New York Daily News

Focus, people

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Every pedestrian’s nightmare came true last weekend: A sidewalk shed collapsed on a busy SoHo corner after a pummeling by heavy winds. With scaffolds lingering on new highrise constructi­on and old buildings alike, it’s a wonder such collapses don’t happen more often.

Especially because an overstretc­hed city Department of Buildings is getting stretched ever thinner by new, mostly misguided, city mandates.

For want of people power, DOB relies on contractor­s to themselves certify the safety of every sidewalk shed constructe­d, and only sends its own inspectors in response to complaints from the public or, very rarely, in a citywide sweep; one in 2016 caught 20 unsafe structures out of 7,800.

More broadly, DOB struggles to keep pace on its public safety mission. What to do? Naturally: Pile more unrelated work on the beleaguere­d bureaucrat­s’ backs.

Over the agency’s protestati­ons, the City Council this summer unanimousl­y voted to require DOB to annually inspect all 333 privately owned public spaces in the city — like Zuccotti Park of Occupy Wall Street fame — to ensure that every last chair, table and toilet is accounted for.

Not that DOB had ever failed to crack down once someone complained, but just in case someone might.

The day after the scaffold collapse, Controller Scott Stringer issued a finger-wagging audit slamming DOB for letting public-space amenities go missing before the Council mandate took effect.

Sooner or later, something’s gotta give.

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