For a moment when we saw these photos, we thought we were looking at a site we’d missed in Williamsburg or Greenpoint. Actually, it’s at 300 20th Street in Greenwood Heights. Brownstoner noted the mess yesterday morning and there’s now a Stop Work Order on the project for both undermining the property and building next door and for “failure to maintain,” which has to do with having a lousy fence. Aaron Brashear of Concerned Citizens of Greenwood Heights wrote:

As of last night the job site was open to the public and a mess. Barely any remediation. Called the situation into DOB and they showed up this morn to issue more citations for access to the site and to make sure the “new” contractor hired for the remediation does his job. Follow up inspections pending.

Unlike North Brooklyn, where blatant violations of regulations and threats to public safety seem to go unchecked at dozens of sites, in this case, the system actually appears to (sort of) have worked, albeit in a very belated fashion:

DOB [did] a pro-active surprise inspection of the site to find inadequate underpinning of the corer property at 472 6th Avenue (K&H Deli) and unsafe excavation which lead to the partial collapse of the back slab of the property and foundation wall. 472 6th Avenue rear extension is vacated. According to DOB (who did inspections on Saturday and this morning) “Rear extension is to vacated until made safe.”

Neighborhood groups applied intense pressure to the Department of Buildings over the last two years after a series of major problems with individual projects and it seems to have produced more responsiveness than has been the case in Greenpoint and Williamsburg.