Even the DOB has one now.

Have you ever wished that there was a better way to keep up-to-date with all the developments and trends over at the Department of Buildings?

There might not be a whole lot of us, but fortunately, the Department of Buildings is always anticipating the needs and desires of its heavy-users (well, some of our needs and desires—we're awaiting the day when we can see actually see PDFs of building plans online). They've started producing a monthly podcast! It's called State of Construction.

Before you get too excited, you should know that despite the overarching, in-depth approach that a name like State of Construction would suggest, the podcasts are about a minute long and therefore only skim the surface of construction and DOB issues. Topics since the podcast launched in January have included construction in 2012, hub self-service, illegal conversions and the department's mobile app. Not quite the juicy, NPR-quality paydirt we were hoping for, but the information is useful and Commissioner Robert LiMandri has a pleasant voice.

Mostly, the podcasts resemble public service announcements. In his illegal conversions podcast, Mr. LiMandri tells listeners that "certainly, we all know that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is" and warns that one should be wary of units that advertise significantly lower prices, basement or attic units and utilities that are included. He also gives the sage, though often ignored advice "to avoid apartments without windows or very small ones."

It's unclear who the target audience is, given that building and real estate professionals would too advanced for this kind of coverage and the general public probably doesn't spend a lot of time hanging out on the DOB website, looking for a one-minute explainer on construction permits. Still, we appreciate the effort. It's not the first time a city department has taken the leap into radio production. New York City has had its own radio station—WNYE, 91.5, since 1938. But podcast sounds cooler, more cutting edge, more up-to-the-minute. Maybe next, the DOB will modernize its ancient file request system? One can hope.

Secured. (Getty)

Before Hurricane Sandy even reached the Five Boroughs, the city was thrown into chaos when its prevailing winds knocked over the boom of the crane hanging off the side of the billionaire-beloved One57 condo tower. In our oral history of Hurricane Sandy, Fire Chief Sal Cassano told The Observer that was the moment the storm got serious. "That was pretty much the start of a very, very active and serious night," Mr. Cassano said. "We had a four-alarm assignment for an incident that wasn’t even a fire."

Yesterday, The Times had a harrowing account of the moments surrounding the crane snapping. It includes the main city engineer on the scene saying he gave the boom a 20 percent chance of breaking off entirely and falling earthward. His boss, Buildings Commissioner Robert LiMandri, felt more secure, as he told The Observer during our interview for the oral history that, following some initial panic, he felt confident the boom would hold through the storm and the days ahead.

"We had made an estimate that, at the time, we knew the crane was not going to fall," Mr. LiMandri said. "We felt very comfortable that the ties that held the mast up were intact, and that was a very good sign, knowing that the mast had not been compromised. We had some estimates on the iron chords that were holding the mast together to the balloon, so we were fairly comfortable that that part was secure."

Still, the the full force of the storm yet to come, Mr. LiMandri feared his team was not in the clear yet. "We knew we were still headed  for the height of the storm, the wind directions had changed several times within a matter of two hours while we were standing there, so we didn’t know if it would withstand the probably 100-plus mile-per-hour wind. In other words, we weren't sure if it would be intact."

But the early estimates proved true, and the boom survived the night. So did Mr. LiMandri, who camped out across the street before eventually moving into a Holiday Inn on West 39th Street—one of the few available rooms he could find—to be close to the accident site.

"We knew that once we made it through the evening and looked at it again the next day we felt pretty comfortable that it was not going to fall," the commissioner said. "But you can have six engineers tell you the same thing, but when you look at it, you’d go, 'Really?! Are you sure?'"

When it came time to secure the crane, so the street could reopen, Mr. LiMandri said the city took every precaution to ensure a safe and successful operation, quadruple checking every calculation, challenging every assumption.

"The team worked very hard in coming up with a strategy," Mr. LiMandri explained. "We may have inconvenienced New Yorkers for a couple of days, but we wanted to get it right. We flew in the crane manufacturer, we had experts from Europe come, to basically design how we were going to secure it. We had to make sure that we could actually rotate it by hand, we had to latch it, make sure the building stands the extra weight. We wanted to make sure it was done right.

"We had like, probably 10 engineers in the room, to make sure that we were doing the right thing, not all reporting on the same structure on purpose to make those engineers sort of fight with each other to make sure that they all agreed that the plan would work and that the engineering calculations were correct."

The whole ordeal gave the buildings commissioner a newfound respect for the power of nature. "Wind is a very powerful and difficult force to calculate," Mr. LiMandri said. "When other buildings and other obstructions are in the way, it’s not like you are in the middle of an open field, and you’re feeling a gust of around 80 or 100 miles per hour, which would be something anyway. You’re 1,000 feet up, and you’re surrounded by very tall buildings to begin with. It is one of the most challenging things I have ever had to deal with."

As Mr. LiMandri told us, he barely ate throughout the entire ordeal—it made him lose his appetite.

Elisha Otis demonstrating his first elevator. How much has changed?

The hearing room was full and the overflow room was overflowing at the New York City Council’s offices at 250 Broadway this afternoon. Maybe it was the fact that this was the first elevator safety hearing since two New Yorkers lost their lives in elevators in the past year. Maybe it was the fact that this was the first oversight hearing on elevator safety since 2003.

