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August 22, 2007
Deutsche Bank fire: Your public authorities at work
Duffield St. Underground examines the role and failings of those quasi-governmental corporations called "public authorities:"
Public authorities, which include the ESDC and the New York City Economic Development Corporation (EDC), were created to cut through the red tape that prevents development. That's all well and good, but the case of the Deutsche Bank Fire, that manifested into a disconnected water standpipe.
Public authorities have been failing to address environmental concerns in various ways in various projects. At the proposed Atlantic Yards development, where the ESDC is nominally the lead developer, the collapse of the parapet of the Wards Bakery led to promises of an Ombudsman... which never materialized. In Harlem, a judge recently ruled that there appeared to be collusion between the ESDC, AKRF and Columbia University.
The controversy over environmental oversight in the Downtown Brooklyn redevelopment plan includes another aspect of what the state defines as "environment," namely historic resources. The experts hired by the EDC through its contractor AKRF came to the conclusion that the Duffield Street homes should be preserved, but the EDC ignored their advice.
These are just part of the problems of public authorities like the ESDC.
Village Voice columnist Michael Clancy published a list of questions on the Voice's blog that must be answered by the investigation into the Deutsche Bank fire, including these two in regard to oversight and community input:
How is that two firefighters are dead because a standpipe wasn't working or wasn't installed properly in a skyscraper that was being demolished? How could that come to be?
How is that downtown residents had raised questions about fire safety and toxicity at the former Deutsche Bank building for years, yet there was no comprehensive fire prevention or fire safety plan in place despite all the assurances from officials?
NoLandGrab: Clancy's questions illustrate how lack of coordinated oversight is a systemic problem with public authorities (maybe that's why Bruce Ratner took the lead to authorize the permanent closing of 5th Ave north of Flatbush in April) and how public input takes a back seat to the goals of the project.
Posted by lumi at August 22, 2007 7:35 AM