[M15s running again on 2nd Avenue via Derek Berg]
The latest headlines
Landlord's lawyer blames Con Ed in East Village explosion (The New York Times)
East Village building owner could be charged with manslaughter (New York Post)
Here's what investigators are looking for under East Village blast rubble (DNAinfo)
Buffalo State University to honor Nicholas Figueroa (NBC New York)
Gas leak prompts caution and unforeseen problems (WPIX)
Survivor of East Village explosion tells his story (WABC-7)
New Yorkers rush to help mom of 3 whose apartment burned down (People magazine)
We're live at #EastVillageExplosion site. It happened one week ago today . Updates all morning on @NY1 pic.twitter.com/UAhovurbhl
— Rocco Vertuccio (@NewsieRocco) April 2, 2015Donations and Services
• The staff of Bar Virage across from the blast site have started a crowdfunding campaign for displaced restaurant workers (Give Forward)
• Speaking of Bar Virage... Via Facebook: "We are rallying at the neighborhood spot Virage – the restaurant directly across from last week's blast – to help get them back on their feet and get all our neighbors and fellow New Yorkers together for happy hour. Also included in this is an informal crawl between Via Della Pace and Van Leewan!" 6-9 p.m.
• Today from 11 to 2 pm., parishioners from the Church of the Nativity, 44 Second Ave. between East Second Street and East Third Street, will again be distributing donations to displaced residents. Details here.
• The 14th Street Y is offering displaced residents and their families six months of membership. Details here.
• Professor Thom's is hosting another fundraiser for their Second Avenue neighbors. Tonight from 6-10, a donation at the door gets you a free beer from Harpoon Brewery as well as happy hour prices until 10 p.m. All the money collected at the door will go to charity. Professor Thom's is at 219 Second Ave. between East 13th Street and East 14th Street.
... and tonight...
Nice to see Prof. Thoms and Virage doing their part with fundraising for the victims. Unless I've missed something I still haven't seen anything from our favorite EV bar The 13th Step. Do we have to publicly shame them into participating or do they only do "fundraisers" during SantaCon?
ReplyDeleteThe Hrynenkos and their lawyer are sickening. "She didn't know any better." Please. The NYT article makes me rage.
ReplyDeleteI work in construction company that specializes in renovating apartments. Let me tell you I've never known a client who didn't want to thoroughly understand what we were doing and how it was getting done. We wouldn't dare cut corners with these things. It's way too dangerous. You have to hire the professional and do the job right. There are no cutting corners. That's why we have licenses, permits and insurance.
ReplyDeleteI read the New York Times article and the landlord's defense is basically blame ConEnd.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/02/nyregion/landlords-lawyer-blames-con-ed-in-east-village-explosion.html
If she cared so much about her tenants, she would have hauled her ass down here to the East Village from her mansion and laid a wreath at the site where two people lost their lives.
Are you even serious, Hrynenko??? My blood is boiling. I hope she goes to jail for the rest of her life and the victims' families sue her nasty pants off.
ReplyDeleteBoth Con Ed and the landlord are responsible - the landlord for obvious reasons, but I still don't understand why Con Ed had conducted multiple inspections on a job that wasn't even filed with the Dept. of Buildings and for which there were no plumbing permits.
ReplyDeleteaw - the daily mail has one of the located kitty stories!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3022536/Woman-lost-home-East-Village-gas-explosion-gets-reunited-two-beloved-cats.html
fixed the WABC link....
ReplyDeleteThe ABC article is so poorly written it's hard to follow. Can someone decipher this line for me please?
ReplyDelete"From where he was sitting, he could see Figueroa's date, but never laid eyes on her."
EV Grieve > WABC-7
Con Ed's fault? Seriously? Is this an April fools' joke? I guess it's just a freak coincidence that the same landlord was caught siphoning gas a year earlier. And the contractor had been caught bribing inspectors in the past. Forgive the pun, but where there's smoke there's fire.
ReplyDeleteMinor detail--they still aren't sure what actually caused the explosion. ConEd were actually monkeying with the gas very shortly before the explosion. Could the lanlord's son have done something stupid after they left? Sure. Could ConEd have fucked up? It would be far from the first catastrophe at their hands. Why not wait for the investigators to actually figure out what happened before assigning blame? Oh yeah, that's right. It's not nearly as much fun, and if you own property you are automatically a scumbag. How silly of me.
ReplyDeleteInteresting background here--must read: http://gothamist.com/2015/04/02/east_village_gas_landlord.php
ReplyDeleteGrieve, hope you will have a report from tonight's tenant meeting as to what the affected are being advised is possible and/or likely vis a vis damages and protracted nature of litigation involved.
From what is known so far, it sounds like the landlord and contractor fucked up. May the investigators turn something else up? Sure, but I doubt it.
ReplyDelete"Minor detail--they still aren't sure what actually caused the explosion."
ReplyDeleteAre you serious ? The entire sequence of events is documented, from ConEd's inspection of the installation which they FAILED and refused to supply gas service to the improperly installed plumbing, to the landlord's son's entry into the gas filled basement space. Do you know how volatile a concentration of natural gas is ? The smallest spark (that you might not even be able to see) can ignite it. THAT'S how it happened, and it's all reported and documented in the narrative of events. Now what remains TBD is what actually caused the leak, and my money isn't on ConEd.
Why is no one bringing "Sushi Park" into the blame game?
ReplyDeleteKim, the owner of that restaurant was quick to speak against the landlord yet it is because of him and his architect's plans for duct work which caused hell for the landlord and tenants. According to records he also owned the restaurant in building 119. Curious.
Maybe it was he who wanted to connect the gas line for the two restaurants. He had access to the basement where the gas lines were located. Maybe it was he who jury-rigged something in the gas line.
When did Kim's restaurants last have inspections? When was the last time they cleaned their exhaust vents? Did anyone inspect his stove?
Just food for thought.
Anon 3:31 - this city is unbelieveable! "the DOB ruled a few days later that the exhaust system could be made legal if they bricked up the air shaft windows and converted the bedrooms to storage rooms". The City decreed it was ok to eliminate these apartments for the individual business. The property owners see they are rewarded for this kind of behavior. I predict more destruction - its all the elites have left, the snake eating its own tail.
ReplyDelete@anon 4:35 - the other restaurant at 119 has been closed for almost a year....
ReplyDeleteSo many people assigning blame to ConEd, the contractor....if you look at the videos on YouTube, Mischou was in the basement when the explosion happened and lived in one of the buildings.
http://imgur.com/dYIRzuW
and if you own property you are automatically a scumbag.
ReplyDeleteNo, not automatically. It probably takes a while.
NYC landlords have been held in low regard for oh, a couple of hundred years. You think that came out of nowhere?
"Maria Hrynenko claims she didn't know what the unsupervised, unlicensed men were doing with the gas line. She says, "I thought they were like Peanuts characters, waving their hands in air decorating dog house."
ReplyDeleteThursday night 7:30 PM, went to Chase Bank to get some cash. The entire block between 7th & St. Marks on 2nd Ave. was 'littered' with idiots gawking and taking pictures, mostly selfies, at the site of a tragedy.
ReplyDeleteEvery Thursday, Friday and Saturday night, these morons invade the neighborhood like f*cking bedbugs.
ReplyDeleteHere ya go: per fourth paragraph of the attached Villager piece, looks like shenanigans at 119 Second started nearly exactly ten years ago, when about a year after original landlord Michael Hrynenko died his wife Maria told longtime tenant Love Saves the Day they had to start paying a TRIPLED rent of $15k or get out
ReplyDeletehttp://thevillager.com/villager_129/vintagestorefrom60s.html