Tuesday, March 14, 2023

What's happening on this block of 5th Street?

There are barricades and cones via Con Edison on this block of Fifth Street between Second Avenue and Cooper Square, which have been in place since May 2022.

According to sources on the block, Madison Realty Capital, via property manager Silverstone Property Group shut off the gas to the building at 231 and 235 E. Fifth St. and installed electric stoves. We're told this was done with tenant permission and in accordance with the law. 

However, new electric lines for the 220V stoves were needed. Madison Realty Capital had them installed temporarily, routing the wires on the sidewalk to the basement from a manhole near each building. Now work remains at a standstill nearly 10 months later, which has made some residents unhappy (photo below via the East Fifth Street Block Association).
One resident told us that the combination of three outdoor dining structures, poor garbage maintenance and open manholes have made parts of this block a mecca for rats. "It's nasty," the resident said.

Elsewhere, we've heard grumbles about the ongoing Con Ed presence on Seventh Street between Avenue A and First Avenue... which starts roughly outside the back entrance to the Brant Foundation...
... and ends with a garbage dump of a dormant Con Ed work site.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Welcome to the Con Ed nightmare. I live on 11th between A and B, where for years there has been some kind of cordoned-off installation in the street with a constantly belching steam pipe sticking out of the asphalt that sometimes looks like a portal to Hell, it billows so much smoke. Con Ed put it in countless years ago with no prior notice to the block, none of us know what it is, Con Ed claims they have no idea what I am talking about when I try to get more information, and the plan just seems to be to keep it there in perpetuity. What a way to run a business.

Anonymous said...

Same exact mess mid-block North side of 9th Street between First and A!

Anonymous said...

The dynamics of ConEd acting like the government with no clue or care are interesting. Must be the cushy monopoly talking.

Anonymous said...

Since the 80's.

Anonymous said...

The North side of East 5th street is a huge Rats nest thanks to this and lack of building maintenance .Rats are coming into first floor apartments annd eating our foods and are in the back of the buildings as well .