Most of that building at 18-20 Jackson Place in the South Slope that partially collapsed on Wednesday has been demolished and neighbors at 16 and Jackson Place will be allowed to return home. In the meantime, residents that have complained about the deteriorated state of the building are upset at a suggestion that weather caused the collapse. (The Brooklyn Paper ran a story with a headline saying this week’s violent weather may have brought the building down). Neighborhood leader Aaron Brashear has emailed a Letter to the Editor that reads:

As a Community Board 7 member and chair of the Board’s Buildings & Construction Sub-committee, I would like to make one thing clear to Brooklyn paper’s readers: The storm had nothing to do with the collapse of this building. The year+ long neglect to the derelict structure did. Whether it had been rain, wind or a neighborhood child trowing a tennis ball against the building’s facade, it was coming down. Do not let another unscrupulous developer like Mr. Zeldin act is if this was an “act of God” and could not have been helped. He and his partners are responsible for destroying the quality of life on Jackson Place for years. Now thanks to the DOB and HPD (Mr. Zeldin’s visit to the DOB, as reported above had nothing to do yesterday/today’s the demo) at least the residents can feel a bit safer walking down the block. Now to get Andrew Mason, his family and the other 7 displaced families back into their homes.

As we noted in May, neighbors have long complained of dangerous conditions at the building and warned of a possible collapse.