Out with the scaffold
Residents of a storied Harlem building got an early Christmas present when a sidewalk construction shed that had been up for more than two decades was finally taken down Friday.
Residents of 409 Edgecombe Ave. were happy to have their public space reclaimed after 21 years, although they disagreed on who exactly was to blame for the eyesore when asked Sunday.
The 106-year-old Sugar Hill building, a city landmark, served as a home for the NAACP and its early leaders Walter White, Roy Wilkins, W.E.B. Du Bois and Thurgood Marshall, who became the first black US Supreme Court Justice.
The shed was first put up in 2002 because of a law requiring regular façade inspections. An engineer found unsafe conditions, but for nearly two decades no repairs were made until the city filed criminal charges against the management company in 2019, City Hall said.
Mayor Adams held a press conference at the site Friday, touting the removal of the city’s longeststanding sidewalk shed as part of his Get Sheds Down plan.
“For 21 years, residents of Harlem sacrificed public space and the beauty of a historical landmark because property managers repeatedly failed to do their job,” said Adams. “Today, we deliver 409 Edgecombe Avenue back into the hands of the Sugar Hill community and remain focused on continuing to safely remove the eyesores that are ugly sidewalk sheds and scaffolding across the five boroughs.”
New York City Council Majority Leader Keith Powers, a Manhattan Democrat, dubbed it “a Christmas miracle” in a press release.
However, a resident said the building’s management board had been fighting to do the repairs for at least 15 years.
“I’m glad it’s down, but I don’t like the way it was communicated by the mayor. The way he characterized it, like the city cracked down, and I don’t feel that’s what happened,” said building resident Renee Greig.
‘Miracle on 155th St.’
“We’ve been trying to get work done,” said Greig, who has called the building home since 2003. “I thought, ‘Why is the mayor here? Did he help us?’ . . . If you’re going to talk about it, don’t make it seem like we’ve been sitting here lollygagging. That’s a bunch of BS.”
Odessa Starke, a resident since the ’80s, said, “We feel wonderful. It was a long time coming.”
The building was seized by the city for tax delinquency decades ago, and a housing-development-fund corporation for medium- and low-income tenants was established, requiring residents to do upkeep. The board would raise money to complete work mandated by the city, only to be plagued by issues with city inspectors or incompetent contractors, according to Starke.
But one resident said, “Mayor Adams did use this as a photo op, but it was totally appropriate for him to be here and he was speaking accurately. It was a blight on the neighborhood.”
Management board president Nikki Berryman said Sunday that she was “incensed” at accusations the board hadn’t done its part.
“We have consistently been working from 2016 to the present,” Berryman said.
Still, she said she was overjoyed. “This is huge. This is a battle won. Because we did the work,” she said. “It’s a Christmas miracle. It’s a miracle on 155th.”