Need a place to take that special someone you just met at Union Pool when the bathroom or the creepy parking lot under the BQE just won’t do? Well, this is 218 N. 9 Street, a demolition site in the part of Williamsburg between Driggs and Union Avenue that we like to call the Triangle of Death because of the consistently horrifying condition of demolition and construction sites. It could be the perfect love spot. The fence offers privacy, yet easy access and as long as you don’t mind broken glass, twisted metal and the possibility of roof collapse if doing the nasty gets really hot and heavy and makes the earth move, it’s got Hotel Le Jolie beaten hands down.
Seriously, though, the problem is the Triangle of Death is the cheap fences that fall over when a late night drinker lets loose with a beer fart and the city’s seeming inability to do anything about it. Hence, anyone who desires or is stupid enough can play with construction equipment, climb piles of rubble, fall into deep pits or screw or play in buildings that can collapse on their heads. (We know, compared to a criminally corrupt crane inspection system that has murdered people, this is nothing.) The real problem are city regulations that allow developers of multi-million projects to get away with fences held together with gum and prayers.
In a city desperate to show that its Department of Buildings actually exists to keep people from being slaughtered by construction, the deplorable conditions in Williamsburg and the city’s inability to safeguard the public are indictments of a deeply flawed system that deserves a top-to-bottom overhaul by an independent blue ribbon commission whose recommendations would have to be accepted in their entirety and penalties that deeply hurt developers in the only way they understand: financially. The bad news is that the problem is about to become worse are large parts of the neighborhood become abandoned development sites and even great threats to quality of life. But we digress. This is 218 N. 9 Street, whose demolition started months ago and then stopped. Access to this horrendously dangerously site has been open for a long time and the city has done nothing to force the developer to clean it up. Then again, the developer is involved in the notorious Greenpoint Hotel, so one wouldn’t exactly expect a civic-minded approach to public safety here. Although you can’t see it in the photo someone has even written “Enter” with an arrow next to the hole in the fence. There’s nothing like some good semi-public sex, kids.
6 responses so far ↓
1 t-bomb // Oct 21, 2008 at 9:11 am
Now that reality has sunk in on the economy, I wonder how many shitholes likes this we’re going to have to see. Not just unsafe conditions, but unsightly ones, too.
If people don’t follow the law during financial good times, they’re not going to give a crap when everyone’s broke.
If 311 & DOB ain’t doing anything about it, what are we supposed to do? Firebomb?
2 Alex // Oct 21, 2008 at 9:59 am
Did you ever think for a moment that the City wants the type of people who hang out at Union Pool to end up missing or dead?
3 Serge // Oct 21, 2008 at 10:49 am
Safeguard the public from falling cranes and debris — fine. But let’s stop getting our panties in a bind over a few poorly enclosed construction sites. If a drunkard decides to wander in and gets himself killed, who gives a shit? If some parent is too stupid to watch their child and the kid falls in a construction ditch, big-whoop. Blame the parent. The City has enough to deal with right now to waste time protecting idiots from doing idiotic things. Plus, isn’t the fall of development in Brooklyn something you guys herald? Well, why don’t you go get up off your asses and go block off the holes to some of these sites instead of just bitching about it from your Macbooks. At some point, you deserve to get what you ask for.
4 t-bomb // Oct 21, 2008 at 1:00 pm
Serge appears to have his panties more in a bind than anyone else. Death is deserved if you accidentally fall into a construction ditch? My blind neighbor might disagree with that. Living in a safe neighborhood is what us Brooklyn people herald. Generalizing Brooklynites on a Brooklyn blog, what gives PC?
5 Serge // Oct 21, 2008 at 1:45 pm
Tell me how someone is going to “accidentally” talk through an open hole in a construction gate and then “accidentally” fall into a ditch? Blind people are blind, not stupid. They manage to get around the concrete jungle just fine every day of their lives. That’s why they carry that stick or have a special dog in tow. Brooklyn is plenty safe. Go fight crime or something more important than chasing down open holes that someone stupid person might fall into.
6 t-bomb // Oct 21, 2008 at 4:29 pm
I really don’t know how someone is going to accidentally talk through an open hole.