Discussion for article #234741
NOBAMa EMBOLDens TErrorISTs bY LETTING IRAN, WHO HAs alreaDY INVADED terhan, buILD BOMbs. NOW They"VE sPREAd TERROR to NYC!1!1!1!one!!111!1!
Turrets keyboard?
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Is that the Triangle Shirtwaist building on the left?
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Ohhh, I can’t wait to hear Pat Robertson’s judgement on this, can you? I think it’ll go, “something something MUSLIMS something KILLING EVERYBODY.”
Hey, TPM: that photo was taken by Scott Westerfeld (yeah, the YA sci-fi/fantasy novelist). No need to use a fox screengrab, he gave blanket permission for use of those photos by the media - as long as he’s given credit.
His twitter feed has more pics and video.
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Here’s hoping NYC can use some of those billions they get in fighting terrorism and apply a fraction of it towards rundown gas lines and infrastructure. It sounds like they could use it.
Close, not quite, 4-5 blocks west from there. But they are both NYU buildings if that counts.
Depends on where the leak originated from. If it was inside the building it’s likely not a city issue. If it was in the street or before the meter, then it is. Yes, lots of old lines here in the city, not an easy infrastructure to keep up. But if this was inside the building after the meter, it’s not a Con Ed issue.
Nope, about a half mile away though.
There is a falafel store a couple of doors north.
To my eyes, it looks as if they started cutting back some of the main to make room for the meters after they had failed the inspection and someone screwed up.
There are way too many jackasses with trucks and tools posing as professional contractors out there and people would be appalled to see what actually goes on when when you’ve got one person with smattering of knowledge in the trades directing a crew of underpaid day laborers who may be running electric lines one day, shoring up masonry another and tinkering with gas mains the next.
Added to all this is the rampant bribery of building inspectors in New York which really should be of more concern to the average New Yorker considering the safety issues involved.
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Agreed 100%. I run a construction biz here in NYC and some of the stuff I see out there is just disgraceful. It’s really a lot of cheap developers and everything “low bid”. People forget it’s supposed to be the lowest QUALIFIED bid. If you have several bids ranging from 5-7 mil for a job, and some guy comes in at 3.9, you toss that bid out because either that contractor’s scope is deficient, or he is hiring very low quality workers.
And indeed, the best Job Super in the world means squat when you have bad tradespeople. And it’s one thing if it’s drywall or painting. Those can’t kill. But MEP trades, riggers, structural, etc., those can create dangerous situations.
As to “bribes”, perhaps “fees” is a better word…
And after five years of a tough market, there was a lot of desperation bidding where I looked at the winning numbers and knew that some very stupid decisions had been made on both sides of the table while good contractors were being shut out
It’s the bean counters driving the decisions instead of construction professionals and in the long run, quality and safety are being compromised.
This is no longer what I signed up for so it’s time to file those pension papers and do some consulting because a bunch of morons shooting off emails to each other doesn’t get a project done.
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I’m lucky, I have a base of established clients (institutions, etc.) who know that sacrificing quality costs THEM money in the long run.
You are 100% correct, accounting is bean counting. Construction is not. And some of these “project managers” I see our there are just college boys with no field experience at all. Not only that, but they put a bunch of them on the job, and instead of working together they try to stab each other in the back because they themselves are incompetent. And with the current boom here, people are hiring some real clowns just to fill a position. When I hear some kid say “when is the cement being poured”, that spells trouble…
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