Not this again! (Getty)

Despite the rainy, windy weather that is set to hit New York tomorrow and a last-minute lawsuit filed to stop Extell from evacuating two co-op buildings adjacent to One57, plans to repair the crane broken during Hurricane Sandy are still moving forward Saturday morning.

Which means that the unfortunate residents of Alwyn Court, the landmarked building at the corner of Seventh Avenue and 58th Street, will either vacate the building voluntarily in the next few hours or face forcible eviction. The crane repair involves swinging a boom over Alwyn and two other buildings before hoisting it up the side of the unfinished tower.

The co-op board of the Alwyn reached a late-breaking settlement with Extell this morning after filing an injunction to block the emergency evacuation—an unpleasant reminder of the other emergency evacuation that ousted residents from their homes when the crane broke during Hurricane Sandy.

To see how things were going, The Observer checked in with Michael Gross, chronicler of high-end real estate, author of 740 Park and resident of Alwyn Court. Mr. Gross, who is unhappily adjusting to his unenviable, unexpected role in the city's super-luxury real estate saga, recently penned an angry op-ed in The New York Times about relative wealth and privilege in New York, questioning the Department of Building's decision to evacuate the buildings rather than force Extell to employ the slower, costlier method used at other construction sites around the city.

Mr. Gross was walking his dog in Central Park when we talked, getting ready to leave his apartment in the next few hours and check in at a nearby hotel. He said that though the details of the settlement had not been disclosed to residents at this point, his understanding was that it would involve Extell increasing its insurance coverage for the maneuver, and more compensation for residents (Extell had initially offered up to $1,500) without them having to submit receipts for all purchases.

"Frankly, I was not worried about the apartment so much as the corruption of the city and the unfairness of all this. Cranes go up and down in the city all the time and no one gets evacuated," Mr. Gross said. "Who is the city working for here? What they're doing is unsafe. The city is going to create a false emergency to save time and money. Extell has been undiplomatic, but I’m maddest at the DOB."

In response to questions about the method of repair, both Extell and the DOB told The Times that the completion of One57 was in the interest of the neighboring buildings, with an Extell spokesperson saying that "we understand, and apologize for the inconvenience caused by this disruption; however, this operation will allow for the safe completion of the building.”

Mr. Gross told us that some of his neighbors have said that they will refuse to leave Alwyn Court, even though eviction orders were posted on all floors of the building last night—including in the sub-basement where he and some of the other soon-to-be refugees store their suitcases.

And what of the comments on his Times op-ed that lambasted him for complaining about a $1,500 hotel stipend and not being reimbursed for "household necessities" from high-end retailer Gracious Home during the Sandy evacuation?

"You know what we bought from Gracious Home? We bought a travel iron for $20 because the apartment that we rented did not have one," Mr. Gross said. He added that he thought Extell should be paying residents $20,000 to leave for the weekend.

"They’re selling apartments for $90 million!" he griped. "The problem is that it’s in everyone’s interest to finish that monstrosity."

The boom is back, but the street is not. (Getty)

It's true of communities across the city, so why not West 57th Street? From the Rockaways to Staten Island, people have returned to their homes and businesses but found them without power, and the same seems to be going for the one-block stretch of the city that was shut down after the crane boom of One57 snapped back.

Yesterday, the city secured the crane boom to the side of the building, a day ahead of scheduled, and reopened the street. But that does not mean life is yet back to normal. According to a number of people on the street, they remain without electricity or heat—even though Con Ed claims otherwise. "They said we couldn't expect anything before noon," Daniel Van Doren, whose family owns 130 West 57th Street, told The Observer in a phone interview from his MetroNorth train headed to the city.

"Just like the rest of this debacle, Con Ed is not giving much detail," Mr. Van Doren added.

The Observer also spoke with someone at the Salsibury Hotel, the 118-room hotel at 123 West 57th Street that had to be evacuated because of the crane accident. "We're not back up yet," said a woman at the front desk, who asked we not use her name. "We really hope we'll be back this afternoon by three, but that all depends on Con Ed."

This would seem to contradict what a Con Edison spokesman told The Observer this morning. "The power has been turned back on, but there are still some customer who have issues we have to deal with," Alfonso Quiroz said. But Mr. Quiroz also mentioned flooding issues on the street as a problem, which so far no one has reported as a problem, this being some of the highest ground in Manhattan.

The power was shut down following the accident to ensure no further damage should the crane boom fall and puncture a gas main or electrical line, which could have triggered an explosion.

The lack of help from Con Ed extends not only to landlords but tenants, as well. "Do you know when I will be allowed access to my building (north side of 57th, between 6th and 7th)?" Stuart Bernstein wrote The Observer in an email. "My office is there, and I can get no info on when I might gain entrance to my building. Extreme frustration on many people's part as no info is coming out about this block near the crane."

Update:According to Dan Garodnick's office, "it could be a few days" before some people on the street see resumption of heat and steam service.

Boom! (Getty)

Well, the recovery continues faster than expected in New York. We've got subways almost miraculously coming back to life after flooding throughout the system, and now the securing of the crane boom dangling over West 57th Street has been completed a day ahead of schedule, wrapping up tonight rather than Monday night as the mayor had previously predicted.

It will still be weeks before the crane—whose boom was almost torn asunder during last week's hurricane—can be removed and construction can resume on the billionaire-beloved One57 tower. Buildings Commissioner Robert LiMandri's full statement on the operation is below.

The operation to secure the boom of the tower crane at 157 West 57th Street in Manhattan is complete.

