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tel/fax:
718.362.4784
Please note our new postal address when sending
contributions to the legal fund:
121 5th Avenue, PMB #150
Brooklyn, New York 11217
About DDDB
Our coalition consists of 21 community organizations and
there are 51 community organizations formally
aligned in opposition to the Ratner plan.
DDDB is a volunteer-run organization. We have over 5,000
subscribers to our email newsletter, and 7,000 petition
signers. Over 800 volunteers have registered with DDDB
to form our various teams, task-forces and committees
and we have over 150 block captains. We have a 20 person
volunteer legal team of local lawyers supplementing our
retained attorneys.
We are funded entirely by individual donations from the community at large
and through various fundraising events we and supporters have organized.
We have the financial support of well over 3,500 individual
donors.
More about
DDDB...
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For Immediate Release: April 26, 2007
Ward Bakery Building Partially Collapses
While Ratner Contractors Work on Building
Department of Buildings and ESDC
Should Halt All Demolition Activity on Atlantic Yards Site
Until Full Investigation and Proper Monitoring Body is in Place
BROOKLYN, NY— Fortunately nobody was hurt today when the entire northern parapet of the Ward Bakery Building collapsed onto the street, sidewalk and parked cars below. Developer Forest City Ratner (FCR) is allegedly undertaking asbestos abatement on the building preliminary to a scheduled June demolition of the building for its “Atlantic Yards” project. The building would be demolished to create “interim surface parking” for an indefinite period of time. The 97-year old building was denied landmark status by the City Landmarks Commission but has stood stable over nearly one century. In fact, in March, the developer removed protective sidewalk sheds from the perimeter of the building where the collapse occurred.
The city’s Building Enforcement Safety Team, or BEST Squad, which inspects buildings prior to allowing demolition, found no unsafe issues or hazardous conditions in the Ward Bakery during their pre-demolition inspection.
“The Ward Bakery Building has stood solidly in our community for nearly one century without any problem. It certainly raises many questions that now that the developer has entered the building all of a sudden an entire parapet collapses. We are calling on the city’s Department of Buildings and the Bloomberg Administration to halt all of Forest City Ratner’s scheduled demolitions until the Ward Bakery collapse is fully investigated," said Develop Don’t Destroy spokesman Daniel Goldstein. "Also The Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC)–the public state corporation overseeing the Ratner project–must insist that Forest City Ratner stop all demolition on the project site until this collapse is fully investigated and the building stabilized, and until the public can be assured that there is a proper and responsive state-run site monitoring body in place.”
Residents and community organizations around the project site have been calling proper ESDC oversight of activity on the project site for many months, with no positive result from the state agency.
A long-term homeless shelter housing 94 families and 350 residents, adjacent to the Ward Bakery Building was evacuated by the New York City Fire Department, and it is unclear when they will be allowed to return to the facility. The Red Cross was due out to the site to give assistance the families waiting on Dean Street after they were evacuated.
“We simply don’t believe that the building was unstable, that is until Ratner’s contractors went in; in fact, Ratner apparently studied the structural integrity of its holdings in the footprint just a year ago, and concededly found no basis for concern with regard to the Ward Bakery. Had they thought the building was unstable, you have to believe that Ratner would have taken at least the precautionary measure of placing protective sidewalk sheds along the building in order to safeguard the community,” Goldstein said. “We are very fortunate nobody was hurt by the heavy falling debris that cascaded down five stories to the sidewalk and street below. There should be no ‘next time,’ and the ESDC has got to ensure that.”
At least fifteen demolitions are scheduled to take place between now and the end
of June. Although approximately 50 buildings would need to be demolished to make
way for construction of the project, currently many of those buildings are owned
or occupied by private individual or entities. Thirteen of those owners and regulated
renters are currently in federal
court alleging that the use of eminent domain for “Atlantic Yards” violates
the United States Constitution. If they win their suit, they will retain the right
to their properties and leases, their properties will not be demolished, and “Atlantic
Yards" cannot be built.
Posted: 4.26.07
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