South Park Slope Community Group

By Charles Hack
*Park Slope Courier*

The Department of Buildings (DOB) is under fire again after a demolition company allegedly continued to pull down a structure in South Park Slope for nearly a week after a stop work order was issued following a wall collapse that injured two workers.

The contractor had received multiple violations and multiple complaints prior to the accident.

The two workers were demolishing a 10-foot brick wall at a construction site on the morning of February 15 at 226-230 16th St., when the wall collapsed and debris fell on top of them. One worker was cut above the eye, while the other had cuts to his hands, according to a Fire Department spokesperson.

The workers were taken by ambulance to New York Methodist Hospital.

The DOB issued a stop work order that day, following the injury. The order read, “demolition ongoing in unsafe manner…causing two workers to be injured.”

Aaron Brashear, co-founder of the Concerned Citizens of Greenwood Heights, said that the next day at 2.p.m. he saw workers continuing to demolish a wall with sledgehammers and removing debris in a wheelbarrow.

He reported the complaint to the DOB.

“They were not in the process of sweeping up, they were actively doing demolition,” said Brashear.

Two more reports were made that afternoon because the work was allegedly continuing. Brashear checked the DOB Web site several minutes later, and found that the complaints had been closed out, stating that no action was necessary. “No action necessary based upon a search of department records,” the record states.

A further complaint was called into the DOB the following day, stating that work was continuing.

When asked why the complaints had been resolved without further inspections, a DOB spokesperson, Jennifer Givner, said that an Environmental Control Board violation had been issued at the property.

She said the inspectors are too busy to follow up on each individual complaint.

“Our inspectors are doing 12 inspections a day and they are running around,” Givner said.

Givner also said that stop work orders are filed with the local NYPD precinct, which has responsibility for enforcing them.

The order was officially lifted on February 21, after an inspection showed that the site had no further safety violations, Givner said.

A neighboring business owner, Marie Ciccone, who was witness to the accident, said that she had been away between the Wednesday when the stop work order was issued and Tuesday when it was lifted, and that a significant amount of work had clearly been done at the site in the interim.

“On Tuesday it was extremely apparent that work had been going on at the site,” Ciccone said. “There was a bulldozer there.”

Pictures of the site show that debris had been cleared and a structure had been removed.

Ciccone said, however, that her own unrelated complaints concerning property damage were efficiently and effectively attended to by the DOB.

This is not the first time that Staten Island-based demolition contractor, MMG Design, owned by Marie Grasso, has been cited by the DOB for unsafe work practices or injuries that have occurred.

In November 2004, Grasso was cited for a demolition at 162 16th St. for “failure to carry out demolition operations in a safe and proper manner.”

The stop work order further noted “no fall restraint system in place for workers demolishing roof slabs

By Nik Kovac
*Downtown Brooklyn Star*

Last November 16 it became official. The residential blocks between Park Slope and Sunset Park, sometimes called Greenwood Heights and sometimes known simply as South Slope, were rezoned by the city to R6-B. This meant that any new construction between 4th and 7th avenues between 15th and 24th streets (excepting properties directly facing the commercial corridors of 4th and 5th avenues) could no longer build higher than 50 feet.

Or did it? The November deadline was known well in advance, and developers throughout the booming neighborhood rushed to finish setting and pouring the concrete for their foundations. By the 16th, the foundations for a proposed 11-story tower on 15th Street and a proposed seven-story building on 7th Avenue facing Greenwood Cemetery were not complete.

“I can’t comment on specifics,” evaded Henry Hornstein, the lawyer for the developers of both sites, “because I’m not there everyday. But I know that there was significant work in the three days before the zoning changes.”
According to figures provided by Hornstein at a public meeting last Wednesday night inside the historic Grand Prospect Hall, the foundation for 182 15th Street was 95 percent complete by concrete volume and 99 percent complete by estimated cost. The similar figures for 614 7th Avenue were 96 percent and 86 percent.

