Block Association gets few answers

Facing a frustrated crowd of locals, representatives from the New York City Department of Environmental Protection and the NYC Buildings Department were short on answers on Tuesday night, January 30 at the Richmond Hill Block Association (RHBA) Meeting.
Local issues pertaining to asbestos, unlawful building zones and illegal construction were brought to a head with residents complaining of a lack of timely responses from the city and the alleged disregard of local outcries by buildings and environmental departments.
“This is the third meeting and once again nothing will be accomplished,” shouted one angry resident from the back row after directing a slew of pointed questions to a noticeably stunned panel. “Why don’t you come here with answers next time? You just have a set of papers with addresses [of local problem areas] on them. Why don’t you get a laptop to record all this down so you don’t forget?”
Others were trying to understand the legality behind many of the problems plaguing their Richmond Hill neighborhood.
Another local man wondered, “What is the law?” to a surprised Y. Phillip Goldfeder, the Queens Director of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Community Assistance Unit. Goldfeder replied, “You’ll have to take that up with the police department.”
Councilmember Joseph Addabbo spoke at the assembly and addressed issues of local construction sites. He emphasized that fines will go up if there are hazardous circumstances affecting residents. “Hopefully by increasing the penalties we’ll decrease the amount of unsafe conditions,” he said.
Specifically he suggested that there be more surveyors for the department of buildings. “We need building inspectors, day, night and weekend to inspect,” he said. Doing this will increase the amount of jobs while enforcing the law. “We just have to make sure that the city hires the right inspector and that they are trained well enough,” he added.
A local building contractor and resident, Jim Cook, questioned how to go about repairing a site that was structurally unsound and a danger for neighborhood children. New York City Building Deputy Director of Intergovernmental and Community Affairs, Robert Hudack, said, “That’s a process. We’d have to survey the building, we’d send our engineers out there, then we’d try to go to court and get a court order that would allow us to get the order for them to demolish the building, seal the building, whatever the case may be . . . but that process takes several months.”
People at the meeting also wanted to know about asbestos and other environmental issues.
Wendy Bowne, the Vice President of the RHBA, spoke of these concerns. “They [Richmond Hill residents] want answers to questions about protecting the community against asbestos and DEP-related issues and problems that have yet to be answered,” she said.
An Asbestos Control Program representative, Reagan Mendoza, said that the department would look into such matters.
In closing the meeting, Simca Waisman, President of the RHBA, spoke about the futility of the gathering.
“Nothing was resolved basically,” he said.
The next meeting is scheduled for the end of February but Waisman said there might be an “emergency meeting” due to the lackluster response from the DEP and NYC Buildings Department. “The past three times that’s what they do,” he said. “They pass the buck; they say it’s [a] City Council [matter]. They have plenty of laws. I’m sure they could do something.”