Construction Maison

showing damage left from a fire in early July." /> Natasha Tosca in her building's hallway, showing damage left from a fire in early July. View Full Caption Kate Pastor LONGWOOD — Persistent fire code violations at a South Bronx building where a July electrical fire injured a dozen people have left tenants terrified for their safety. Residents are fed up with landlord Hiram Colon , and say their next move may be asking a state judge to take the building away from him. More than a month after the fire, the building at 851 E. 163rd St. still has 225 open violations , according to records from the Department of Housing and Preservation, and tenants believe the fire could have been avoided if the problems they had been complaining about for years had been fixed. Elisa Garcia, 47, lives with her four children in a one-bedroom apartment on the second floor. The electricity has gone out in most of her apartment 19 times since the beginning of July, she said, speaking throu...

Bronx developer Mark Stagg’s “bait-and-switch” shenanigans are making a mockery of two signature Mayor Bill de Blasio initiatives : affordable housing and his “Turning the Tide” homeless plan. In Thursday’s Post, Carl Campanile reported that back in 2015, Stagg flipped a Bronx apartment building into a transitional shelter facility . Working-class residents of the Crotona Avenue building saw their dream of winning the affordable- housing lottery turn into a nightmare once Stagg’s nonprofit partner, Bronx Parent Housing Network , moved 44 homeless families into the 55-unit building in November 2015. The rent-paying residents say they have to put up with panhandling, fighting, all-night partying and even assaults. Stagg used his signature tactic of asking the city for a property tax break in exchange for keeping 20 percent of units “affordable” — and then leasing the remaining 80 percent to a homeless-services nonprofit. Tenants came forward with their tales of misery after readin...

Let’s face it: Nobody really knows what to do about the homeless crisis. The sheer numbers of 60,000 people in city shelters and nearly 4,000 more on the streets — many in the latter group psychotic, drug-addicted and violent — overwhelm the best-intended plans to help them. That said, there are better and worse ways to cope with the nightmare. It’s bad enough that the city now spends $2.3 billion a year on homeless services including $1.4 billion on shelter housing , twice what it spent just three years ago. But making things worse : City Hall is now paying landlords more money to put up the homeless than the property owners could make by renting apartments and hotel rooms to non-homeless people at ordinary market rates . Shouldn’t developers be incentivized to create actual affordable housing for permanent residents — not more shelters for transients with no links to a community? The hapless Department of Homeless Services has gone off the deep end at a site in The Bronx, whether ou...

Forget about borrowing a cup of sugar — can you spare a couple of bucks? Working- class Bronx families thought they had landed the dream of affordable rents at a spanking-new apartment complex — until busloads of rowdy homeless people moved in and turned the building into a living nightmare. “I feel like I’ve been scammed. They weren’t upfront to let us know what kind of building this was going to be,” said Omar Cooke, 38, who pays $962 for a one-bedroom apartment at 1802 Crotona Ave. in Crotona Park. Months after the tenants signed their leases, the developer moved homeless families into 44 of the building’s 55 units. Now the rent-paying residents say they’re plagued by fights, threats and panhandling, and they fear for the safety of themselves and their children. All visitors — including the regular tenants — have to be patted by security. And when the shelter staff leave the building between 6 p.m. Friday night and 8 a.m. Monday, all hell breaks loose , Cooke says. “On Friday wh...

TOLLING THE TYCOONS — Albanese calls for 'politically popular' pied-à-terre tax, by POLITICO New York’s Conor Skelding : Foreign "oligarchs" who own real estate in New York but don't live in the city should have to pay two or three times what they pay now in property taxes, Democratic mayoral candidate Sal Albanese said Wednesday. The "politically popular" new tax's revenue, which Albanese said would amount to billions, could then be put toward the development of affordable housing . "Look, there's a lot of money across the world that people want to outsource," he said during a news conference outside the gates of City Hall. "There's a lot of money there, and we can use that to build real affordable housing ." Mayor Bill de Blasio promised years ago to "take a look" at a pied-à-terre tax, but the proposal is opposed by many of the city's real estate interests . "They own Bill de Blasio , big real estat...

