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Soon after the scaffolding that’s been up at 51 West 86th Street for the last 15 years started getting some media attention, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer joined forces with the frustrated tenants and wrote a letter to the DOB to apply pressure to landlord Weinreb Management.
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“We already have enough problems with scaffolding that is up for a short period of time that gathers garbage,” Brewer said in an interview with CBS New York, which also revealed a long-standing sidewalk shed at another Weinreb property located at 350 Central Park West, between 94th and 95th Streets. One resident of the CPW building said that shed has been up for about five years, and she’s never actually seen work being done.
Weinreb has accumulated over $100,000 in fines for the building at 51 West 86th Street, as well as over $60,000 for 350 Central Park West.
THE 6 WORST LANDLORDS ON THE UPPER WEST SIDE, ACCORDING TO 2020 ANNUAL REPORT
According to the Department of Buildings, there is currently a partial stop work order at 51 West 86th Street which was issued on June 30 for “unsafe conditions.”
While extended scaffolding life spans are nothing new on the UWS (as the comments to our previous post can attest), this building’s could be a record breaker.
DOB Complaints about 51 West 86th Street have been consistent for years:
July 6, 2021: “THE TYPE OF WORK BEING DONE LONG TIME AGO. NOW THIS SCAFFOLDING ARE JUST HANGING AND IT IS A HAZARD. 15 YEARS THIS SHEDIS HERE AND NOW IT COULD FALL DOWN AND IT IS COVERED WITH PIGEON POOP.”
January 30, 2020: “CALLING TO REPORT THAT THE FACADE OF THIS BUILDING HAS CRACKS & MISSING STONES. THIS BUILDING APPEARS TO BE FALLING APART & CAN BECOME A POTENTIAL DANGER TO PEDESTRIANS WALKING BY.”
November 27, 2019: “up for 12 YEARS EYE SORE FOLLOW RULES.”
June 20, 2017: “NYPD REPORTS A PIECE OF SCAFFOLD HANGING AND IN DANGER OF FALLING.”
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December 20, 2016: “Cracks in the scaffolding causing the water to pour down when it rains in front of the property door.”
October 17, 2013: “WORK IN PROGRESS TO REMOVE LOOSE BRICKS ON THE SIDE WALL FROM THE LINTELS. DEBRIS FALLING ONTO NEIGHBORING PROPERTY.”
December 24, 2009: “ILLEGAL SCAFFOLDING AT LOCATION. SCAFFOLDING ON NEIGHBORING PROPERTY ALSO HAZARDOUS.”
July 5, 2008: “BUILDING SCAFFOLDING AROUND PERIMETER OF BLDG IN WHICH IT HAS BEEN SITTING UP FOR OVER ONE YEAR IDLE. PEOPLE SITTING AND HANGING FROM PIPES. NEEDS TO BE REMOVED.”
CBS New York has been trying to contact the head of Weinreb Management, Jacob Weinreb, since Monday. When they went to his office on 100th and Riverside Drive, an employee told them he was out of the country.
I mean at this point….who really cares? Amsterdam Ave in the 80s is fully of shantytown shacks for outdoor dining……so as long as restaurants can put whatever they want in the streets with random sheets of plywood and sheet metal…why should anyone care? The city sure doesn’t….
How about 131 West 70th. Front Facade has separated from main structure by 3 inches in places and is about to come down. Has been that way for 5+ years and sidewalk shed is there to protect people but when this facade falls eventually it will take out the sidewalk shed and those under it. City, DOB and the building owner don’t care, there has been a stop work order on the building for over 15 years and the building full of rats. Letters to DOB and politicians go unanswered. Funny how Gale in an election year picks one building that is getting some press to say she is helping. Our elected officials and the DOB are a joke in this city.
Brewer is mad that something has been hanging around the Upper West Side doing nothing longer than she has.
The problem here isn’t that nobody has written a letter to the DOB. It’s that Local Law 11, which mandates this scaffolding for unnecessary facade inspections. They’re not necessary for safety (have you ever seen this amount of scaffolding in other cities? Are they suffering from an epidemic of facade collapses?). The city council, on which Brewer has already served two terms and is about to serve a third, has so far refused to change the law because those scaffolding contractors from Long Island are big campaign donors. It’s another way that the city’s opaque politics benefit the well connected at the expense of the city as a whole.
Do other cities have the volumes of pedestrians walking below brick facades. I’m sure the families of those killed in NYC (recently a lady in the 50s) appreciate the unnecessary inspections and repairs.
Gale Brewer is a monster. She ruined our neighborhood once & she’ll do it again.
She seems hard working & of good conscience. What is the evidence she ruined any community, let alone that she is “a monster”? Such huge accusations should come with an explanation & adequate evidence.
350 Central Park West is the large building on the south corner of 96th and CPW. It is not between 94th and 95th Streets.
I don’t see how a complaint about the scaffolding for one building can be made without mentioning so many other buildings that have scaffolding that has been up for years. I wonder if anyone knows how many years the scaffolding has been up for B’nai Jeshurun. I cite only one example.
The West Park Presbyterian Church holds the record, I thought. Their sidewalk shed has been there for 20 years, with no sign of work being done on it.