Posted on 09/03/2021 3:14:31 PM PDT by 11th_VA
Five of the six apartments where people died were illegal conversions
The deaths of 11 people who lived in basement apartments during New York City's catastrophic flooding this week have renewed attention on the oftentimes illegal dwellings, with city officials looking to bolster evacuation efforts for vulnerable residents in extreme weather.
A record 3.15 inches of rain fell in one hour in the city Wednesday, all but stalling the city's subway system and prompting dozens of water rescues. At least 13 people have been reported dead in New York City after the remnants of Hurricane Ida swept through the region.
The rapid rainfall inundated residences away from the city's coastline not prone to flooding, damaging scores of homes and turning at least six basement apartments into death traps...
With many of the city's basement apartments illegal conversions, oftentimes providing affordable housing to low-income New Yorkers and undocumented immigrants, the city would work with community organizations and other trusted messengers to reach residents, the mayor said.
"We have an illegal basement problem and then we have a problem that so many people end up in illegal basements are fearful to communicate for fear they might be evicted or, worse in their mind, deported," de Blasio said. "It's just an extraordinarily challenging set of circumstances."…
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
“illegal apartments …”
Undocumented apartments ...
The government told people to stay home, stay off of streets.
Indictment of the landlord for criminally negligent homicide would put a fast stop to illegal apartments.
We had a local teen die in a basement apartment the other day, when he went back in to try and find his mother. His family had evacuated, but he thought his mom hadn’t gotten out.
Perfectly legal apartment.
They could get government-mandated heavy-duty cardboard boxes.
3.15 inches? That’s nothing here in Kansas. And then we have drought for two months. One year we had 8 inches in one day. Then drought.
yup.
I am forty minutes north of NYC. A few years ago an illegal died when there was a fire in the illegal basement apartment he occupied.
The family of the illegal sued the town (Mt Kisco) for not enforcing housing code. Yet in the past when Mt Kisco tried to enforce housing code they were sued by groups supporting illegals and the NY Slimes wrote articles on how racist the town was.
Depends on the state/city/town
Would it have made a difference if they were “legal” conversions? They could not have drowned in legal conversions? The water would have stayed just outside a legal conversion? Maybe NY should issue “common sense” in addition to food stamps, rent subsidies, unemployment, etc.?
Why vote for people who bring in scores of illegal aliens who then live in places where they can only afford to anyway.
NYC voters get what they deserve. If there are illegal dead bodies floating around whose fault is it? The voters who voted for an administration who is letting millions of these people into our country who are a burden to the taxpayers, give back only crime and poverty and who will be only more of the same.
Even to bury them in NY is going to cost the taxpayer.
Wise up.
Yeah illegal dwelling under ground but it’s Trumps fault and climate change fault ergo we need communism and totalitarianism.
You do understand that many folks may be homeless people seeking shelter from the storm in basements—or people living in the basements and not paying rent.
Everything in NYC is very complicated—and there is a huge underground economy where folks ignore the laws and rules and just do what they need to do to get by every day.
The landlords are just one piece of the puzzle.
In the Oscar-winning movie “Parasite” we saw the same basement apartment flooding in Seoul.
As soon as I heard about the drownings in the basement apartments I assumed that these were illegal apartments. And I suspect the one apartment of the six that was "legal" had features installed later that were clear violations of fire/safety codes. The most likely case would involve bars over the windows to keep intruders out -- but would make the place a death trap in the event a rapid exit was necessary.
Ban flooding, now!
In NYC larger landlords routinely have city inspectors on the pad—just a part of doing business.
I can’t resist a city inspection corruption story.
This was in a big CT city—I was monitoring construction for the lender so I got to find out the “scoop”.
It turned out the developer who was building a large apartment complex met with the city mayor, gave him a fat contribution, and got secret (handshake) exemptions from various city codes.
The building took two years to build.
By that time the mayor had retired and the chief building inspector also retired—so nobody in city hall was around any more who knew (or was bound by) the two year old handshake deal.
It is time for the final city inspection before occupancy could be approved.
The inspector went out there and generated a huge laundry list of very costly items (including tearing down part of the building!) that would need to get fixed before occupancy could be approved.
The developer had to do all of them.
Crazy world out there...
Just like Bloomberg cigarette ban and that guy selling them one by one and then dies under police custody.
Yup—if the Mayor starts a little digging, he will run into the pile of mud at the city inspector’s office.
;-)
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