Brooklyn Building Follies: Crack & Shake

Truly, you could spend your entire life obssessively and compulsively tracking and blogging all of the construction-related glitches of the Great Brooklyn Building Boom of the Early 2000s from run-of-the mill violations like illegal demolitions to more profound things like destabilized buildings. (And, with a new surge coming, it's only going to get better.) Here's the latest on the ongoing situation at 406-408 15th Street (source of the infamous Eighth Avenue crack building) and a fun item about tremblors in Boerum Hill that was reported yesterday by the Brooklyn Record and, then, expounded upon by its readers.

1) 406-408 15th Street AKA the Cause of the South Slope Crack House. Concerned Citizens of Greenwood Heights reports that there is still no action despite assurances of a Stop Work Order on the building that is causing huge cracks in the walls of neighboring buildings, opening sinkholes and knocking over trees. "Still NOTHING from DOB," they write. "We were told a chief inspector was to come out yesterday and 'confer with the Commissioner,' with a verbal SWO in place (huh?) and a real SWO immanent. Boys were back and working today, no SWO, no new inspectors, ALL 311 complaints still open. Grrr! Will reconvien with CB7 in the morn." Given the amount of damage to neighbors in the South Slope, the lack of action is interesting. The bright side is that it'll make for fantastic blogging when one of the buildings collapses!

2) The Great Boerum Hill Quake of 2007. The Brooklyn Record reports that "one reader is complaining that her whole apartment has been vibrating since 7:30 this morning. She is also experiencing some power surges, so she is corresponding with us via an unplugged laptop. "It stops for a few minutes, then starts again," our reader laments, but she's still looking on the bright side: "I just hope they're building something awesome." The epicenter of the quake is believed to be a former Enterprise Lot at Atlantic and Nevins where pile driving and other construction is underway.