{"id":931936,"date":"2026-07-13T12:25:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T12:25:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/931936\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T12:25:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T12:25:23","slug":"editorial-boosting-nyc-building-safety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/931936\/","title":{"rendered":"Editorial | Boosting NYC building safety"},"content":{"rendered":"

The building was safely evacuated on July 7, as were other offices, apartment buildings, hotels and other structures over several surrounding blocks for fear of potential collapse. No lives were lost, no one was hurt, and the building was eventually stabilized.<\/p>\n

Despite that very positive outcome, one big question remains: How was it even possible for such a disruptive, near-fatal incident to happen?\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

There had been warning signs that something was amiss with the reconstruction of 235 East 42nd St. The city Department of Buildings\u2019 database showed that the owners had racked up a half-dozen violations and more than $32,000 in fines for numerous violations from failing to report a worker falling from a ladder, to falling debris, to failing to follow blueprints and official plans.<\/p>\n

Failing to follow blueprints might be the most egregious violation. You don\u2019t need to be an architect to realize the massive risk involved in not following the blueprints to the letter, and gambling with the building\u2019s structural integrity \u2014 not to mention the lives of those building and living nearby.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"buckledA buckled steel beam inside 235 East 42nd St. in NYC on July 7, 2026.Obtained by amNewYork<\/p>\n

The general contracting firm hired for the job had also been accused of failing to provide proper worker safety precautions in four separate workers\u2019 compensation claims for on-the-job injuries. In one of those cases, in which a worker claimed to have been injured by falling debris, the worker claimed the company failed to provide proper overhead protection.<\/p>\n

A subcontractor responsible for demolition work within 235 East 42nd St. was also repeatedly cited by the DOB and the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)<\/a> for a number of safety violations for workers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The owners of 235 East 42nd St., and the firms involved with the reconstruction project, will likely face a mountain of lawsuits in the aftermath of the July 7 incident. While the courts will decide who is responsible for the incident and hold them accountable, the city needs to step up its enforcement of construction in the Big Apple.<\/p>\n

New York needs new housing and business development in the worst way \u2014 but it must be done safely. The DOB regularly visits job sites and issues fines for violations, but the bigger developers and contractors seem to either do the minimum to correct them or ignore them altogether. Fines in the tens of thousands of dollars do not deter any builder responsible for projects worth millions.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s time for City Hall to reconsider the building and safety code violations for big construction projects in New York.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

Penalties should be enough to make curbing the law prohibitive. The threat of jail time for the most egregious safety violations should also be on the table.\n<\/p>\n

In a perfect world, the city would not need to tell developers of multi-story buildings to build safely. It is always in builders\u2019 best interests to follow the rules and create safe structures.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But as the East 42nd Street incident demonstrates, the world is far from perfect; the city cannot permit anyone to ignore the most basic, yet important building and safety codes.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

And the city cannot afford to wait until catastrophe strikes to act.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The building was safely evacuated on July 7, as were other offices, apartment buildings, hotels and other structures…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":931937,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,375829,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,375830,375831,31939,375832,375833,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-931936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-midtown-construction","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-building-safety","tag-nyc-department-of-buildings","tag-osha","tag-penalties-for-violations","tag-pfizer-building","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116912660763637921","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=931936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/931937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=931936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=931936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=931936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}