43rd Street's Construction

43rd Street has been under construction for a long time...over six months at this point. It has been slow going, and riddled with stops and starts, but things are really moving now!

On my last trip to Ba Xuyen on my once in a while lunch splurge, I walked down 43rd Street to check out the progress. Here's what I saw:

At 413-415, I ran into another interested on-looker. We commiserated about the anticipated changes coming to the block. He owns three building on the 8th to 9th block of 43rd, and he, like I, believes that the new building will look something like the one on 6th Avenue that replaced a brownstone (see left hand photo). The two homes that were town down were not particularly lovely, but they fit in with this side of the block. (This is one of the blocks with some houses that have not used siding to hide the funky faces on the facades.) We both dread seeing the new building...hopefully it won't be as bad as we anticipate.

What we did see were workers who got agitated when they noticed us standing outside (because I'm so scary with my baby carrier and all), and then they tried to close the gate. They failed to fully close it due to items strewn about. That's why, while I didn't get a photo of the very deep hole crisscrossed with steel, I did get a photo of their pile of dirt. That, and the level that was carefully stored on the dirt.

This construction site still has a months' old $2500 fine that has not yet been paid. It was for blocking and injuring the neighboring building's walkway. They have solved several other complaints, including noise...but my guess is there will be more to come.

Speaking of complaints, the other end of the block, at 765, was served by the Supreme Court of NYS. Apparently, it's about unsafe building and structure issues. Someone (not me, I swear!) tried to remove it and has read what's inside the notice, judging from the removed and carelessly re-applied tape. I haven't been able to find anything about the issues yet, but maybe it will show up soon. The site was active, and while only the outdoor staircase remains of this over-sized lot, most of the debris has been removed. No digging has happened yet...maybe before the first snows?