City Council Member Ben Kallos said the city should do a better job of making sure scaffolding is taken down in a timely matter.
"Although it is still unclear what exactly caused today’s dangerous incident, we do know that if the structure were not there it would not have collapsed and injured pedestrians," he said in a statement.
Scaffolding collapsed in SoHo amid high winds Sunday, scattering debris across the street and injuring five people.
The scaffolding collapsed at Broadway and Prince Street, in the heart of SoHo.
Video and photos showed large metal bars and pieces of wood scattered across the street as bystanders watched or ran to help. One video shows people frantically removing debris from a pile.
At least one person was seen being taken away on a stretcher. Police said everyone who was hurt suffered minor, non-life-threatening injuries.
NYC Council Member Ben Kallos (D – Upper East Side) said it is difficult to understand how DDG safety managers could be unaware of the smoke breaks, given how blatant some laborers were about their pot smoking.
"It’s pretty hard to believe that a developer would have workers go literally across the street, smoke up, and then come back to the site and then deny that they know what is going on," Kallos said. "That’s a problem."
Children at one New York City school testified in City Council chambers against the use of pesticides in parks. Roseanne Colletti reports.
Free babysitting could come to New York City's public meetings. Rana Novini reports.
Sidewalk scaffolding are a nuisance, an eyesore, and they're up for too long, New Yorkers complain. A city lawmaker is proposing a plan to fix this. Andrew Siff reports.
A proposal that would force New York City's fast food restaurants to make their kids-themed meals healthier might actually have some benefit, researchers reported Monday.
Banks and related financial companies have accumulated more than $3 million in unpaid fines for failing to clean up dirty properties around New York City, the I-Team has found.
Many of the properties are foreclosed homes that spiraled into disrepair after the housing crisis of 2007 and 2008.
Helene Van Clief lives across the street from one of the derelict buildings. The property at 637 East 182nd Street in the Bronx is a boarded up multifamily building with broken glass and empty liquor bottles in the front yard.
Since HSBC foreclosed on the property last year, the New York City Environmental Control Board has issued the bank seven tickets for violations, including dirty sidewalks and a rodent infestation.
According to city records, HSBC has yet to pay those fines -- and more than $787,000 owed for violations related to garbage, debris and unsafe conditions at other buildings.
HSBC told the I-Team it is not the landlord of most of those properties but rather a "trustee" for the real owners, investors who bought mortgage bonds associated with the buildings, and is therefore not responsible for addressing the violations in those cases.
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Council Member Ben Kallos, an Upper East Side Democrat, has sponsored four bills to give the Department of Finance more tools to help collect environmental fines.
"The reality is, if you're a bank and you own a property you have to maintain it,” Kallos said.
Kallos blames a sort of corporate shell game for difficulties collecting on violations issued to financial institutions. Although banks may have central offices with well-known Manhattan addresses, when they act as trustees, they often list the addresses of each foreclosed property on city filings.
Legislation proposed by a city council member Friday would help New Yorkers find their vehicles when they're towed because of temporary parking restrictions.
Councilman Ben Kallos, a Democrat who represents the Upper East Side and Roosevelt Island, said cars that are towed for temporary parking violations -- like when a movie is being filmed -- are often moved blocks away without the owner's knowledge.
Kallos introduced the legislation so owners would no longer be left wondering what happened to their cars.
“Imagine arriving at your parking spot to find its gone, not knowing if it is stolen or towed, without being able to find out where it is, unless you’ve got the time to walk every block of your neighborhood,” Kallos said.
