The collapse of 493 Myrtle Avenue

So a building decided to collapse in Ft. Greene today! The address was 493 Myrtle Avenue, though it's also being reported as the empty lot at 495 Myrtle in error in a couple of places that I've seen.

Let's see what we've got here. A building housing the Vesper Bar as well some dwelling units came tumbling down. Apparently a few people got hurt but no one was killed. So in the hopes that our near-victims might check the internet and look up the place where they were almost crushed to death due to absurd negligence, here is some great evidence for you to use, straight from the official NYC Department of Buildings website. This kind of research was once my job, so you can go ahead and take me at least a little seriously. It is, however, just my interpretation of the information available to the public from the city so I make no guarantee to the perfection of my narrative.

What you should know is that an ECB Violation is an "Environmental Control Board" Violation. It doesn't have anything to do with the environment in green-speak, but rather with the physical environment of the city. It's distinct from a standard Department of Buildings violation in that it's handled by a different bureau, generally more severe (though you could just get an ECB for something like letting your building's alarm blast all night), it has a big fine associated, and it requires a court date to resolve. ECB Court is nothing like civil or criminal courts. You just sit down with a judge and discuss it with them directly or through your representative. Though the resolving of the problem may be tough, getting up and going to this court to do what is required of you is very, very easy. And if you don't do it you're likely to get slapped with further fines.

It's been a while since I've been working on a building that has gotten hit with an ECB while it was already under my care so I don't know exactly how they are delivered, but they're a big deal and they're not subtle about it. It's really unlikely that you could claim ignorance and say you didn't receive it. At the very least, it would be mailed to the owner. Plus in this case it came with a Stop Work Order for some nonsense they were doing in the backyard which is a big sticker prominently stuck on the front door or window of the building in question.

Here's our narrative.

Way back in 1988, the "Romanian Garden" (presumably the future site of the Vesper Bar) constructed exterior stairs from the first to third floor without getting a permit. Weird, but probably not too notable to this case, other than the disregard for regulations. It was 20 years ago though, and it was done under prior ownership. But it's worth at least mentioning.

The first report of complaints came in 9/23/1997, when a complaint of cracks from the 2nd to top floor was report along with a description of "shaking and vibrating." Inspector IWI, Badge Number 0427 inspected two days later and reported that there were no cracks, and the building was not shaking at the time of inspection.

Despite this report, the building ownership was served with an ECB Violation stating a hazardous condition with the brick parapet leaning. By the records, they never addressed the ECB violation, never paid the $800 fine, and never attended the court date.

Skip ahead 10 years, into the hands of the current ownership which states here that they bought the building in 2006. On 8/15/2008, they received another ECB Violation for having build a backyard patio that blocked fire egress. Silly! They didn't pay their $6,000 fine and ignored the court date again.

There was a big inspection on 5/01/09, prior to which they must have just said, "Alright, alright! You got us! We'll take care of the egress problem!" So they built a fire escape without getting a construction permit. Work Without a Permit is a big deal to the Dept. of Buildings and they put a Stop Work Order very visibly on your main door. There are huge fines associated with it (up to 11x the estimated cost of the work), and just more and more problems if you ignore it and do the work anyway.

When Inspector Number 2333 swung by to take a look at that fire escape issue, he also noticed the SERIOUS CRACK THROUGH THE BUILDING not just on the outside, but also on the inside wall!

Last but not least, as some articles have quoted people as saying workers had been patching the crack for weeks, there are ZERO jobs filed at this address for any reason, much less to address a major structural issue that probably would have required a Structural Engineer's oversight. A four-story crack in your building is definitely not in the range of the simple maintenance work allowable without a permit, especially given the history of the saggy parapet.

How cute: the building collapsed on 6/21/09 sheered right along that crack, and not that it would have mattered given the ownership's consistent failure to attend their court dates, but their time to address the problem was scheduled for 6/22/09, bright and early at 8:30 AM.

I hope this helps out anyone with interest in this case! If anyone is looking to hire someone for this sort of research within NYC's five boroughs, you can go ahead and send me an email. I've got years of experience and, as you can see, I can parse through this kind of data into a logical progression of events.