Thursday, September 14, 2017

Summary of the General Tenants Meeting - Sept. 12 2017

This summary integrates what happened at the General Tenants Meeting with a meeting on Sept. 13th with building manager Niti Jakupaj and the tenant association's executive committee.

NYC DEPT. of BUILDINGS SPEAKER
Despite it being election day, a good tenant turnout greeted Yegal Shamash, Assistant Commissioner for Investigative Engineering Services at the NYC Department of Buildings (DoB), and Ophelia Phipps, the DoB's Liaison for Intergovernmental and Community Affairs.

Mr. Shamash explained that of the million buildings in NYC,  his department only regulates 14,000 (those over 6 stories). Lower buildings were omitted primarily for political reasons - when politicians didn't want to anger smaller building owners. Of those 14,000,  many were built like ours, in the 1960's. 

This building has "cavity" walls: an outer layer ("façade"of brick tied to an inner layer - probably of cinder block.  The ties connecting the two walls are metal rods, but builders have been known to have skimped on the number of ties when buildings like this one went up. (We have no specific information on the ties for this one.)