The long-standing scaffolding wraps around the corner from 45 John Street onto Dutch St., a dark and narrow passage that creates a shadowy haven for indigent addicts, neighbors say.
BY COLIN MIXSON |
Amid some of the priciest condominium developments in the city, there are still some surprisingly affordable accommodations available — in the form of a veritable shantytown that periodically springs up in the Financial District underneath perhaps Downtown’s longest-standing sidewalk shed — but locals hope that the sporadic settlement’s days are numbered.
The eight-year-old sidewalk shed on John Street is home to a chronic homeless encampment, where vagrants set up furniture and cardboard shanties beneath the relative sanctuary the shed provides.
The 8-year-old structure around a troubled condominium development at 45 John Street between Nassau and Dutch Sts. has for years hosted an on-again-off-again homeless encampment, complete with makeshift shelters and furniture, according to the president of the newly formed Financial District Neighborhood Association, Patrick Kennell.
“When I say encampment, I’m talking about more than a sleeping bag,” said Kennell, who also serves on Community Board 1. “You have a shanty setup. You have a cardboard shelter, all their belongings. They’re living there and making it their home, and that’s certainly not allowable by law. It’s not legal.”
Locals complain that denizens of the sidewalk-shed shantytown make themselves so at home that they even have pets — though not the sort you might expect.
Indigent inhabitants of the eight-year-old sidewalk shed on John Street have horrified locals with, among other things, their disturbing choice of pets — in this case, a rat.
“Last year, there was a young woman, who looked very strung out on drugs, and she was fondling a rat,” said Andrea Kanter, who lives on John Street with her husband and two children, aged 4 and 6. “When I walked past her again about an hour later, she was petting a different rat, just like you would pet your dog.”
The illicit inhabitants of the loathed shed are generally sedate — or perhaps sedated — during daytime hours, neighbors say, but come nightfall, the shed can erupt into an all-night rager that has pedestrians crossing the street to avoid getting caught up in the antics, according to Vicki Raikes, who lives in the building next door to the shed.
“I came home this past Saturday at 3 am, and they were all really partying under the scaffolding,” said Raikes. “I circumvented them, because it did not feel safe to walk through that.”
If drifter dance parties weren’t enough, neighbors say the shadow of the shed fosters a sense of lawlessness that encourages a certain breed of indigent entrepreneurs all too willing to monetize pure, unadulterated horror.
“They’re putting out signs that read, ‘Want to see two bums f—? $20,’ and ‘Want to see a bum eat s—? $20,’” said Kanter. “I’m a businesswoman. I’m all for entrepreneurial behavior, but let’s do it in good taste.”
The ancient sidewalk shed — and the derelicts it attracts — have become such a fact of life in Fidi that it requires routine visits from the police, Kanter said.
“The police have been very responsive. I went to the First Precinct meetings last summer, they gave me their numbers, and I’ve seen them clear away the cardboard boxes several times,” Kanter said. “I think what’s challenging is they have to keep going there. It sort of has become their regular course of business for someone to go there.”
Likewise, the contractor who maintains the shed, which extends around the corner from 45 John St. up dark and narrow Dutch St., repeatedly has to come out to replace the lighting fixtures the vagrant vandals routinely destroy to keep the space beneath the shed in perpetual gloom, which provides the perfect cover for drug users, Kennell said.
“The scaffolding contractor, Everest, we’ll call the number and they’re very responsive, but then the problem happens all over again,” Kennell explained. “When you’ve had it up for eight years, it’s a circular problem.”
The shed first darkened the sidewalk beneath 45 John Street in 2007 to accommodate renovations undertaken by a Delaware-based entity, 45 John Street LLC. Construction soon ground to halt in the 2008 financial crisis, and after the developer failed to keep up with the mortgage payments, its German lender, Bayerische Landesbank, moved to foreclose in 2009, according to court documents.
The developer’s numerous appeals caused the litigation to drag on for another five years — during which no work occurred, but the city continued to rubber-stamp renewals of the scaffolding permit.
The parties finally agreed to settle in 2014, and late last year a new developer operating under a shell company called 45 John NY LLC bought the property at auction for $73 million.
Though little to no work has occurred at the site since the sale, locals are optimistic that new owners will finally finish the construction and remove the troublesome trellis.
“We hope the new developer will complete the project as soon as possible and return it to normalcy,” Kennell said.
The fact that the 45 John St. sidewalk shed has been allowed to stand for nearly a decade points to a citywide problem of scaffolding blighting sidewalks for years even when no work is done.
“The scaffolding is the root issue,” said Raikes. “If that were to come down, the blight would go away. I’m positive of that, and it’s frustrating to see these permits get renewed without any use of the scaffolding being made.”
The state legislature in Albany is considering a bill that would require at least 10 days of work per month to be conducted on a project for a sidewalk-shed permit to be renewed.
But even it the bill passes, it won’t provide relief to the residents of John St. anytime soon.
