Mr. Mayor, let’s shed the sheds
Old laws give rise to a scaffold scourge
IF Mayor Adams means business about “supercharging” the city economy, he needs to tear down the Scaffold Jungle. Not by bulldozing them, but by pushing to change the neighborhood-ruining, four-decades-old laws that spawned today’s scourge of steel-and-timber “sidewalk bridges,” which are actually tunnels.
The Department of Buildings calls the city’s 9,000-plus sidewalk sheds, which span hundreds of miles, a “necessity to protect New Yorkers from falling construction debris.” In practice, they protect an estimated $8 billion scaffold-leasing and support industry.
No other American city suffers such blight. Our entire Big Apple streetscape is hostage to outdated, corruption-breeding rules that have little to do with safety.
Many sheds are themselves unsafe; an audit last year by state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli found dangerous violations at 27% of them.
The sheds darken sidewalks, ruin businesses and give shelter to criminals and drug addicts. Some landlords keep them up indefinitely because measly $1,000a-month fines for doing so are much cheaper than performing repair work.
‘Hazards’
The scourge was born in 1980 with Local Law 10. It followed a falling-debris accident that cost a Barnard student her life. It mandated inspections every five years of buildings taller than six stories.
While the intent was laudable, the five-year time frame was entirely random, a creation of the city’s all-powerful Board of Estimate — a body later ruled unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court.
A 1981 update, Local Law 11, made the requirements even tougher.
The DOB requires sheds while “construction” or “repairs” are in progress after inspections uncover hazards.
Problem is, “hazards” are found on most inspected buildings except for new, curtain-glass structures — whether they pose any real danger or not.
Unlike New York, other large cities have common-sense inspection schedules depending on buildings’ ages and materials.
Chicago has four classes; those in the safest class need be inspected only every 12 years. Chicago has nothing like Gotham’s miles-on-end of sidewalk tunnels.
Today’s sheds are triple the number of 20 years ago. But many people are too invested in them to tackle the status quo — “safety” zealots, bureaucrats, landlords, construction unions, contractors, engineers and consultants.
The DOB says most sheds are not for facade repairs, but related to “construction and maintenance operations.” But residential neighborhoods are full of the eyesores for routine facade work.
A bridge too far
Rows of consecutive sheds sprout when several buildings on a block are under repair at the same time — as on Park Avenue, Broadway and in much of the Wall Street and Flatiron areas.
Another cruel stroke is that buildings more than 100 feet tall must extend bridges 20 feet beyond the property lines — a nightmare for neighbors who aren’t even party to the work.
The laws need to be rewritten top to bottom. Replace the rigid five-year schedule with one attuned to how much danger different types of buildings pose. Forbid more than one shed at a time on the same side of a block. Make landlords pay dearly for keeping their eyesores up forever.
But only the mayor has the bully clout to demand wholesale change.
Adams vowed that to promote economic growth, he would tackle “dysfunction and contradictions in zoning and regulations.”
Getting rid of Local Laws 10 and 11 would be a great place to start.