More on the Buildings Department

In the runup to filing our lawsuit , we missed this article in the New York Times regarding more troubles at the Department of Buildings (DOB).
The story focused on the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation,(GVSHP) which recently conducted a field study of all of the buildings within the Greenwich Village Historic District. Upon completing the survey, they found that as many as 17% of the buildings in the district were not marked as landmarks within the DOB database, leaving them vulnerable to development.
Other shocking findings:

* 10% of all buildings in the Gansevoort Market Historic District were not listed as landmarks in the DOB system,

* Amoung the 337 buildings not properly listed in the Greenwich Village Historic District, a number of the buildings were located on some the most beautiful streets in the city, like Washington Square North and the Washington Mews,

* A second review of DOB's records found that 79 sites were incorrectly listed after GVSHP had been told they we fixed. In addition, they found that 29 buildings which had previously been correctly marked as landmarks were “unmarked” as such in DOB records as part of the “fixing” process!

Apparently, GVSHP raised these findings at this week's City Council Forum on DOB. Thank you!

Now, of course, these findings are not directly related to our campaign agenda . But it does certainly add to the city's growing landmarks emergency!