There’s good news and bad news to report regarding 143 Huron Street, a development that has been fairly blatant in doing a lot of noisy and disruptive after-hours and weekend work. Yesterday, New York Shitty reported that workers were on the job until 9:30PM on the night before Thanksgiving and back at work at 9AM on Thanksgiving Day. Subsequent emails indicated they were there until at least 6:00 PM. The good news is that the Department of Buildings actually investigated a complaint. The bad news is they found “no holiday after hours illegal construction activity.” The report was entered on Friday, so there’s no indication when the building inspector paid a visit. What we can say is this: Huh?
Anyway, here’s the 143 Huron Gowanus Lounge Multiple Choice Quiz:
The Department of Buildings inspector reported no holiday work at 143 Huron because…
(A). He visited after the workers had wrapped up their Thanksgiving work.
(B). The workers ran and hid when he showed up.
(C). The workers were having Thanksgiving Dinner when the he swung by.
(D). He didn’t actually go to 143 Huron. He went to 134 Huron.
(E). Those Ray Bans make the world dark, baby, especially after sunset.
(F). He saw it but for some odd reason failed to, you know, see it.
(G). Shut up. It’s a stupid law for whiners. Go post pictures of Gowanus Santa decorations.
4 responses so far ↓
1 Anonymous // Nov 24, 2007 at 11:01 am
An “After Hours Variance” is not required for them to work on Thanksgiving Day. Last time I checked, Thanksgiving falls on a Thursday, and they are allowed to work from 7:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. Monday to Friday, as long as they have their regular DOB permit.
2 Anonymous // Nov 24, 2007 at 1:13 pm
If you read the post, it says they were working until 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday. That sounds like after hours.
Regarding Thursday, I don’t know if there is a holiday regulation or not, but… if there wasn’t, why does the DOB inspector make note of “No Holiday After Hours Illegal Construction Activity.”
These types of complaints are very difficult to make, because you can complain about after hours activity and an inspector will show up in the afternoon three days later. And I guess, they, um, aren’t lying when they say they don’t see anything.
It’s a little easier if the contractor is working for the city. We had a similar situation and after complaining twice, the after hours construction did indeed stop.
3 Anonymous // Nov 24, 2007 at 3:00 pm
The erroneous complaint #3245861 was called into 311 at 9:04 A.M.
I can only guess that after the inspector wasted their time going out to the site, and found nobody working after 6:00 P.M. was just repeating the complaint in his report.
4 Anonymous // Nov 24, 2007 at 5:39 pm
You are somehow related to the developer? Like shilling for contractors?
What’s your deal?
While I have seen countless examples of contractors skirting every conceivable regulation in this city, I have rarely witnessed people who feel compelled to make up fake complaints about construction sites. True, there are crazy people, but their complaints are usually confined to… crazy things. And their complaints are not usually detailed and specific.
Fortunately, the day and age when a developer can rely on an apathetic DOB and city to monitor their construction sites are at odds with cheap digital cameras and camcorders. It’s getting awfully hard for the DOB to ignore video of you guys doing the exact things you deny.
If you want to argue that some of the regulations are unfair or unrealistic, that may well be true. But the old “what me, worry” tactic isn’t working so well anymore.