A local politician is calling for the city to take over facade work if building owners drag their feet and leave scaffolding up for years.
Councilman Keith Powers responded to a Post report about Upper West Side sidewalk sheds in the city's worst neighborhoods and polls showing New Yorkers are ready for change. The city is once again pushing for a review of its “archaic” scaffolding laws.
“New York City is groaning under the weight of unnecessary scaffolding, and no borough is more in need of reform than Manhattan,” Powers said. “Archaic city rules regarding scaffolding have allowed it to flourish, and New Yorkers agree. It's time to make a change. Bring down the shed and let the light in.”
Powers' position is backed up by a recent poll of registered Democrats conducted by the communications group Task Strategies, which found that 71% want the city's 45-year-old scaffolding law to be overhauled. It turned out that they felt it was necessary.
Approximately 77% of those surveyed also felt that scaffolding had a negative impact on their daily lives, with sheds increasing costs for homeowners and renters, depressing retail profits, and reducing crime and drug use. He said he believed that this would allow the use of vehicles and reduce overall road safety.
The city's scaffolding law aims to protect New Yorkers from falling debris from decaying buildings by requiring facades to be inspected every five years and requiring the installation of protective sheds if deficiencies are found.
Only 21% of respondents said the risk of falling debris justifies the ubiquity of scaffolding sheds spanning hundreds of miles of city blocks.
Approximately 68% of New Yorkers surveyed also believe that political power and the influence of scaffolding industry officials have made sidewalk sheds too common.
The poll came after the Post reported in April about a 35-block area of West End Avenue that was covered with 57 sheds, blocking sunlight.
Since the paper first exposed the Upper West Side area in April, 19 shacks have collapsed, but five more have been erected and only three blocks on either side are left without footholds. And Upper West Siders bemoan the never-ending “game of swatting each other.” -Mole. ”
Powers characterized the situation on West End Avenue as emblematic of the city's scaffolding problem, calling it “an abhorrent indictment of our city's outdated rules regarding shed removal.”
“It's ridiculous that residents have had to live with the shadow of the huts for so long and have no escape from it,” he told the Post. “My law will make it easier to remove sheds like this.”
Other bills he proposed would add three years to the current five-year inspection cycle for new construction and require the Department of Buildings to coordinate facade inspections on a block-by-block basis so repairs can be done and completed at the same time. More likely.
He also wants to increase the minimum height to 12 feet, overhaul design requirements for scaffolding, and eliminate heights where possible using other protection methods such as facade netting.
Powers' move follows Get Sheds Down, an executive initiative launched by Mayor Adams in 2023 to remove scaffolding from city streets.
Hizzoner proposes shortening the validity period of permits from 12 months to 90 days and imposing fines on landlords $10,000 for violations.
But these reforms, and Powers', can only move forward if passed by the City Council.
Until then, it's a game of “whack-a-mole.”
“They're always taking them down and putting up new ones,” Tina Gutierrez, 34, a dog walker on the Upper West Side, told the Post. “It took so long that by the time it's finished, it looks like the façade will already need to be redone.”
“I don’t know why it takes so many years to get it done.”
