About 60 tenants at 8-29 Astoria Boulevard in Queens were evacuated after the city found their building full of safety violations. A tenant had initially complained about bedbugs, but then the Department of Buildings found (report) inadequate sprinkler system, illegal electrical and gas work, illegal plumbing, no fire escapes, and no emergency exits (gas and water were shut off) . WABC 7 spoke to residents who said the landlord for the building--which was zoned only......

The Daily News checked out the new crane at the 1st Avenue and East 91 Street site where a crane collapsed, killing two men, in May. Neighbors were wary--one said, "The first thing I thought was, 'Oh, here we go again,'" while another said, "I tend to think they won't screw up twice, but I don't want to be the one who is told, 'I told you so.'" The Buildings Department said the crane is......

After two fatal crane collapses and other accidents, the city issued new rules to improve crane safety. However, construction industry officials tell the NY Times union laborers would be out of work (temporarily), work will be slower, and the Department of Buildings didn't even consult them! For instance, the new rules requires contractors to have manuals for assembling and dismantling cranes, but many operators "don't have those manuals and own cranes whose manufacturers are out......

Mayor Bloomberg is making acting Building Department commissioner Robert LiMandri the permanent commissioner. LiMandri has headed the DOB after previous commissioner Patricia Lancaster stepped down after a month after the March 15 crane collapse. City Room points out that the City Council paved the way for the expected promoting by changing the requirements needed for the job. Now commissioners do not need to be licensed engineers or architects--LiMandri "has an engineering degree, but is not......

Yesterday, a construction worker died after being thrown from a small crane on Steinway Street in Astoria, Queens. A truck had crashed into it, and witnesses say there were "no warning cones around it, and the boom started swinging back and forth." Two workers who had been wearing safety harnesses survived, the worker who died was reportedly not wearing a hardhat. The truck's driver was not issued a summons, as the police believe the driver......

The crane inspector arrested for falsely claiming he had inspected the crane that eventually collapsed at East 51st Street on March 15 has been tied to additional false reports. Edward Marquette pleaded not guilty to the charges, which included tampering with public records. It's unclear which cranes he is accused of faking reports for, but the Department of Buildings has been trying to crack down on crane and construction safety after the March crane collapse......

The Department of Buildings suspended Michael Carbone, a senior DOB crane inspector, for "neglect of duty." The Post actually contacted the DOB, noting he "had cleared several complaints last year that claimed unqualified operators were working in the industry and that some of their licenses were fraudulent." In fact, a caller or callers kept complaining about crane operators not having licenses or obtaining them fraudulently. Last month, a top DOB official was arrested for giving......

Yesterday, Department of Buildings acting commissioner Robert LiMandri testified before the House Education and Labor Committee and announced new ways the city would increase crane safety, including inspecting cranes when they change ownership. LiMandri also asked for more OSHA inspectors--who should also be given the power to issue stop-worker orders--noting he was "deeply troubled" by the recent crane collapse deaths, "It is simply impossible for our inspectors to be at every site at all times."......

The Department of Buildings confirmed to the Daily News that it found cracks in a crane at a construction site in lower Manhattan. The crane happens to be a Kodiak tower crane owned by New York Crane & Equipment Co.--the same model and firm involved last month's fatal crane collapse at East 91st Street and First Avenue. Cracks were found in the crane's turntable; the crane in the May collapse also suffered from cracking (it......

Photograph from East 51st Street by gattogrosso212 at flickr The East 51st Street condominium site where a crane collapsed into buildings--completely leveling a townhouse and killing seven--had its construction permit revoked. A month after the March 15 collapse, it was revealed plans for the 43-story building should never have been approved by the Department of Buildings (it's possible revised plans could still have been approved), so the developer James Kennelly was asked to resubmit......

Brooklyn architect and developer Robert Scarano, whose many projects have come under Department of Buildings' scrutiny in the past for safety and zoning violations, was charged with allegedly making "false or misleading statements on applications submitted" to the DOB for two buildings. From the press release:The administrative charges are in connection with documents for two Brooklyn apartment houses that Scarano filed with the Buildings Department in 2000 and 2002. Scarano is alleged to have improperly......

As concerns over citywide construction-related fatalities grow, the Brooklyn DA's office has charged a site owner with manslaughter, after a worker died in a March trench collapse. William Lattarulo was building a commercial building up at 791 Glenmore Avenue in East New York, which is next to his house at 795 Glenmore, and had decided not to hire a contractor to oversee the job, though he was not qualified to do so (a savings of......

When buildings attack! Yesterday, a 50-pound piece of "decorative terracotta" fell onto a BMW parked outside a Tudor City Place building. (When buildings are telling drivers to park in car parks?) Jalopnik editor Ray Wert happens to live in the building and took photographs of the seriously damaged car (pictured). If the chunk o'building could do this much damage to a car, it's a good thing no one was hurt! A note was left in......

Photograph of the collapsed crane being assembled in April by seth_holladay on Flickr The Department of Buildings' acting Chief Inspector for Cranes and Derricks was arrested today. James Delayo was accused of taking thousands of dollars in bribes from a crane company and falsifying reports. WNBC reports, "The city's Department of Investigation also says Delayo tampered with licensing exams by providing the answers for crane operator exams to a crane company for a fee."......

Yesterday, the city announced a number of measures to crack down on unsafe contractors and prevent any more horrific accidents. So far this year, fifteen construction workers have died on the job--twelve died in all of 2007. The measures, which you can read here, include having a concrete site safety manager present, meeting prior to erecting cranes, and assigning a safety monitor to "jobs with multiple immediately hazardous safety violations, or otherwise poor safety records."......

