GL's Construction Site Du Jour: 141 Dupont Street

Check out this specimen. You're looking at 141 Dupont Street. It was sent in by our Greenpoint correspondent and actually displaced another site in Williamsburg we were going to feature today. Why? Our correspondent writes:

This is very dangerous. A lot of small children live on this block; children small enough to get through the opening of this fence.

Not be cynical, but one can sense the tragic way this could go. A couple of children will be injured or killed somewhere in Greenpoint or Williamsburg, where there are dozens, if not hundreds of demolition and construction sites with flimsy fences and ones that are open wide enough for a child. Afterwards, the Department of Buildings will finally react.

We are puzzled by many things, and one of them is the frequent nonfeasance of New York City's Department of Buildings, an agency which is so vital to the quality of life of every Brooklynite, yet which is apparently incapable of handling some of its responsibilities. Like making sure construction sites aren't wide open to any child on the block, for instance.

The fact is that a poorly trained bear could drive around North Brooklyn and cite dozens of construction sites whose lousy walls and gate are a threat to public safety in a good hour's work on any given day after working hours. The interesting question is why the Department of Buildings doesn't devote a couple of hours to the task. We don't feature these things because we've got a fence fetish. Rather, every time we see one, we picture a child, a pet, or the occasional idiotic drunk stumbling into one spots and getting hurt or killed.