By: Hadassa Kalatizadeh
Reading this message may save lives, especially if the reader happens to own a posh NYC apartment tower. Some of these buildings prefer to give their building a fancy name, or better yet, to display an impressive alternate Avenue address to give their image a boost.
Emergency Medical Services (EMS) is warning that all effort should be made to clearly display the property addresses on apartment buildings as well as homes, in case of an emergency. Police, fire and ambulatory services have detailed GPS devices and maps and rush to the scene, but they cannot be expected to find the proper entrance without signage. The subsequent delay may be dangerous and even deadly. What’s more, nearby 911 callers in the city often times have a good deal of trouble and waste precious time, unable to identify the location of a crime, fire or emergency due to poor signage. Furthermore, it’s the law. The New York City Administrative Code, title 3, 3-505 through 506, requires that house address numbers be displayed.
Authorities urge owners to print the home numbers under lighting, and to use a contrasting background for the signage, so it will be visible at night from the street. The displays should be unobstructed by decorations, trees, bushes or the like. While this problem is not exclusive to New York City, it does seem that the Big Apple developers sometimes have other priorities when designing the outdoor signage of their high-class buildings. Residents should bring the topic up at board meetings and insist for the proper address to be clearly displayed outside.
John Crudele, a writer who fields ‘Dear John’ letters in the NY Post recently wrote the following in a response to a letter on the topic, “EMS, fire and police aren’t psychic when it comes to what building they are responding to.”
“So if you own a building, put the damn house number on it. It’s the least you can do.” Crudele continued in the August 31st article. “And if you own one of those skyscrapers where you’d rather make the address on fancy Madison rather than East 48th Street even though your front door is on East 48th, too bad. Put the right building number on it.”
The writer wrapped up by adding: “If someone happens to get hurt or die because emergency services can’t find the right address, I hope you and your insurance company get sued. So insurance companies should enforce this.”