This site, where an old building is being transformed into a charter school, has just distinguished itself from the 40,000 other major construction projects in New York City by having its third worker fatality in less than three years.
No other construction site in New York City has had this many separate fatal incidents since at least 2003, when the Department of Buildings began keeping electronic records. But despite the pattern of deaths, the consequences have been negligible.
— The New York Times
In full view of the Major Deegan Expressway, 20 Bruckner Boulevard, known throughout the New York area as the site of the iconic former History Channel (and later iHeartRadio) billboard, was once the ice storehouse of a former Yankees owner and is now being transformed into a charter school by developer Maddd Equities, who has had a scant $28,000 in fines levied against them in the past years despite the record-high fatalities.
Being a construction worker is one of the most lethal occupations in New York City, with rates of injury and death rising ahead of the pandemic before falling slightly owing to the economic downturn. Most of the men profiled in the Times are nonunion immigrant laborers working for $120-per-day to start, with some being recruited from homeless shelters to meet demands. An OSHA investigation revealed that some deaths were not properly reported for weeks.
Multiple stop-work orders have been issued and then lifted, part of the nearly 1,500 that were handed down by the NYC Department of Buildings in the past year in its pursuit of a new “zero tolerance” policy. A report indicated almost 80% of worker deaths in that period occurred on nonunion job sites, something former OSHA official Jordan Barab says is the result of a mix of different employment pressures and abuses.
“You have a perfect storm of unsafe conditions,” the former deputy assistant secretary of labor told the Times. “Not just the physical conditions, but conditions in which the workers are unaware of their rights or are unable to use their rights.”
1 Comment
It always makes me laugh that New Yorkers will fight over a tiny block of land, and every building is squeezed to the limit -- meanwhile right across the river in New Jersey there are elevated suburban neighborhoods and empty lots everywhere.
You'd think places like the AIA would be interested in these issues. But no.
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