The public hearing was convened by Community Board 7, and no one in the ornate and crowded ballroom could bring themselves to believe a word that came out of the notorious Hornstein’s mouth. “Are you really claiming,” asked CB7′s new Land Use chairman, John Burns, incredulously, “that there is only $8,250 left to be spent on the [15th Street] foundation?”
The elderly Hornstein allowed himself to at first seem confused by the question – a tactic he would use throughout the night – before finally answering, “That’s correct. Let me put it this way. Engineers, who we believe to be responsible, have testified to that. If you have other engineers that say otherwise, then present evidence at the hearing.”
Hornstein was referring to an upcoming hearing that will be held in front of the Board of Standards and Appeals (BSA), the public agency with final authority on this matter. At that hearing, it will be determined if the two buildings’ foundations are complete enough to allow the originally designed high-rise plans to be erected.

It will be a judgement call for the city agency. The judgement of the surrounding community, however, is already clear. The developers for both controversial sites were consistently vilified by politicians, activists and residents all night. Hornstein, the only man in the crowd of over 100 not firmly against both projects, was called a variety of names, including “hornblower,” “idiot” and “jackass.”

At one point Hornstein expressed a desire to “be home drinking hot tea for my cold,” and later he made motions of trying to leave early, but Randy Peers, the chair of CB7, strongly encouraged him to stick it out.
Hornstein used to sit on the BSA, but long ago made the well-traveled move from public power to private profit. He now represents developers throughout the city, and is well known within the preservation community for his gall and guile in pushing out-of-context buildings through the public approval process.

Burns pressed him several times on various violations at both sites – each has received dozens of complaints and several DOB stop work orders over the years – but Hornstein was consistently evasive. “I’m not saying it’s not a fair question,” he hedged, “but it’s not a question for me to answer. It’s a question for the BSA.”

“Well,” cleverly responded Burns, “when you were sitting on the BSA would you have considered all of these violations as part of your judgement?”
Hornstein, incredibly, claimed, “You know what? It was so long ago it’s hard for me to remember.”

Hornstein’s low opinion of his own memory only got worse as the night dragged on. At one point he even boasted that he couldn’t even remember when he was hired by his current clients.

That was okay, because Burns had enough memory for the both of them. “You did such a great job at the Planning Commission last year evading their questions,” he recalled, “and the excuse you gave then was that you’d just been retained a day before.”

Backed into such a rhetorical corner, Hornstein played possum. “Go ahead and beat me up,” he sighed.

The restless crowd in attendance did not have to be told that twice. “This developer,” complained 16th Street resident Jane Cyphers, “is infamous for preying on communities that do not have resources. It takes time and money, which he knows he has more of than we do. Our voices were drowned out by pile drivers and cement trucks in a mad rush to finish while we cleaned out the filth from our homes every night.”

City Councilman Bill DeBlasio referred to the developer’s “wanton disregard of the community interest.”‘

“It is depressing,” he elaborated, “the extent to which this developer is attempting to work around the intent of the community, City Planning, the City Council, the community board, everyone.”

State Assemblyman Jim Brennan’s sympathy for the two developers, Global Development LLC and Emet Veshlom Development LLC, was similarly in short supply. “Developers in this neighborhood have been on notice for many years about the new zoning,” he argued. “Five stories still leaves room for a substantial profit. There is a real estate boom in this city.”

John Rice, a carpenter who has lived in the neighborhood all his life, offered his expert opinion on the rush tactics in the weeks before the November deadline. “It’s a systematic process,” explained Rice about laying foundations for buildings. “When you’re in a rush you cut ten steps down to five, so the concrete won’t set to its specified pounds per square inch. It will be weaker than capacity. But these developers are not worried about safety. They’re just in a rush to make a buck.”

When Henry Marahan got the microphone, he took aim directly at Horstein, not the lawyer’s clients. “The tragedy is,” said Marahan, “this guy is an idiot. This jackass attorney, I’d like to have him defend me at a murder trial, because I know I’d get convicted.”

CB7 is expected to unanimously recommend rejecting the vesting applications, but the ultimate decision rests solely with the variance-granting BSA. It’s conceivable that the city agency will allow the out of context construction to continue, despite the clearly stated wishes of all of the nearby stakeholders.

Sometimes a new zoning map is nice, but it’s not always enough.

