It's very late. Or very early. Either way, I should not be awake now.
Why am I awake, you ask? Because of the great Port Authority of New York and New Jersey of course! As if flooding our basement weren't enough, they've now decided to keep the entire neighborhood awake all night long. As part of the redevelopment process, the PA is breaking up the old foundations of the original WTC to make way for the new foundations of the new towers. They were supposed to be finished by December 31st, at which time they were to turn over the property to Silverstein Properties who will then be building the towers.
Naturally, the PA was not done on time. The penalty is that they have to $300,000 a day to Silverstein Properties. And even before the 31st deadline, they shifted from a 20 hour a day, six days a week schedule to a 24 hours a day, seven days a week schedule. This means that they're using heavy pounders to break up concrete 24 hours a day. It's been seven days, so they've already shelled out $2.1m--but not to the people they're driving quickly insane through the long nights of pounding. No, they're paying the land developers for the inconvenience of not getting to start their new towers right away.
24 hours a day.
At first, it was annoying. Then I traveled a lot for the holidays, and was so exhausted when home that I could sleep through it. But now that it's continued for nearly a month (they started Dec. 18th), I'm nearly at wit's end. Sleep is impossible. Even thinking clearly is nearly impossible.
Local government? Nope, they're powerless. Our Community Board's WTC Committee passed a resolution stating the Port Authority should not be making such noise during the night. Our local City Councilmember is contacting the leaders of the Port Authority as well. But it doesn't matter, not really. The Port Authority is not bound by any city laws, ordinances, or Community Board resoutions. They answer to the state governments of New York and New Jersey. Essentially, there's very little we can do.
Perhaps a few of us can band together? If there's anyone from the building still reading this blog, please drop me a line. It may not come to anything, but at this point I'm willing to try anything.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
2 comments:
Adam - I live on the 15th floor facing the WTC. You're right - it's insane.
I've found that cranking a white noise .mp3 all night works like a charm - you can't hear anything outside.
Just thought I'd pass this tip along to anyone else who might benefit from it.
Hi Andrew - I just posted this at the 90 West Street blog: http://90weststreet.blogspot.com/2008/01/get-word-out.html
If the local politicians can't get anything done about this, then we should go for media coverage - the bigger, the better.
In my short time living in NY, I've come to realize people do respond well to local stories. And, I think that even the PO would take that kind of negative coverage into account when making decisions
I'm just not sure who else to contact in the media.
As for the last poster - any recommendations regarding which mp3 works the best?
Post a Comment