NEW YORK, NY — In the summer of 1977, New York City was — literally and figuratively — on fire. It was the summer of disco fever, of Studio 54. It was the summer of Yankees mania. It was the summer that catapulted Ed Koch to City Hall. And in mid-July, it turned into the summer of darkness, when an epic, five-borough power outage — deemed an "act of God" by Con Ed — plunged the city into two days of total blackout. Airports shut down. News stations went off the air. Thousands were stuck in underground subway tunnels . Meanwhile, in the streets, the down-and-out — at their breaking point after years of municipal layoffs and a steady surge in violent crime — rioted and looted with abandon. Arsonists reportedly set more than 1,000 fires across the city in a single day. The Bronx, it would later be said, was burning. It was also the Summer of Sam. Want more local news? Sign up here to receive free newsletters and alerts from the New York City Patch . In spring 1977, police con...

Wa nt the charming coziness of a country retreat but can’t quit the urban hustle and bustle? You don’t have to choose! From Brooklyn to the Bronx, cottage- style dwellings sit smack -dab in the city. The most recent (and eye-catching) example is the East Village property that hit the market in July. But never fear, fully-on-the- market options abound . Set atop a ho-hum structure — and recently listed for $3.5 million — the penthouse/cottage combo has just gone into contract. NY Post Brian Zak East Village Price: $3.5 million (in contract); Beds: 4; Baths: 3½; Sq. Ft.: 2,736 New York is chockablock with unique properties, but it’s hard to imagine an apartment more one-of-a-kind than the duplex penthouse of a five-story walkup at 72 E. First St. The penthouse comes with the Nantucket-style shake-shingled cottage on the roof. It’s as if someone airlifted a New England sea shanty and plopped it atop an East Village tenement building . Inside the cottage and penthouse, you’ll find all th...

MELROSE, Bronx (WABC) -- A Bronx community is on alert after a man tried to rape a 74-year-old woman who uses a walker. Fortunately, the woman fought back . The incident occurred at East 161st and Park Avenue in the Melrose section. Surveillance video shows the man walking into an elevator, and behind him, you can see the victim's walker as she enters the elevator. The man then follows her down the hallway and into her apartment, where he put her in a chokehold and groped her. The victim was able to bang on a neighbor's door, scaring her attacker into running off. The NYPD released video the suspect in an area convenience store . Neighbors say they are just anxious for police to catch the man who did it. "(He's) a disgusting person," area resident Carmen Pabon said. "Someone that is a horrible person, because we all have mothers, don't we?" People in the neighborhood say they are vulnerable, and they have an issue they say gave the predator an ...

black baseball cap , two- toned Jordan sneakers , a black T-shirt and black shorts, police said." /> The suspect was last seen wearing a black baseball cap , two- toned Jordan sneakers , a black T-shirt and black shorts, police said. View Full Caption NYPD THE BRONX — A would-be rapist followed a 74-year-old woman using a walker to her apartment door, put her in a chokehold and groped her before she managed to alert a neighbor, NYPD officials said. The attacker and victim both got into an elevator in her building near East 161st Street and Park Avenue in Melrose about 10:45 p.m. Aug. 18, with the suspect following her out as she walked to her apartment, police said. [embedded content] The woman just reached her front door when the suspect wrapped his arm around her neck and groped her, police said. She managed to bang on a neighbor's door, sending the suspect running, police said. The suspect, who can be seen in police footage released Wednesday , is about 20 years old ...

US Concrete Inc (NASDAQ:USCR) Q2 2017 Earnings Conference Call August 08, 2017 10:00 AM ET Executives Kevin Kohutek - Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer Bill Sandbrook - President and Chief Executive Officer Analysts Trey Grooms - Stephens Inc Adam Thalhimer - Thompson, Davis Scott Schrier - Citi Craig Bibb - CJS Securities Stanley Elliott - Stifel Nicolaus Roresa Mojo - D.A. Davidson Operator Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the U.S. Concrete, Inc. Second Quarter 2017 Earnings Conference Call . [ Operator Instructions ] I would now like to introduce your host for today's conference, Kevin Kohutek, Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer . You may begin. Kevin Kohutek Thank you, Israh. Good morning, and welcome to U.S. Concrete's Second Quarter 2017 Earnings Conference Call . Joining me on the call today is Bill Sandbrook, our President and Chief Executive Officer . Bill and I will make some prepared remarks, after which we will open the call to your ...