A map to track the city's 280 miles of sidewalk bridges

[A fine sidewalk bridge on St. Mark's Place]

The New York Times takes a look at the 280 (!) miles of sidewalk bridges or sidewalk sheds that line the five boroughs.

Though intended to protect passers-by from falling debris, these eyesores known as sidewalk sheds have often become a blight, drawing a barrage of complaints from residents and businesses that they block light and views, attract crime and litter and impede foot traffic along congested sidewalks.

On the positive side, sidewalk bridges make for handy places to drape paintings of naked women with 100 Avenue A written on their bodies to help sell condos...



Anyway, while City Council is considering some legislation targeting scaffolding that stays too long, the DOB has unveiled an online tool to track the city's sidewalk bridges/sheds...

It has taken stock of scaffolding and created an online system to better track the structures at a time when there are more of them than ever as older buildings need work and a construction boom produces more towers. In a sweep last year, building inspectors checked every piece of scaffolding and while most needed to remain for safety, about 150 were ordered dismantled because work had been finished.

The new map marks every building with scaffolding with a color-coded dot showing why the structures went up: red for buildings deemed unsafe, light blue for repairs, dark blue for new construction and green for maintenance work. Clicking on a dot reveals more details, including the date a permit was first approved. The older the scaffolding, the larger the dot.

You can play with the map here.

This is just a screengrab...



Previously on EV Grieve:
Now, for real, final pieces of 6-year-old sidewalk bridge come down on St. Mark's Place

Should you be worried about sidewalk sheds?

[Photo Sunday by Pinhead]

On Sunday, the just-installed sidewalk shed collapsed outside the Salvation Army's former East Village Residence on the Bowery at East Third Street. No one was injured.

The incident prompted a discussion about the safety of sidewalk bridges among a few EVG friends and readers. One EVG reader pointed us to a article from Friday in The New York World, which the Columbia Journalism School publishes, titled "Shoddy sidewalk sheds pose risk amid faltering city enforcement efforts."

According to the paper's investigation:

● A special Scaffold Safety Team, created in late 2007 by the Bloomberg administration to monitor construction scaffolds and sidewalks sheds, has seen its staff reduced from 14 field inspectors in 2008 to 9 in 2013.
● The number of violations issued for faulty sheds has plummeted, from 855 in 2009 to 337 in 2013.
● At least 39 pedestrians and construction workers have been injured since January 2011 in accidents involving sidewalk sheds

You can find stats and the city's response in the article here.

Meanwhile, here's Richard Miller, a structural engineer and owner of MRES Engineering PC, a private consulting firm: "I always cross the street to avoid walking under sheds. And I recommend others do the same."

Sidewalk bridge collapses on the Bowery

[EVG photo from Thursday]

The sidewalk bridge arrived last Wednesday ahead of the demolition of Salvation Army's former East Village Residence on the Bowery at East Third Street.

Earlier this evening, a portion of the structure came crashing down, nearly blocking the entrance to the 7-Eleven next door… and spilling into the street…



EVG regular Pinhead shared these photos … and said that the FDNY responded within 2 minutes … thankfully, no one was injured …



The Residence closed in August 2008. It will be torn down to make way for a 13-floor residential building.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Whatever happened to that really ugly hotel planned for the Bowery?

Permits filed to demolish former Salvation Army residence on the Bowery

The Salvation Army's former East Village Residence will be demolished on the Bowery

Looks like 347 Bowery will be home to a 13-floor mixed-use residential development

Miracle on St. Mark's! Sidewalk bridge comes down 6-plus years later!

What a scene late yesterday afternoon on St. Mark's Place between Second Avenue and Third Avenue … where workers quickly removed the 6-plus-year-old sidewalk bridge from the south side of the street.

According to the DOB, the city issued the permit for the sidewalk bridge in February 2008. As far as anyone can recall, no work had ever been done on the buildings at 32 or 34 St. Mark's Place.



Among other things, the removal of the sidewalk bridge gives "The Doorshitter" of St. Mark's Place less cover … if he ever decided to return…

Oh, and THAT'S what the front of 2 Bros. looks like…

Previously on EV Grieve:
St. Mark's sidewalk shed celebrates fourth anniversary

Happy 5th Birthday to the sidewalk shed of St. Mark's Place!

A big improvement for (maybe) the worst East Village corner

Whoa. Shocker. That sidewalk bridge that had been on the corner of First Avenue and East 14th Street is finally gone... Oh! So this is what all these businesses look like...



As for this being maybe the worst corner in the neighborhood for general congestion, stupidity, annoyances ... that's subjective... but it really sucks. You may have other least-favorite corners.

Happy 5th Birthday to the sidewalk shed of St. Mark's Place!

A belated 5th birthday to the sidewalk shed outside 32 St. Mark's Place. And thanks to @Ewingweb for the reminder and photo above... Saturday was the anniversary...

According to the DOB, the city issued the permit for the sidewalk shed in February 2008.

[March 2012 via Bobby Williams]

As far as anyone can recall, no work had ever been done on the buildings at 30 32 or 34 St. Mark's Place.

