There is good news and bad news to report at the big Karl Fischer building site at Roebling and N. 9 Streets in the Burg. First, the good news: the Stop Work Order on the project was quickly lifted. Now, the bad: the fence is wide open (again). And, the good, again: on Sunday the site offered an unparalleled opportunity to climb the rubble pile and get great shots juxtaposing the ruins and new construction. We do suggest caution while roaming this wide open and inviting site, however, as the rubble is unsteady. Climb at your own risk and under no circumstances screw with the equipment on the site. We didn’t nickname this little corner of the Burg the Williamsburg Triangle of Death for nothing.

GL Analysis:
After an idiot, drunk, child or vandal dies at one of these sites, there will, perhaps, be fingers of blame and a search for a solution. We already have one: require developers spending millions of dollars on projects to put out an extra few thousand on a metal fence that a vandal wearing blindfolds or a breeze greater than 5MPH can’t rip down. The flimsy crap that the city allows is the perfect metaphor for how the public interest can take a back seat to private profit. Sure, they’re only fences and in a city where construction cranes topple and demolish buildings, who cares? In a neighborhood like Williamsburg, however, where entire quadrants are being turned into construction sites, the lousy fences and the fact that at least one-third of sites are open at any given time and that no one is policing the problem, the cruddy, publicly-sanctioned fences are a major threat to public safety. Three words: metal fences now.