Good News on the Streets

Well, 311 works, apparently. Recently, I posted about some truly awful street situations on 46th, 6th Avenue, and 41st Street. As of earlier in the week, 46th Street has been fixed, 41st Street has been worked on and is waiting to be re-paved, and 6th Avenue is, as you can see in the photos above and below, neatened up and dubbed with an updated posting. Now the work is supposed to be completed by April 30th, 2009.



Don't forget, if there are situations like damaged signs, huge craters in your street, unsafe construction sites, or other issues around your neighborhood, calling 311 is always an option. The last few times I've called have been short, effective, and pleasant calls.

More Street Pain from ConEd and National Grid

So after yesterday's post I received two separate emails that basically said, "Dude, that's nothing. Check out my block!" And so, I did. It's true that ConEd has another site of seemingly deserted roadway destruction, but that comes at the bottom of the page. National Grid (using Keyspan equipment as well) has also created an egregious example of hazardous public works.

As you can see in the above photo, the roadwork on 41st Street between 5th and 7th Avenues was meant to begin 2/20/09 and end 3/20/09. It's still torn up, and there are pipes and other items from Keyspan strewn about. No one was working at this site.
The ditches are quite deep; in some areas they are more than a foot deep. No flimsy, detachable yellow grates for these ditches. Just flimsy gates and cones, sometimes half-buried.
Check out this poor cone (donated by ConEd) languishing in this ditch. It's stuck in the mud.
For much of the span, there is nothing more than a cone and pink streamers shielding foot and car traffic from a deep ditch. Thanks National Grid!

And back to ConEd on 6th Avenue at 47th Street. The ditches aren't as deep, but the work is just as old. Plastic gates block the shallow cuts into the roadway.

And less secure gates attempt to sacrifice themselves for out own good. They've thrown themselves onto the rubble to keep others from following suit.

Maybe these companies need to learn the maxim: Don't start what you can't finish.

ConEd Causes 46th Street Heartache

This is not the sort of color we want to see lining the springtime streets of Sunset Park. About a week ago, I passed by this area of 46th Street, but I was on the opposite side of the street, so I didn't see the dates posted on the signs. It wasn't until I saw this on Brooklynian that the full scope of inconvenience and unattractive barricading became clear. So, I decided to take a closer look.

Taking up a full quarter of the left side of the block, and straddling a fire hydrant (you can just make it out on the center-left of the above photo), these plastic, yellow, floating grates and the rickety plastic and wood triangle things (what are they called?) have been part of this 46th Street block for over a month. Some of the signs on the barricades say that the work started and ended on February 24th, 2009. Others had an early March ending date.

The Brooklynian poster asserts that there has been "no perceptible activity there for weeks" and that calls to ConEd have been frustrating because ConEd claims that no problems show up on that block. I guess the computers need to be updated with reality.

The trenches along the left-hand side of the road are pretty deep, and the plastic grates are not attached to the road with anything other than gravity. Perhaps several calls to 311 would help this situation; apparently ConEd doesn't want to collect property with its name on it.

How Does That Happen?

This curb on 4th Avenue by the 59th Street N/R entrance has been like this for several days now. Sometimes there is a "warning" item - tape, can, cone - other times there isn't. I'd really like to know how this happened. Was it road-work gone wrong, the imps underground trying to leave, skateboarders attempting to create a ramp? Anyone know?

Car Hit on 5th and 34th - Was it Yours?

Was your car parked on 5th Avenue and 34th - right by the construction? A neighbor and I happened to be walking nearby when a two-level car transport truck (with a bunch of dented and sad-looking cars) barreled past the traffic agent who was directing traffic down 34th.

The driver soon realized he was going the wrong way down a one-way street and stopped, and then began to back up. As he was backing up, he smashed into a small, blue car. The crunching took off the gas cap and created a horizontal crater along the back end of the car.

He started down 34th, but then parked and stopped and headed over to the traffic agents. They seemed a little perturbed by the situation, but hopefully they handled it correctly.

If this was your car, feel free to contact me at bestviewinbrooklyn@yahoo.com. At least two of us saw it happen, and the two traffic agents at the corner also saw it.