_Borough Pres. Marty Markowitz addresses CB7 and speaks on recent rezoning_

A unanimous vote was once again tallied last night at Community Board 7 as board members voted NO to the vesting of the final two of seven properties whose owners have filled BZY applications with the BSA for vesting under the old R6 zoning of the recently rezoned South Park Slope/Greenwood Heights area.

Both 182 15th St. (11-story “Katan Towers”) and 614 7th Ave. (“the Minerva building”) have incomplete foundations but the property owners’ lawyer, Howard Hornstein, claimed substantially complete foundations during last week’s CB7 public hearing. Both sites have multiple DOB/ECB violations, stop work orders and a myriad of 311 complaints.

Once again, CB7 heard public testimony and determined that our community’s long-fought-for new rezoning must stand and voted NO VESTING.

By Charles Hack
*The Park Slope Courier*

After hearing testimony from a packed house, Community Board 7

By Charles Hack
*The Park Slope Courier*

After hearing testimony from a packed house, Community Board 7

On Wednesday, February 8, residents of South Park Slope and Greenwood Heights came out in force to Community Board 7′s final BSA BZY application public hearing on 614 7th Avenue (“Minerva building”) and 182 15th Street (11-story “Katan Towers”) at Grand Prospect Hall.

_Advocate Mic Holwin speaks out against 614 7th Ave._

While the developers’ attorney, Howard B. Hornstein, presented his clients’ cases, he did little to nothing to justify these two sites’ out-of-context nature in the new R6B zoning or disputed methods used to pour foundations that ultimately were deemed incomplete by DOB on November 16, 2005.

Local residents voiced an overwhelming “NO” on both properties, referencing DOB and ECB violations, quality of life issues and the track records of these community-disrepectful development sites. In addition to residents, Councilman Bill DeBlasio, NY State Assemblyman James Brennan, Ombudsman Ralph Perfetto (Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum’s office), Joe Ferris (ex-NY State Assemblyman/Park Slope advocate), Simeon Bankoff (Historic Districts Council), Robert Furman (Four Borough Neighborhood Preservation Alliance), Russell Wiley (Committee to Save The Vista) and others spoke against the grandfathering-in of any out-of-context site in our newly rezoned area, as well as for (in 614 7th Ave.’s case) preserving the view from Green-Wood Cemetery’s Battle Hill.

A clear message, again, was sent to CB7 and the BSA, “NO VESTING, NO WAY!” Onto the BSA, see below:

*Wednesday, March 29, 10:00am-RESCHEDULED from March 08, 2006*
_BSA Special Hearing on 614 7th Ave., 182 15th St., 422 Prospect. Ave., 245 16th St., 639 6th Ave. and 400 15th St. (Non-vested Properties)_
40 Rector Street, 6th Floor, 6E-Conference Room, NYC

Community Board 7 Public Hearing
Wednesday, February 8, 2006, 6:30pm
The Grand Prospect Hall, 263 Prospect Ave (btwn 5th/6th Aves.)

Two Recently Stopped Developers to Plead Cases for
Completing Out-of-Context “Luxury” Condo Buildings:
614 7th Ave., corner of 23rd St.
(“Minerva Building” / 70′ tall, will block Battle Hill view to Liberty)
&
182 15th St. (btwn 4th & 5th Aves.)
(“Katan Towers” /11 story, 131′+ massive building)

Let’s tell our community board why these buildings should not be “Grandfathered” in under old zoning!
This hearing is open to the public and public testimony will be heard!

Download the hearing flyer PDF to give to your neighbors, click here>

The proposed school is due to open in the fall of 2008 if the Dept of Education fulfills it’s budgetary promise to build it. At this time the project is in danger of losing funding unless we can get our state officials to pressue DOE to build the school. CB7 has never had its own High School. *Your support is critical!!*

The public is invited to ask questions and voice their support for the project. Invited guests, include: Our elected officials and Department of Education officials.

*Thursday, February 2 at 6:00pm*
*MS 136 – Auditorium*
*4004 4th Ave (Enter on 40th st. and 4th Ave)*

QUESTIONS? CONTACT COMMUNITY BOARD #7 @ 718-854-0003.