Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy
Last Tuesday, workers started removing the sidewalk bridge from around the Mariana Bracetti Plaza, the 7-story NYCHA-run housing complex on Third Street and Fourth Street along Avenue C.
The removal brought cheers from residents, as PIX11 noted. Residents who EVG contributor Stacie Joy talked with were thrilled it was gone, and that in the past eight years or so, the workers had only repaired a few bricks.
Tenant advocates have blamed the longstanding sidewalk structures for the increase in illegal activities here in recent years — not to mention more rats and unsanitary conditions from use as a public restroom.
According to DOB records, permits for a sidewalk shed date here to December 2000. (Reason: "loose brick.") There are records of permits for installing 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.)
Hopefully, the sidewalks will remain free of other structures. There was a fake-out here in March 2021 after workers took down the sidewalk bridge before rebuilding it several days later. (They were replacing some rotting wooden planks.)
So the views for now...
Previously on EV Grieve: