Ron

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    203 West 107th Street 9B, New York, NY - Upper West Side
    Local law 1 requires owners to abate or remediate lead paint hazards on turnover and in apartments where a child under 6 is living. Currently, my apartment is being abated for lead paint to protect my son. The abatement process, itself, conducted by Asbestways Service Corp. has been dirty and has made my floors increasingly dangerous by exposing them to lead dust. My floors are not smooth and cleanable. The original wooden floors, dating back to 1910, are characterized by small and large groves, crevices and cracks, and in many cases by large spaces between boards. Local law 1 states that, on turnover, owners are required to make floors smooth and cleanable. But this is not a turnover. How can I compel Newcastle Realty Services to make all of my floors smooth and cleanable to protect my son against exposure to lead?
  • 205 West 107th Street Manhattan, NY - Upper West Side
    Contractors with work permits are gutting out old lead-painted apartments without using safe work practices generating huge clouds of lead dust in the alleyway right near my windows in the building next door at 203 West 107th Street. I have an 11-month-old son. I fear that there is so much lead dust that, even though we didn't open the windows during the fury, the air is extremely toxic in this alleyway and in this first floor apartment. We are staying here temporarily while our ninth floor apartment in the same building is being abated for lead (to protect my son). I believe our temporary refuge is, actually, much more dangerous as a result of this toxic renovation. According to one source, the Landlord of 205 W 107th did not even wet down the debris to control the spread of dust because then it would have been heavier and would have cost more to haul away. When I arrived home from work on Thursday, April 4, at about 4PM, I witnessed a worker loading unwrapped large debris onto a truck in front of my building and banging an old baseboard on the street. The Department of Environmental Protection responded to my 311 complaint, but by the time they arrived on April 9, the most dangerous activity was finished (for now). They reported that no violation was given and they do not appear to have investigated what had gone on the week of April 1 or to have bothered to view the alleyway I have photographed (see comments below). In Bloomberg's New York, the Department of Health and HPD are just as inept, complacent, and complicit in looking the other way.