Residents of the Upper West Side aren’t shy about complaining to the city—which may explain why the neighborhood has the fewest stalled construction sites in Manhattan.
Stalled sites represent failed development projects, and they can also be eyesores and attract litter. According to a new report by Borough President Scott Stringer, Community Boards 7 and 9—which span the Upper West Side, Morningside Heights, and West Harlem—have the fewest of those sites in the borough.
Over 27 months, the city Department of Buildings logged 57 complaints about stalled construction sites on the Upper West Side, for an average of 14.25 complaints per site. That made CB7 the most proportionally complained-about district.
“The Upper West Side is not shy about knowing its rights, and trying to force the appropriate city agency to take action,” CB7 chair Mark Diller said.
On the whole, the picture isn’t pretty: 37 percent of the 129 stalled sites surveyed in Manhattan have visible litter, while 60 percent have rusted or damaged fencing. Most of those sites have been abandoned since the start of the recession.
But only one of the four sites inspected in CB7 has fencing issues, and none had any observed litter. In fact, CB7 is the only area in which no litter or vandalism was observed. Community Board 9’s Morningside Heights and West Harlem were similarly pristine: Only one of the three sites inspected had minor litter problems.
Community Board 7 members credited CB7 district manager Penny Ryan, who oversees the district’s construction sites.
“Whenever there’s a major construction project, or a construction site with a problem, Penny immediately sets up a task force,” said Helen Rosenthal, a former chair of CB7 and a current member of its land use committee. The task force includes “neighbors, people from the construction company, and people from the community board. They get together weekly and talk about any problems that might come up.”
The Upper West Side may be succeeding in completing and maintaining its construction projects on time because of the narrowness of the district and its high density of schools, according to Page Cowley, a preservation architect and co-chair of CB7’s Land Use Committee. Unmaintained construction sites could prove hazardous for children, she said, which increases the urgency of the city’s response.
The report also recommended that vacant land be converted for shared community use, and Upper West Side residents agreed that a community garden or a farmer’s market would be feasible solutions.
“Particularly since economically things are so gloomy, this can be seen as an opportunity for short-term employment as well as a beautification project,” Cowley said.
While there are legal obstacles to repurposing abandoned construction sites, Diller said he thought the changes were possible.
“We live in an era of cyclical boom and bust, and there may be times in which CB7 would be able to take advantage of these sorts of things,” he said.
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