This is not because we all of a sudden turned into Beijing West,
although we have noticed a tick up of people cutting their toenails on
both the F and D trains, but because the entire city is littered with
scaffolding. It seems that scaffolds go up but no actual work is ever
done and thus they never come down.
Having lived in a small walk up on this city and sitting on it's co-op
board, I know exactly why this is. Basically the facades of many of
the small and medium sizes buildings are crumbling and the cost for
repair is astronomical without any real assurance that the repairs
will actually work.
What many landlords, condo boards, management companies etc are opting
to do is not repair anything but instead out up scaffolding to protect
people walking on the sidewalk from getting pelted with debris. I
think the city will write these permits for scaffolding for a year at
a time and collect a nice fee and then re-up the permit over and over
again without ever demanding that something actually gets done about
the facades.
So instead of owners of buildings taking some responsibility for
repairs the people of NY have to deal with these unsightly structures
all over town. I know of one scaffold on 5th avenue in Brooklyn near
Carroll Street which I think has been up for a decade. So much for
beautification, fresh air and the feeling of not being completely
claustrophobic
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