This in a city where most people live and work in high-rise, all serviced by some 60,000 elevators.

The main issue of the afternoon was two new elevator safety bills proposed by the council: one that would require existing elevators to be furnished with more safety devices and another that would require elevator workers to be licensed.

“We require licensing of our plumbers. We require licensing of our electricians. And the lack of elevator licensing is a major loophole,” said councilmember James Vacca, a sponsor of the licensing bill. “It is also a threat to the safety of millions of New Yorkers.”

The council was largely motivated to hold the hearing because of the elevator-related deaths of Suzanne Hart, 41, an advertising executive who was fatally injured on Dec. 14, 2011 when she walked into an elevator that shot upward unexpectedly; and Ed Bradley, 45, who was electrocuted on March 28 while working on an elevator. Council Speaker and expected 2013 mayoral candidate Christine Quinn briefly stopped by to comment on these deaths and voice her support for the bills.

“The Department of Buildings, the elevator industry, and the union have all worked to make elevators safer,“ she said. “But when New Yorkers continue to lose their lives, it’s clear that more needs to be done.”

The tone of the hearing occasionally turned heated between members of the council and representatives from the Departments of Buildings, responsible for the inspection and oversight of the city’s elevators. Although Buildings Commissioner Robert LiMandri said in his testimony that he felt the city was “moving in the right direction” with the two bills and later agreed that elevator mechanics should receive more training and undergo a more stringent certification process, his department still came under sharp criticism from councilmember Peter Vallone, Jr., a cosponsor of the licensing bill, and councilmember Robert Jackson.

Councilman Vallone, when he was questioning Buildings Department officials, mockingly commented on its current standards of qualification for elevator mechanics. “The mechanics have to be periodically trained as well as be able to provide the health and fitness to carry out their duties,” he said. “That may be the most minimum requirement I’ve ever heard of for any position, let alone a mechanic. I think anyone in this room has the health and fitness to carry out their duties.”

The questioning got more intense under Councilman Jackson, who became angry with the department over what he viewed as its vague responses to questions about whether or not elevator agency directors were allowed to contract out work to other companies.

“Are we running a safe business if in fact you can’t answer my simple question?” he asked. “I want an answer. Are you contracting out work?”

Commissioner LiMandri eventually said that, yes, the department was contracting out work, prompting Mr. Jackson to respond, “Well then how come you didn’t say that, then? That was a very simple question that demanded a simple answer.”

Mr. LiMandri apologized for the confusion, and subsequent councilmembers’ questions were much calmer.

Public opinion on the bills was mixed as that of a crowded elevator.

Steven Rakowski, speaking on behalf of Teamsters Local 237, said that the union supported the council’s desire to ensure that elevator workers were properly skilled and qualified. However, he expressed concern over whether or not the bill would result in job losses for current city employees.

Mary Ann Rothman, executive director of the council of New York Cooperatives & Condominiums, said that, while the apartment owners she was speaking for wanted their buildings to be safe, they were concerned about the costs that would be imposed by new standards for elevators and by how quickly the council planned to implement these new standards.

One thing’s for sure: Law and Order: Elevator Inspectors Unit may have just been a Simpsons gag back in 2002, but in 2012, it’s an issue New Yorkers aren’t laughing about.

editorial@observer.com

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

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Council Speaker Christine Quinn, and Buildings Commissioner Robert LiMandri announced a new program intended to yield both economic and safety benefits: In return for agreeing to follow stricter safety regulations, developers would be able to renew permits at stalled building sites for as long as four years.

Previously, permits expired when construction stopped for a year; and the permits could become ineligible for reinstatement if the construction remained stalled for more than two years.

By allowing developers to renew permits for two two-year cycles, the city hopes to speed development and encourage economic growth.

“One of the many negative impacts of the national recession has been a sharp slowdown in construction activity,” Mayor Bloomberg said in a statement. “Stalled construction sites pose significant safety challenges, and the longer they remain dormant, the more harmful the impact on the city’s economy.”

The program would require that developers formulate a safety monitoring plan that includes measures for preventing unauthorized access; schedules for inspecting the site; and details for implementing fire and building safety protocol. Such provisions aim to reduce the incidence of “illegal trespassing, rats, improper postering and various other quality of life concerns,” said Council Member Gale Brewer, who sponsored the legislation.

Ms. Lloyd assumed the DEP commissioner job in 2005, after the departure of Chris Ward, who is now executive director of the Port Authority. Trinity, the real estate arm of Trinity Church, is a giant in the business, and is in the process of transforming the Hudson Square neighborhood west of Soho from a former printing district into an office space hub. Trinity, the major landowner in Hudson Square, is also spearheading the creation of a new, well-funded business improvement district for the neighborhood.

The real estate firm is run by Carl Weisbrod, who worked for the city in the Dinkins administration.

Also in today's city staffing changes: The mayor officially crowned Robert LiMandri as commissioner of the Department of Buildings, after he served for more than five months in an "acting" capacity in that role. The mayor pushed through a legislative change to allow his promotion to happen, despite objections from architecture and engineering groups. The legislation removed a requirement that the commissioner be an architect or engineer.

Statements from the mayor and Ms. Lloyd below.