According to the New York Times, there are between 12,000 and 17,000 buildings in the city that provide water to occupants using rooftop water tanks. Citing a city survey, the Times also said that 60 percent of NYC building owners don’t bother to make sure the water tanks on their buildings are in basic compliance with city regulations. Some $700,000 in fines were levied against non-compliant buildings between 2010 and 2012 alone.
Elite Manhattan school cited after 2 injured in science lab fire
As you may know, a fireball erupted last week at the Beacon School, a prestigious public high school on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. It apparently happened when a chemistry teacher’s scientific demonstration went wrong, and the result was two students burned -- one critically.
New Brighton woman, run over while sunbathing, settles with city
On the Saturday before Memorial Day 2012, a New Brighton woman was innocently sunbathing on South Beach on Staten Island when, according to her accident report, she “felt pressure on her head.” That pressure was the front end of a 2004 Ford Suburban operated by the city Parks Department. It is unclear why the vehicle was on the sand in the first place, and even more difficult to imagine why its driver ran over a 26-year-old woman’s head.