An insurance company executive, whose client owned the crane had once been repaired before collapsing on East 91st Street last Friday, said the Department of Buildings knew the crane's history. NationalBuilders Insurance Services executive vice president Kevin Cunningham said, "The DOB inspector certified that it was OK to go back to work." While the insurance company says the 24-year-old tower crane's turntable crack was "minor," investigators suspect the re-welded crack might have given way and......

Photograph of the collapsed crane being assembled in April by seth_holladay on Flickr The offices of New York Crane and Equipment, which owns the cranes in last Friday's as well as March's fatal crane collapses, were searched and documents were seized, according the NY Times. Currently, there are investigations from the Manhattan DA's office, the Department of Investigation, and OSHA into the collapse. An insurance company confirmed that the crane's turntable used at 331......

The Building Department allowed "most" crane operations across the city to resume as the investigation into what caused Friday's fatal crane collapse at East 91st Street continues. Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday, "It would appear that there is no connection whatsoever between the two accidents. They're very different things," the second accident being the March 15 crane collapse which left seven people dead. The March 15 incident may have involved a nylon sling that failed, while......

Photograph of the building damaged by the collapsed crane on East 91st Street by Stephen Chernin/AP The NY Times reports that the Manhattan District Attorney's office has opened up a criminal investigation into Friday's construction crane collapse on East 91st Street that left two dead. Apparently, it's possible that the crane, manufactured by Kodiak, could be the same one, as the Daily News reported yesterday, that "cracked at a project on W.46th St. and......

Yesterday, at a luxury condominium construction site, a crane collapsed at East 91st Street and First Avenue, damaging a building across the street and killing two workers. Though this was the second crane collapse in two months, city officials do not believe the circumstances were similar to th March 15 incident where a condominium construction crane collapsed into buildings, killing seven people. In fact, the DOB believes a weld in the crane is what failed....

Photograph by seth_holladay A crane collapsed at 1st Avenue and 91st Street on the Upper East Side around 8:15 a.m. According to initial reports, there are people trapped inside. There is wreckage on 91st Street, with FDNY and other emergency responder going through the rubble. The crane was located at a new construction site. Crane safety and new construction has come under new scrutiny after the March 15 crane collapse that claimed the lives......

The Department of Buildings has allowed architects and engineers to "self-certify" their plans and alterations, to help with getting the tens of thousands of buildings pending permits fast-tracked. But after recent outcry, the DOB has re-reviewed many plans, finding over 80% are "plagued with zoning violations." According to the Post, the DOB usually "randomly reviews 20 percent of self-certified plans," but with the building boom (especially in Brooklyn), more funds were given to allow the......

Yesterday afternoon, there were reports of a wall collapse or falling debris from a Harlem building on 116th Street, off Fifth Avenue. It turns out it was not quite a full wall collapse, but it looks to be more than the "construction debris" referred to by fire officials in an AP story. The incident occurred at the recently completed green condominium building, the Kalahari Harlem. "Two stucco-like surface panels"--about three stories high and maybe......

The Bloomberg administration has augmented the Dept. of Buildings' budget by $5 million next year in order to hire an additional 63 building inspectors. It will bring the total number of inspectors to 461, versus 277 in 2002. The move comes on the heels of publicized events of fatal mishaps. Patricia Lancaster resigned last month as commissioner. Though she was brought in to streamline the notoriously inept and corrupt department, her leadership was questioned after......

The Tribeca site where 14,000 pounds of steel fell on a construction trailer last December was hit with more violations yesterday when a "piece of steel fell 18 stories onto a baseball field where dozens of children were playing." Really--the Goldman Sachs site at 200 Murray Street is next to a baseball field and Little Leaguers were playing there yesterday. Apparently construction workers were bringing up a 30" by 30" piece of steel in......

On a day when construction workers who died on the job were being remembered and on the start of the Department of Buildings' Construction Safety Week, a construction worker was crushed under a front-end loader at site in Staten Island. According to the Staten Island Advance, the victim had been guiding the loader's operator as it was being backed out of Martha Street and Clove Road at 9:30 p.m. last night. And when the front-end......

The Buildings Department has partially lifted the stop work order at 246 Spring Street, aka the Trump Soho building at Spring and Varick. On January 14, a construction worker fell to his death while pouring concrete molds on the 42nd floor. A second worker also fell, but was saved by netting around the building. The DOB says workers were allowed to proceed "with interior construction and installation of curtain wall panels on the lower......

Photo of a crane on the Upper East Side by Stacyinthecity on flickr In an attempt to prevent another deadly crane accident, the city's Department of Buildings announced changes yesterday to keep construction "sites safe." The agency laid out several new regulations requiring oversight by city inspectors or a project engineer. Buildings Commissioner Patricia Lancaster said that the new rules are "something that should have been happening" before. The engineer that applied for the......

After a number of high-profile construction incidents in the past few years, the Buildings Department announced last month they would introduce stricter safety measures for high-rise construction. Here are some of those incidents: There are terrible construction incidents at sites of all sizes, union or non-union. Last Wednesday, a worker died while digging a foundation in East New York (a neighboring wall collapsed on him). And a 2006 study showed non-union workers are at greatest......

Rescue workers search for survivors at the 305 East 50th Street by Toykin Chin/AP; lower photograph by chucknyc88 on Flickr After a 19-story construction crane collapsed in Turtle Bay and fell towards other buildings, firefighters and other rescue workers are searching for survivors in the rubble. At least four people - all construction workers, Brad Cohen, Aaron Stephens, Anthony Mazza and Wayne Binder - are dead and many more are injured. It's believed two......