Wednesday, March 10, 2021

Sidewalk bridge fakeout at the beleaguered Mariana Bracetti Plaza

Word spread yesterday that workers were removing the sidewalk bridge from around Mariana Bracetti Plaza, the 7-story NYCHA-run housing complex on Third Street and Fourth Street along Avenue C.

There were momentary cheers, as tenant advocates have blamed the longstanding sidewalk structures for the increase in illegal activities here in recent years.

As resident Kanielle Hernandez told EVG contributor Stacie Joy in January:
Landlords put up these dark ugly scaffolds as a resolution instead of actual repairs. Then they stay up for years without any actual work being done. But someone is getting paid to have these sidewalk bridges just up with no real purpose. It creates dark hidden places for illegal activity. 

With the sidewalk bridges came more and more and more homeless, drug addicts and alcoholics. The money being spent to have these useless sidewalk bridges up should be used to actually improve the building conditions.
Upon arriving at the complex yesterday, Stacie learned that the sidewalk bridge will be rebuilt, with workers replacing the rotting wooden planks...
While the pieces did need to be replaced, workers also said that the sidewalk bridge would remain up for another three years.

According to DOB records, permits for a sidewalk shed date here to December 2000. (Reason: "loose brick.") There are records of permits for the installation of a sidewalk bridge in March 2003 ... April 2004 (for "remedial repairs") ... August 2015 ... and October 2017. (A Google Streetview shows a structure in place continuously back to 2016.)

And some scenes from yesterday's work... 

12 comments:

Neighbor said...

It is so baffling to me that the city lets these stay up so long. Why don't they just fine the building owners to the point that they fix the issues or sell the building? 3rd and C and Houston and B are such prime examples of buildings that should not be vacant!

bill said...

Why don't they fix the loose bricks and then remove the scaffold?

Anonymous said...

@Neighbor, hello!!! This IS a city owned building!

Anonymous said...

This is absurd. They need to fix the problem and finally get rid of the sidewalk bridges.

Anonymous said...

Again, city owned and controlled = JOKE

Anonymous said...

Most people have no idea how expensive it is to keep those structures in place. Our small building had to have temporary scaffolding put up to fix something on our façade a few years ago, and it was hundreds of dollars for a small (narrow) scaffold that was up for LESS THAN a month.

For the $$$ the city has spent for these long-term structures, it could have - and certain SHOULD HAVE - fixed the actual building problems long ago.

Follow the money. Who's getting rich from the extraordinarily extended amount of time these structures are in place at Bracetti Plaza?

Anonymous said...

Next do Village View!

Anonymous said...

I agree! So sick of these scaffolding. We had it off for a few days before they came back up.

Anonymous said...

It needs to be illegal to leave these up for more than a year, unless there's active construction.

Anonymous said...

There needs to be a time limit on these scaffolds. The Department of Buildings is an antiquated, landlord-friendly, mediocracy. Maybe the City Council could intervene with this. DOB will never change on its own.

Anonymous said...

what the fuck??? another three years?????

Anonymous said...

RE: 8:32pm "There needs to be a time limit on these scaffolds. The Department of Buildings is an antiquated, landlord-friendly, mediocracy"

This is a NYC owned property!