Neither more nor less

As you can see , the red stripe blazoned across the page claiming that a stop work order is in effect on this property is gone . The screen shot above is from yesterday morning . Exactly when this most recent stop work order , which had been noted on the building profile for 120 St. Marks Place for some time , was lifted is not clear . We will attempt to obtain one way or another just exactly when this most recent stop work order was imposed and when it was rescinded .

Given Mr. Shaoul's publicly documented past and the history of this project , many in the community are quite concerned about what will happen next at 120 St. Marks Place .

Not only the community is concerned . This project and Mr. Shaoul have gotten the attention of the Borough President Scott Stringer's office and Council person Mendez's office , both of which offices have made a considerable effort to make 120 St Marks Place a safe , sound and lawful project . This attention is in addittion to the attention paid to the project by the Department of Buildings and the Borough Commisioner himself . This attention from the DOB has produced some results : the rotten interior frame is gone , the severely damaged and weakened rear wall is gone and the original self-certified plans have been audited and found deficient .

Our concern with this project is of course public safety and its dependence on DOB supervision and enforcement .We are also concerned with the problems associated with the practice of self-certification by architects , which practice has been in the news much of late ( search the architect Scarano in the N.Y. Times for instance ) .

Yes , Jim and Jesse Jane are heading west ...to a basement in Jersey . I know that for some of you that probably evokes any number and manner of nightmares but for Jim and Jesse it's far better than continuing to live on the street .There they will be with good longtime freinds and Jim will have a place to work and some privacy and Jesse can run in a yard any time she wants . They will of course come back to visit frequently

Above and Below:Work in progress while DOB stop work order is in effect at 120 St. Marks Place . Pictures taken at around 2:30 P.M. ,5 September,2006
Again the Shaoul team does not respect a stop work order imposed by the NYC Dept of Buildings. This stop work order has been in effect for several weeks but it has not stopped any work (see previous posts ) .

You can check the history of this project for yourself at the following :

http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/PropertyProfileOverviewServlet?boro=1&houseno=120+&street=St+Marks+Place&requestid=0&s=A03C41B885B461E4F46BD08866A7430E


Or you can go to : www.nyc.gov and under agencies select the building department , then select Manhattan as the borough and type in 120 for st. number and type in St. Marks Place for street ,then submit .

Please notice on the history or building profile for this building all of the previous stop work orders .

Above: Ray's Candystore 11 years ago. Below: Ray's last night

But for the flip-flops , Belgian Fries , a lack of newspapers and magazines and a much larger monthly rent , Ray's is still Ray's ; still at 113 Avenue A and still the anchor of the neighborhood .

As what is left of tropical storm/ hurricane- Katrina- wanna-be Ernesto moves up through the mid-Atlantic states on it's way to New England to do battle with a Canadian high pressure zone , alternating gusts of wind whipped rain with mist and cool , drier fall winds keep most people inside on this Friday night in the East Village . Most that are out away from their apartments are inside in the numerous bars of the neighborhood such as Odessa Bar where some young , quiet, sedate types drink imported beer and play a board game at the big round table near the large green-lighted front window . Around the corner on St Marks Place , Jim sits ,tired and in pain , on a large , found and fake leather sofa in his blue plastic tarp covered abode with friends Goldie and Cable. Jim still is a bit shaken -up by the beating he took yesterday and is in a good bit of pain . He has been to see a doctor at the Veterans Hospital and will return to the hospital tomorrow for more tests .His friends have been helping him and some will stay the night to stand watch while he sleeps .... probably it seems watching a lot of television and perhaps drinking some beer .

Jim's freind John did make it to court where the court on seeing and talking to him apparently decided that his condition was not good after the early morning beating and sent him to a hospital emergency room . As of now no one knows what John's condition is or indeed which hospital he is in.

Jim's and John's attacker was charged with 2 counts of assault in the 3rd degree and resisting arrest and had his bail set at $750 . He could thus easily be back out on the street now ;but if he is , it would be in his best interest to stay away from the area around St. Marks Place and Tompkins Square Park since there are at least half a dozen or so young men looking for him . It would be ,you see , pay-back time .

Above : Stop work Order still in effect today , 1 September 2006
Above :120 St Marks Place 0n 1 September 2006 . Note ladder .
Above : Concrete floor at 120 St Marks Place poured on 31 august 2006 and photographed on 1 September 2006 .
Above : Construction at 120 St Marks Place , 30 August 2006
Above and below : details of work being done at 120 St Marks Place ,28 August 2006

Above and Below : Construction details at 120 St. Marks Place on 28 August 2006
Today construction was still under way at 120 St Marks Place in spite of a long standing Department of Buildings stopwork order being in effect for this property . This current stop work order has been in effect for at least several weeks and probably ,I am told , since 7 July of this year . The ladder is the sign that workers were in the building today . Entrance to the building is regularly obtained by this ladder which is usually pulled up behind them and stowed out of sight above the street .Thus , with the ground floor front closed up, workers can hide their presence from inspectors and neighborhood activists that call the DOB to complain about illegal activity in the building . As can be seen , the concrete ground floor is in place having been poured yesterday with the current stop work order in effect . All construction activity shown here occured with a DOB stop work order in effect .

The steel construction details above were photographed on 28 August 2006 and will not be found in any of the governing referance standards for steel design ,fabrication and errection that are part of the New York City building code .