But the DOB did approve the following work back in October:

PROPOSED ALT 2 FOR RESTORATION OF FACADE EXTERIOR AND MINOR INTERIOR RENOVATION TO SPACKLE & PAINT CORRIDORS, NO CHANGE IN USE OR EGRESS

Still, five years for an abandoned sidewalk bridge is nothing, as a report in the Post noted yesterday. The Milford Plaza Hotel on Eighth Avenue has reportedly had a sidewalk shed dating to 1990.

Per the Post:

The number of the ugly overhead structures has steadily climbed each year since 2009 — to 8,514 last year — as the city’s new rules for façade inspections kicked in.

Under the law, owners of buildings higher than six stories must hire engineers to inspect for cracks, loose bricks and other deficiencies every five years. In 2010, the Buildings Department began staggering inspection deadlines to ensure 12,000 buildings weren’t filing reports all at once and scrambling for contractors the same day.

Previously on EV Grieve:
St. Mark's sidewalk shed celebrates fourth anniversary

Sidewalk shed arrives for former Cabrini Center

A reader alerted us this morning that the sidewalk shed would be going up outside the former Cabrini Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation on East Fifth Street and Avenue B ... currently under renovation to residential use...

City issues Stop Work Permit for sidewalk shed on Seventh Street and Avenue B

After reading our post on the sidewalk shed outside Vazac's/7B, Councilmember Rosie Mendez's office contacted the Department of Buildings to have a look. A Mendez aide told us that by the end of the day yesterday, the DOB inspected the site and issued a Stop Work Order for work without a permit erecting a sidewalk shed.

St. Mark's sidewalk shed celebrates fourth anniversary

A longtime resident of St. Mark's Place between Second Avenue and Third Avenue wonders how much longer this strip of sidewalk shed will remain in place...

[Bobby Williams]

As far as they reader can tell, no work has ever been done on the building that it's sort of attached to — 32 St. Mark's Place. (Or 34 St. Mark's Place.)

According to the DOB, the city issued the permit for the sidewalk shed in February 2008. We couldn't find any permits on file for work on the building's exterior — just a few complaints about cracks in the facade.

In addition, the permits expired for the two sidewalk sheds ...

[BW]

However, as the DOB website shows, the city renewed the sidewalk shed permit for 32 St. Mark's Place on March 23 for one more year. And the new sign arrived late last week.

Remember to buy the sidewalk shed the traditional gift of wood for its 5th anniversary next year.

New mural in the works for the Russo's-Something Sweet wall

In late July, workers refurbished the building on the southwest corner of First Avenue and 11th Street... painting over the Russo's ribbon mural in the process...

But! A new mural is in the works, as you can see... no one was around ... so we don't know who the artist is yet...

Of course, we're hoping (and assuming) that this will be for Russo's (or Something Sweet) and not an ad for, say, vodka.

Something Sweet had nothing to do with the loss of the Russo's mural

As we noted the other day, workers painted over the Russo's mural on East 11th Street. Blue Glass talked with the folks at Something Sweet. Because the mural was technically on their wall, there's a perception that Something Sweet ordered the paint job. Apparently several people have said unkind things about this to the Something Sweet staff.

Anyway, Something Sweet had nothing to do with the makeover. The building's landlord did. As for a new mural, the staff at Russo's was fairly noncommittal on the issue.

Workers paint over the Russo's mural on 11th Street

Last Monday, we pointed out the arrival of a sidewalk shed outside Something Sweet on the corner of First Avenue and East 11th Street...

And, let's awkwardly quote ourselves.... "As long as no one gets any funny ideas about painting over the Russo's mural on the 11th Street side..."

[2nd Russo's image via]

That's right! And this past weekend... checking in on the painting progress.

...and yesterday...

Ugh.

The store was founded in 1904. I don't know how long the mural has been here... Could workers have spared it? Not such a crazy concept. The pigs were actually saved on Second Avenue. Regardless, just one more familiar site in the neighborhood that has disappeared...

A sidewalk shed for Something Sweet

Blue Glass notes the arrival of a sidewalk shed outside Something Sweet, the homespun bakery on the corner of First Avenue and East 11th Street...

Per the DOB: Workers will replace the "joists, window lintels and stucco."

As long as no one gets any funny ideas about painting over the Russo's mural on the 11th Street side...

[2nd Russo's image via]

It's nice to see Ray's again

Hey now, workers removed the sidewalk shed on the Avenue A side too... Melanie has a shot of the workers in action here...


Previously on EV Grieve:
Sidewalk shed partially down on Seventh and A

Scaffolding to cover Ray's, Yuca Bar

Sidewalk shed partially down on Seventh and A

Since March 10, workers have been repairing the facade on the building at Seventh Street and Avenue A... which meant a sidewalk shed for Yuca Bar and Ray's... Yesterday, workers removed the sidewalk shed on the Seventh Street side...





Still more time for shenanigans on A, though, near Ray's and the World Famous Pee Phone©.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Scaffolding to cover Ray's, Yuca Bar