NYC Council Considers New Laws Aimed at Long Term Abuse of Sidewalk Scaffolding

NYC Council Considers New Laws Aimed at Long Term Abuse of Sidewalk Scaffolding

Edited by: TJVNews.com

Scaffolding on pedestrian walkways throughout New York City has long been considered a grotesque eyesore, especially due to the excessively long periods of time that they are up for, but now the New York City Council is considering a new legislative package aimed at overhauling the long-term abuse of sidewalk scaffolding, according to a recent report in the New York Post.

Manhattan City Councilman Keith Powers, who introduced some of the bills, said, “Scaffolding shouldn’t be one of the first things people associate with NYC. It’s time we reclaim our streets,” the Post reported.

The Post also reported that among the nine bills introduced Thursday were measures to establish a drone-inspection program to help property owners speed up the scaffolding-removal process; to raise scaffoldings’ minimum height to at least 12 feet; and create stricter timelines for removal when construction stalls.

Councilman Erik Bottcher (D-Manhattan) also added a measure to the legislative package that would require property owners to apply for work permits within six months of installing scaffolding or face hefty fines, the Post reported. He also called for mandating brighter lighting where the sheds are up, to help deter crime.

The Post also reported that according to the Office of Management and Budget, there are more than 9,000 scaffolding sheds in the city, three times as many as there were two decades ago, the Post reported. Councilman Bottcher said that some of the sidewalk sheds have been up as far back as 2006.

For New Yorkers, the issue of sidewalk scaffolding and the inordinate amount of time that it is up for has been a thorn in the side of many city dwellers and those in the outer boroughs as well. Some of this scaffolding has been up for more than a decade and its prolonged appearance has many people scratching their heads and asking why it takes so long for the monstrosity to be taken down.

In December 2019, the Post ran a story about sidewalk sheds that have been around the city since before smartphones appeared on the scene.

In 2019, the Post reported that a building on Edgecombe Avenue in Harlem has had the same work scaffolding up for more than 13 years. Another nearby on 115th Street has had one up for nearly 12 years.

Even the Department of Buildings’ own office on Broadway is a culprit, as it has had scaffolding up since 2008, the Post reported in December 2019.

The city says it’s been cracking down, but it’s barely put a dent on the unpopular structures, which just continue to gather trash and rodents. The Post also reported that it’s driving the people who have to live near the scaffolds crazy.

“I can’t picture this building without it there,” said Kaniesha Davis, 21, who grew up at 409 Edgecombe Ave., which is the building with New York’s longest-standing work scaffolding. The Post reported that the sheds there have been up since April 2006.

The Post also reported that Nikki Berryman, president of the board of directors for the building, said the scaffold has remained up for so long because of bad luck. After completing $1.2 million in restoration work to comply with Local Law 11, the building was struck by lightning, which caused more damage and required more repairs, Berryman said.

The city first approved a permit for a 220-foot-long “heavy duty sidewalk shed” at the address during “remedial repairs” on April 26, 2006, Department of Buildings records show, according to the Post report.  But the work never seemed to end: There were another 13 permits issued for additional work at the building through February of 2019.

The 13-story Harlem building is among thousands issued permits by the Department of Buildings to erect scaffolding to protect pedestrians from falling debris.

Also in December of 2019, the Post reported that City Councilman Ben Kallos had proposed a bill to put a timetable on sheds but the legislation has lingered in committee for three years.

At the time, Kallos said, “It’s a quality of life problem for people who live in the buildings in the shadow of these sheds. There’s no reason we should have 300 miles of sidewalk sheds. We are the only city that does this. No one wants to walk under that scaffolding unless it’s raining.”

The unsightly structures have become an unwelcome part of the city landscape, with critics complaining they have evolved into dark, trash-strewn havens for vagrants and criminals and hurt local businesses who struggle to draw new patrons with their facades concealed by wood and metal, the Post reported.

“It’s a quality of life problem for people who live in the buildings in the shadow of these sheds,” said city Councilman Ben Kallos, whose bill to put a timetable on sheds has lingered in committee for three years.

Also in December 2019, Post columnist Miranda Devine noted that the city has been “uglified” by the jungle of sidewalk sheds. She wrote that, “No other big city in the world is as blighted by scaffolding as New York. Not Paris nor London, where buildings are older. Not Chicago, which has more inclement weather.”

Devine added at the time in her opinion piece for the Post that “like frogs in boiling water, we put up with it, buying the excuse that these structures are necessary for our safety, although they proliferate uniquely in New York, and have safety problems of their own. Scaffolding has turned the sidewalks outside our homes and businesses into unsightly slums, obliterating natural sunlight and providing an open invitation for homeless encampments. When it encloses sections of the sidewalk on all sides to form a narrow tunnel through which pedestrians are forced to walk, it also becomes a haven for muggers.”

Offering a background on why scaffolding became such a ubiquitous sight in the Big Apple, Devine in 2019 also wrote that, “the problem began in 1980, as a well-meaning response to a tragedy on the Upper West Side. Grace Gold, 17, a Barnard College student, was killed by a falling piece of masonry that came loose from a building at Broadway and West 115th Street.

The goal of Local Law 11, enacted the following year, was to prevent another such incident, but as usual, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Regulations were tightened under Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and Mayor Mike Bloomberg instituted the uniform green color we have today, as a nod to the permanent nature of the structures. Mayor Bill de Blasio boasted in 2015 that he had removed more than eight miles of scaffolding from NYCHA buildings. but that was less than 5 percent of the total suffocating the city.”

Devine gets to the heart of the matter by writing, “Now, any building higher than six stories has to inspect and repair its facade every five years, rather than a more realistic eight to 10 years. The short turnaround gives landlords an incentive to keep scaffolding in place, because the biggest cost is the original installation, which runs to a reported $12,500 for a 200-foot-length shed. If the structure is up for an average of three years, why bother removing it for the next round of inspections?”