The Bay Ridge Spite Wall battle has raged for over a decade within the New York City Department of Buildings (since November of 2002 to be exact). Despite court victories for the neighboring homeowner, whose house is on the right of this photo, where the spite wall was illegally built upon and deemed immediately hazardous in May of 2011, the spite wall remains standing to this very day.
The spite wall was built illegally, out of zoning, without a proper permit and over the property line from 123 87th Street and onto the property of 127 87th Street. Not only that, but the DOB has finally realized that the original house at 123 87th Street has been illegally modified (in a most gaudy of ways) and is completely out of the permitted zoning by being too close to the street.
So, as it stands now, with over ten years of illegal and unsafe construction going on at the Cunningham residence of 123 87th Street in Brooklyn, NY and 111 complaints, (two of which are still open) 32 violations found (18 of which are still open), the Bay Ridge Spite Wall still stands as a testament to the failure of the local New York City government. The Department of Buildings has proven itself to be an inadequate bureaucracy that is unable to fulfill its intended role.
Mayor Bloomberg, since this issue has been going on for the majority of your time as mayor of New York, might you please able to have someone look into this decade long issue and finally get it resolved? Also, can you have someone revamp the DOB into an agency that can actually help the citizens of New York?
11209, Architecture, Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, Construction, Mayor Bloomberg, New York, NYC, NYC DOB, Photography, Real Estate, Spite Wall