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NARR 1:
Ernie Deverge has lived on Carlton Avenue, in Prospect Heights, for more than thirty years. His brownstone apartment is across the street from the Ward Bread Bakery. Although he didn't see the cornice collapse, Deverge heard it. And he felt it.
ACT 1 (00:08):
You know, I was in the backyard. I felt a shaking. But I didn't know what it was at that time.
NARR 2:
Debris fell onto the sidewalk. Bricks, cement, and cinderblocks covered Pacific Street. Artist Peter Krashes lives nearby. He says there was no scaffolding in place. And that it's a small miracle no one was injured.
ACT 2 (00:07):
If anyone had been on the street underneath there, it's pretty unlikely they would've survived. It was really an extraordinary amount of debris that fell off that building.
NARR 3:
Forest City Ratner Companies plans to turn part of the neighborhood into a large development, with high-rise office buildings, apartments, and a new arena, for Brooklyn's new N-B-A franchise. The developer wants to replace the bakery building with a parking lot. But before they demolish it, they have to remove the asbestos insulation from the building's interior. Krashes worries that the collapse might've loosed asbestos particles.
ACT 3 (00:15):
The cornice collapsed during asbestos abatement. And while we don't know if the asbestos, we're still waiting to hear whether the asbestos was all removed from the building or not. My understanding so far is that it was not. But I don't know the answer to that. Nobody's told us.
NARR 4:
Errol Cockfield is a spokesman for the Empire State Development Corporation. He says that his agency has not ignored neighborhood residents, and that the Development Corporation has reached out to residents, especially since Democractic Governor Eliot Spitzer was inaugurated, earlier this year.
ACT 4 (00:16):
Since we've come in in January, we've worked to establish a renewed relationship with the community, with elected officials, with community leaders, with community organizations.
NARR 5:
Cockfield referred all construction-related questions to Forest City Ratner. A spokeswoman for the developer said Forest City Ratner is withholding comment on the incident, until an ongoing investigation is finished.
Peter Krashes is upset about the Atlantic Yards development, but he acknowledges that his distaste for the project, and his anger about the building collapse, are separate issues. It is only the latest in a series of construction-related problems. After construction workers broke a water main, Dean Street residents didn't have running water for nearly five hours. Krashes says that the incident shows that the project needs more oversight. From the City and the State.
ACT 5 (00:12):
I think that there are certain standards that everybody in New York expects, in terms of the relationship between community and government. And in our case, so far, the government has let us down.
NARR 6:
The Empire State Development Corporation and Forest City Ratner Companies have temporarily stopped their asbestos abatement and demolition project at the Ward Bakery site. And construction crews have installed scaffolding around the building's perimeter.
SOC:
David Gura. Columbia Radio News.