a scramble to find devices that comply and are listed and labeled UL1484, signifying that they have been tested by the independent laboratory formerly known as Underwriters Laboratories. 'The demand has skyrocketed in the last 60 days, and we're unable to keep up,' said Evan Jacobs, the director of operations for F&F Supply, a Bronx company whose customers include apartment buildings. 'We are getting calls from large management companies that I have been reaching to for a year that are saying, 'This is finally going into effect, and I don't have devices.'' For many resident managers, the instructions in Local Law 157 about where to place the detectors are problematic. It says they are to go within 12 inches of a ceiling, at least five feet from a stove or cooktop hood and between three and 10 feet from other types of gas-powered appliances. The height requirement is 'impractical,' said John Rusk, the president of ProSentry, a company that installs building monitoring systems. 'Other than the occasional outlet for a kitchen clock, there are not regularly installed electrical outlets' a foot from the ceiling 'in any New York City apartment that I've ever seen, and no one wants an electrical cord stringing across their kitchen.' That has left building managers looking for battery-powered models that meet the standards the city adopted. That, in turn, has led them to an Illinois-based company, DeNova Detect, that says it makes the only battery-powered detectors that comply. The detectors were originally made only in Japan. Ron Lazarus, the chief executive of DeNova Detect, said that the company had added a factory in Mexico and was shipping 'significant quantities' to New York. He would not say how many. But those who waited to place orders will wait for deliveries. Paul Xuereb, a vice president for Tri-Star Equities, a property management firm, said that about 60 buildings in its portfolio had not ordered detectors. 'We're not going to get them till August,' he said, adding that he had even tried Amazon. But it too said the DeNova Detect alarm was unavailable. Expect a sunny day with the temperature reaching the low 70s. The evening will be mostly clear with a drop to around 57. In effect until May 26 (Memorial Day). The latest Metro news Four endorsements and a 'Rose Garden' strategy The race for mayor was shaken up by four endorsements for Adrienne Adams, the City Council speaker. Three came from unions, including District Council 37, the city's largest municipal union. The fourth came from Letitia James, the state attorney general. My colleague Emma G. Fitzsimmons writes that the labor endorsements were a sign that the front-runner, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, won't get all the institutional support in the race against Mayor Eric Adams. Speaker Adams, who is not related to the mayor, announced her campaign later than the eight other major candidates in the June 24 Democratic primary. James, who appeared with Speaker Adams and leaders of the three unions at a rally on Wednesday, said that Speaker Adams had the experience and integrity to run the city. And, making an indirect but unmistakable reference to Cuomo, she urged voters not to 'look to the past' or to candidates seeking 'political revenge or even redemption.' Cuomo is following a so-called Rose Garden strategy in his tightly controlled campaign, attending a small number of events that allow him to avoid confrontational interactions with his opponents. He used the same strategy when he ran for re-election as governor. This time around, he does not have the benefit of incumbency, and he is drawing criticism from his opponents, including the actual incumbent. Mayor Eric Adams said Cuomo has been hiding 'in the shadows.' 'He's in this bubble — you can't even get near him,' the mayor said at a news conference last month. He added: 'He controls walking in. He controls walking out. He's not answering questions from you.' Play Ball Dear Diary: I was running some errands in my Upper West Side neighborhood on a Saturday in March. First, I dropped off my shirts at the dry cleaner. From there, I walked briskly up Broadway. As I did, I approached and then began to pass an older man wearing a Yankees jacket. The lettering and logo on the front and back were gigantic. With spring training in full swing, I asked how he thought the team was shaping up for Opening Day. He shrugged and chuckled. 'I don't know,' he said. 'My cousin gave me this jacket.' — Chris Parnagian Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send submissions here and read more Metropolitan Diary here. Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. — J.B. P.S. Here's today's Mini Crossword and Spelling Bee. You can find all our puzzles here. Stefano Montali and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at nytoday@ Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox.
Yahoo
21-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Editorial: Tish James' rights and wrongs: AG is wrongly targeted by Trump
Donald Trump is abusing the levers of government to launch an attack against New York Attorney General Tish James on what seem to be pretty flimsy claims of fraud. In a referral letter from the Trump-appointed Federal Housing Finance Agency director, Bill Pulte, to Pam Bondi and Todd Blanche, former Trump private lawyers now serving as the U.S. attorney general and deputy AG, Pulte claims that James 'has, in multiple instances, falsified bank documents and property records to acquire government backed assistance and loans and more favorable loans terms.' Pulte points to two instances, one in Virginia, and one in Brooklyn, concerning paperwork discrepancies, both which were corrected. On the Virginia home, which James helped her niece buy in 2023, there is a standard purchase agreement where James attests that she would make the home her principal residence. The home was for the niece and James was not to live there and on the much more important mortgage application for the property, James said correctly that it would not be her primary residence. No mortgage fraud there. Regarding a house that James owns in Brooklyn, an incorrect certificate of occupancy held by the city Department of Buildings says it is a five-family structure, but that was an error filed by a previous owner. There are only four units and the James mortgage reflects that. No mortgage fraud there. These patently phony charges, echoed by Trump using a presidential megaphone, are petty payback for James bringing legitimate civil charges against Trump for him actually faking the value of his New York properties to deceive lenders and insurers, real fraud that was proved in a court of law and for which he has been fined hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties. We thought there was sufficient evidence for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg to seek a criminal indictment against Trump. In the case civil brought by James, Trump and his lawyers got to argue their case before the court at trial, challenging the witnesses and evidence offered by James and presenting their own witnesses and evidence. But the trial judge ruled against Trump. Trump had the right to appeal and he dutifully filed and argued an appeal last fall, which James opposed. The mid-level Manhattan appellate bench will render their decision and then each side can take the matter to the state's highest court for final resolution. That is all different than how James proceeded in her probe of then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo on sexual harassment complaints. Four years ago she issued a report, which helped push him to resign, but her findings were never tested in court and Cuomo never had a chance to challenge them. Also, which troubled us from the week the report was issued, was that the report contained clearly trivial allegations, such as a harmless mild joke that Cuomo made on national TV about a female doctor wearing a full surgical gown. The report contained other, more serious allegations like those of accuser Charlotte Bennett. But there is no proof of Bennett's claims and there now never will be as Bennett has just ended her civil suit against New York State. Her federal suit against Cuomo she withdrew before she was deposed. In one of the civil cases that does continue, of an unnamed female state trooper, a federal magistrate judge in Brooklyn called the James report 'hearsay,' as it was never tested in an adversarial setting like a lawsuit. All of which is why we have called on James to release all the records from her probe, including the secret 156 interview memos. One interview memo that did surface shows that one of the other complainants likely committed perjury. Cuomo is now a leading candidate for mayor; the public has a right to see everything. ___