All streets in the immediate area are in the process of being opened, excluding two lanes on the north side of West 57th Street between 6th and 7th avenues.

Evacuated residents can reoccupy buildings in the area, but utilities in some buildings may have to be restored.

I would like to commend our engineers and inspectors who have worked tirelessly with the project's contractors to inspect the tower crane and approve a plan to secure the boom - so New Yorkers can safely return to their homes and offices.

This is one of the sad truths of the construction industry, that at any moment, because of human error, mechanical failure or just bad luck, someone could be killed. In the case of the Queens construction site, bad concrete, and perhaps a made masonry job, are to blame for the accident. And yet the fact remains, construction is a dangerous business.

Fortunately for hardhats across the Five Boroughs, that is less so the case with each passing year. After a devastating 2008 that saw the highest accident rate in decades--including 19 fatalities, more than half of which resulted from two streetshaking crane accidents and the fire at the Deutsche Bank Building--construction accidents have been steadily falling. This is due in large part to new safety regimes put in place by Department of Building's Commissioner Robert LiMandri, who was appointed in 2008 following then-commissioner Patricia Lancaster's resignation.

Yesterday, LiMandri announced that the number of construction-related accidents in the city fell 28 percent from last year, with 157 reported accidents compared with 218 accidents the year before. Fatalities were up slightly, with four fatalities at construction sites in 2010, compared to three in 2009.

In making his announcement, LiMandri reminded the industry that while progress has been made, more can always be done:

The decrease in accidents in 2010 shows that construction can be done safer, but yesterday's tragic incident is a reminder of how dangerous this work can be. Our inspectors, engineers and architects are working harder than ever to protect New Yorkers, and as a result, there is a heightened awareness of safety throughout the construction industry. 

Many contractors and developers have added new safety measures to better safeguard their sites, such as cocoon systems to prevent falling debris, but there are some who continue to take shortcuts. Taking proper safety precautions can mean the difference between life and death.

Still, the question remains, is the central reason for this decline a matter safety precautions or stalled construction? Like accidents, building permits continued to decline last year, as they did the year before--and the three years before that, even. Part of the reason there were so many accidents in 2008 is the fervid pace of construction as a real estate bubble popped. Once the industry bounces back, can the safety persist? There is no reason it can't, but that is up to the Department of Buildings, the developers and the hardhats to decide.

mchaban [at] observer.com | @mc_nyo

The city has begun enforcing a little-known law, at least to those living beyond Soho's tony cobblestoned confines, that requires these now-multimillion dollar homes to be occupied by actual working artists. You know, the now nearly extinct kind who could never afford them these days.

Despite some very thorough reporting, The Times could not get a straight answer from anyone as to why, after decades of looking the other way, the city had stopped effectively rubber-stamping new Soho residents as artists. Easiest answer? Blame the housing bust.

Yet it is considerably more complicated than that. Two judges at the Department of Cultural Affairs are responsible for approving all "artists." (Does high finance count as art? What about film production or hotel construction?) Unexpectedly, over the last year, more people have been denied than approved, jeopardizing huge deals.

Meanwhile, the city's Department of Buildings has essentially ignored a provision that requires a building be fully occupied by artists, at least one in each apartment, to receive a certificate of occupancy. Though some residents, such as Andre Balazs and Bon Jovi, have, according to The Times, filed for and receieved artist certification, many buildings remain occupied by "non-artists." The DOB's response has been simply to file temporary certificates of occupancy, without which no one could legally live in the lofts. Might this practice be changing as well?

Still, it is not as though the Donald Judd types that made the neighborhood a hit will benefit from the sudden changes, either, despite decades of protest. (For what it's worth, Judd could probably still afford a place in Soho, were he still alive.)

Prices have come down, such as at 158 Mercer Street, where an $8.5 million loft recently lost an offer at the asking price because of caution on the part of the buyer's attorney. The loft now languishes on the market at $6.9 million.

Not exactly Bushwick prices.

mchaban [at] observer.com | @mc_nyo

But, just in case, the Department of Buildings released a set of 10 tips today to help people identify whether they live in an illegally converted apartment. They include "know the market" and "be aware of the words basement, attic, and flex." As part of our public duty, the Real Estate Desk has compiled its own list of tips:

• The landlord requires rent be paid in unmarked, non-sequential $20 bills left in a brown paper bag tossed into a garbage can inside the neighboring needle park.
• There are stalactites and stalagmites growing from the floor and ceiling. Bats are a red flag.
• You live in a trailer park inside a warehouse in Bushwick. (TRUE STORY!)
• One of the flaps of your dumpster is missing.
• The chickens keep waking you up in the middle of the night.
• You have to negotiate a roll-down gate and barbed wire to get to your bedroom.
• The crown of the Statue of Liberty is not a legal residence, though Lady Liberty's torch might be.
• This guy is your roommate:

Had your own brush with an illegal apartment? Share horror stories in the comments.

mchaban [at] observer.com / @mc_nyo

Update: A caption in a previous version of this post misidentified the UrbanCanvas entry as "Bang," by Jiyoun Lee-Lodge.

mchaban@observer.com

LiMandri became the acting commissioner after former DOB honcho Patricia Lancaster resigned her post in late April. Lancaster stepped down amidst a storm of criticism about the DOB's day-to-day functions following several construction-related deaths.

The news comes hot on the heels of the City Council's vote yesterday that the DOB head no longer needs to be a registered architect or engineer. LiMandri became the DOB's first deputy in July 2005.