By: R. Kotkin
After a second victim tragically died from falling debris from a building, City Council Speaker Corey Johnson is vowing to “come down” on building owners whose properties drop deadly debris onto the streets, Crain’s reported.
“There are certain building owners and developers who are greedy and who are trying to cut corners, and they don’t put safety protocols in place to protect their workers,” Johnson said in a radio appearance Friday. “Now we’re seeing that affecting the public.”
Johnson noted that both properties which resulted in the deaths had outstanding violations.
“The city should have come down on them harder,” the speaker, said. “We need to make sure these sites are safe not only for the workers on the site, but also for people who are walking by.”
A 67-year-old woman died last Thursday when walking up the street in Flushing. Xiang Ji was walking down Main St. near 41st Road in Flushing when she was struck by the thin 3-foot by 2-foot piece of aluminum-covered wood about 9:45 a.m., witnesses told police, The N.Y Daily News reported.
The wood was blown off a violation-plagued grocery in the process of being remodeled, The Daily News explained.
An architect and philanthropist was killed back on December 17, when part of a Times Square office building fell on her as she walked down the street, TJV previously reported.
Erica Tishman was killed instantly around 10:45 am on Tuesday on 49th Street near Seventh Avenue, about 500 feet north of Times Square. She was declared dead at the scene. According to police, the incident occurred outside of a 104-year-old building at 729 Seventh Avenue, a 17-story building constructed in 1915, TJV previously reported.
Tishman “was well known in the New York real estate world, having been a founder of DeWitt Tishman Architects, which designed Jersey City’s Trump Plaza, and an associate at Beyer Blinder Belle Architects and Planners,” noted rew-online.com. “A licensed architect since 1983, Mrs Tishman was born and raised in New York, attending Riverdale Country School before Princeton University where she met the love of her life, Steven, TJV reported
Crain’s reported: “The Department of Buildings said it has issued the Queens property owner an additional violation and ordered the installation of a protective sidewalk shed. It noted, however, that none of the pre-existing citations had to do with problems related to the façade”
Corey Johnson, who hopes to become the next mayor called on Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration to “redouble” its efforts to enforce the city’s building codes.
