Sunday, September 02, 2007
Crane Accident at 110 3rd Avenue : Update
We return again to last September's tower crane accident at 110 3rd avenue and note that after nearly a year little of nothing has been done to punish anyone for the indifferent and incompetent behavior that caused the accident .This was a serious accident which injured 5 people ,crushed a taxi-cab , caused the evacuation of many near-by buildings , shut-down all traffic in the area for close to 24 hours and cost the New York City tax-payer a great deal of money.
As the building's construction proceeds to completion ever so slowly, the workings of the Department of Building's hearing of fact concerning the cause of the so-called accident at 110 3rd avenue also moves ever so slowly . Hearings continue to be moved into the future with the current date for the next set of hearing's being 27 Dec. 2007 . All parties involved in the accident are still apparently preparing to present their cases on this date . Of the parties involved ,so far only Tishman construction has been punished in any way : they have been fined $1500 aqccording to the DOB building profile .
For the details of this crane accident see here at NMNL the 4 post on the subject at the beginning of the October 2006 archive .
We also recomend an article on the event in ENR (Engineering News Record) , 10/9/2006 , Vol. 257 issue 14 , pg 11 , one page . We can not achieve a lasting link to this article . In NYC ,the article can be accessed through the public library ,if you have a library card , at : www.nypl.org
The DOB building profile with the details of complaints , DOB violations , actions and hearingscan be found by going to http://www.nyc.gov/ and clicking on the buildings depatment on the home page drop-down and then selecting burough ,house number and street in the profile selection field .
Saturday, September 01, 2007
Critical Mass Rides from "Guantanamo-on-Hudson"...
Friday night , August 31 , 2007 Critical Mass began its regular last-Friday-of-the-month-ride at 9 pm in front of Marine and Aviation pier 57 at 15th street and the Hudson River .
The evening began earlier for CM and NYPD in Union Square Park as usual at around 7 pm. Seventy to eighty bicycles with riders assembled for what appeared to be a ride beginning from Union Square Park . NYPD was present in considerable number waiting for the evening's events to unfold as usual in the parking lot on the north side of the park .
Not much happened in USP other than a puppet show which was more-or-less shut down by NYPD . Both riders and cops waited patiently in the parking lot for more than an hour for the expected ride to begin . But CM leadership had a surprise for NYPD .
CM leadership had secreted around the word among the riders that this month's ride would not begin in Union Square Park but at Marine and Aviation pier 57 located on the Hudson river . Quietly the body of 80 or so riders , leaving USP a few at at a time only , made their way to what was known during the Republican National Convention (RNC) as "Guantanamo on the Hudson" , Marine and Aviation pier 57.
This site was chosen by the CM leadership in memory to all those who had been held in this facility after being arrested for protesting at the RNC on the infamous A31 , day of anarchy . A31 had ocurred 3 years earlier to the day on 31 Aug. 2004 .
The ride started at 9pm from pier 57 with 80 or so riders and passed through many of the places that during the RNC had been the site of major arrests of large numbers of CM riders . In several places such as Times Square and in front of St Marks in the Bowery the riders stopped and raised high above their heads their bicycles in memory to all those that had been arrested during the RNC ride .It was reported by riders that during the stop in Times Square hundreds cheered the riders .
Finally according to some riders interveiwed there were no arrests and in fact hardly any of NYPD were seen anywhere during the entire ride .
Drug Overdose in Tompkins Square Park
A crowd gathered on the 9th street Tompkins Square Park traverse late Friday afternoon to watch NYFD emergency medical personnel remove an unconscious male from some out-of-the-way bushes just to north of the traverse . The unconscious condition of the male was , as is too often the case in TSP , caused by an incautious injection of too much heroin .The emergency medical personnel at the scence possibly saved the mans life by injecting a sufficient amount of the heroin blocking agent Naloxone to block the effect of the heroin . The young male was removed by ambulance to a local hospital emergency room for continued treatment .
It appears that this particular location in TSP has been used several times as a hiding place for drug users to shoot-up un-noticed . The empty syringe packaging for several syringes can be seen here , left behind in the bushes just to the north of the 9th street park traverse where the unconscious male was found .
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