The Short Sweet Dream of Eduardo Gutierrez

by Jimmy Breslin

  “When this comes up, you abstain,” he told two people sitting near him on the floor, new council members. “It’s the things you don’t vote for that save your life.”

  Michels had started doing this when he had two children in fine colleges and he preferred not to lose the means of keeping them there.

  “What’s the matter with it?” he was asked.

  “The matter with it is I don’t know what it is about. I don’t know what any of these things are about. Neither do you. Let’s keep investigations far away. Abstain.”

  At the end of the meeting they had the day’s business, all resolutions and bills, together in one package on which the members started to vote.

  “You vote yes on all except SLR 471, Resolution 3245,” Michels said. “On that you abstain.”

  “And then?”

  “And then you’re all right. If it’s got to do with buildings, then you’re safe to abstain all the time.”

  SOMETIMES WHAT APPEARS to be a direct approach by a wounded citizen is made in the land business. The wounded citizen writes as one poor lone person, but when you parse the sentences you find lawyers, lobbyists, and references to phone call after phone call to city officials.

  September 12, 1995

  The Honorable Rudolph Giuliani

  Mayor of the City of New York

  New York, New York

  Dear Mayor:

  I am a registered Republican in the all Democratic neighborhood of Williamsburg, and have never asked for political help. I am deeply involved in community affairs, but I am not a politician!

  It took us five years to change the zoning on Block 2240 in our neighborhood, from M1–2 to residential R-5. We own most of the lots in the block, but the City owns five parcels (see diagram attached herewith). Upon the recommendation of Borough President Howard Golden, we have been in contact with HPD regarding the acquisition of these lots. We would like to develop the City’s lots in conjunction with our own residential construction on this block, so that the street should be uniformly developed. We are willing to sell or rent these lots for low-income people.

  At this point in time, we already have approved plans and building permits (copies attached) ready for our construction. We therefore would need special assistance to obtain these permits from the City in a timely fashion.

  We have been advised that you, the mayor, can make this happen.

  Respectfully yours,

  Eugene Ostreicher

  There is no record of any return letter from Giuliani because if it existed, it would have gone to Ostreicher and you would need a crowbar to get it from him.

  Immediately after this, a lawyer who knows the political landscape took over. Rosina Abramson has an honorable background as counsel in the office of the old city council president, and her client does not. It is obvious that a contractor trying it alone has as much chance as he would trying to walk in the sky. For it can take the work of the legitimate and illegitimate to get anything done.

  Rosina Abramson, Esq.

  135 East 57th Street

  Suite 1100

  New York, NY 10022

  December 5, 1995

  Phil Dameshek, Esq.

  Dept. of General Services, Division of Real Estate

  Municipal Building, 20th Floor So.

  1 Centre Street

  Dear Phil:

  Thank you for your advice regarding my client, Eugene Ostreicher, who is seeking to redeem…. He has taken assignments from the former property owners…. I’m also enclosing a recent letter he wrote to Mayor Giuliani. I would appreciate your guidance regarding how this matter can be brought to Commissioner Diamond’s attention. Thanks.

  Dec. 7, 1995

  Randal Fong, Assistant Commissioner, Planning

  Dept. of General Services

  Municipal Building, 20th Floor So.

  Dear Randy:

  I certainly understand your concerns regarding competition. I believe we can structure a restricted competition that protects and benefits all parties, particularly the City and the public….

  December 8, 1995

  Richard J. Schwartz

  Senior Advisor to the Mayor

  City Hall

  Dear Richard:

  First, let me thank you for participating in the panel discussion on Business Improvement Districts, sponsored by the Municipal Affairs committee of the Bar Association. Your focus on encouraging private enterprise inspired me to think more creatively regarding an interest in a client which should coincide with furthering city policies, both with regard to in rem vacant land and affordable housing….

  December 12, 1995

  Hon. William J. Diamond

  Commissioner, Dept. of General Services

  Municipal Building, 17th Floor

  1 Centre Street

  Re: Privatizing in rem vacant land, fostering private development—a pilot project proposal

  Dear Commissioner Diamond:

  … I understand that DGS has recently suspended its Adjacent Home Owners Program (AHOP)…. Rather than eliminate this privatization strategy, I suggest eliminating restrictions and expanding the program, at least on a pilot basis….

  A case in point… is presented by the situation in which my client, Eugene Ostreicher, finds himself. Mr. Ostreicher, through his own personal initiative and individual enterprise, has begun to turn an abandoned block in Williamsburg into affordable housing. My client is seeking to redeem in rem properties adjacent to property he is developing on Lorimer and Middleton Streets… in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. I’m enclosing a recent letter he wrote to Mayor Giuliani expressing his desire to build on the in rem parcels….

  Sincerely yours,

  Rosina Abramson

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  It happened in the morning, and whoever the workers were—Polish from up in Greenpoint, Mexican from Brighton and Sunset Park—they had already gone to the hospital. The fire and police vehicles had pulled out by the time Charles Blaich, a deputy chief of the Fire Department, arrived in a department station wagon. He looked at the construction site as if it were an empty casket. This building job on Lorimer Street was a block of four-story multiple dwellings that the builder stated was to house faculty for Hasidic schools. The first wall on Lorimer Street was a stack of cinder blocks without enough support to stop the wind. Which is not a turned phrase but a precise estimate of the wall’s strength: On this February morning at 7:30 in 1996 a wind strong enough to make people pull their coats around themselves came along Lorimer Street, and it simply knocked the wall down.

  They had poured concrete and put heavy cinder blocks on the floor. How did they expect that to hold up? Blaich looked at the twisted beams that were the result.

  As Blaich looked at the wreckage, Richie Ostreicher showed up. “Those idiots,” he said.

  Richie Schairer, liaison between police and the Hasidic community, arrived, took a look, and left. “Be back,” he said.

  Blaich called in John Humble, the trade representative for the American Iron and Steel Institute. Blaich knew him from courses in construction he had taken over a period of twenty years. The steel being used in the buildings here on Lorimer Street was dirt cheap compared to wood, but it still had great strength. That was Humble’s opinion until he saw gaps in the building walls.

  “What if there had been a fire?” Humble said.

  Blaich stiffened. There had been a fire-alarm fire in Bay Ridge, and the C-joists had collapsed with no warning. Later inspection showed they had the appearance of cooked spaghetti.

  After this, out of sight and sound in the Bronx, two units of firefighters were working a four-alarm in a building where C-joists were put up for installation on a new story being erected over the original buildings. The C-joists had no fire protection, and touched by flame, they failed immediately and soundlessly. They too were reduced to cooked spaghetti.

  Collapses of C-joists became common in the parts of Williamsburg where Ostreicher built.

&n
bsp; C-joists are cold-formed steel and were first used in 1973 to rebuild at least some of Bushwick, a neighborhood that, for the most part, was turned into char by arson in the ’60s and ’70s. Fires had been set for insurance by owners of buildings that were empty when whites fled the arrival of people of color. The fires then were set without the excuse of money.

  C-joists are long silver beams that can be from six to twelve inches wide and an inch and a half thick. They come with an open side, thus forming the C, and the joist is then fitted onto tracks of a floor beam or wall beam. There should be sixteen inches between each C-joist. The C-joists can cost as little as a few dollars apiece but can go as high as $20. For builders cutting corners, the less you use, the more money sticks to the pocket, rather than the supplier’s bill. The C-joists barely resist the first lick of a fire and become sudden death. To guard against this, contractors supposedly cover the deck C-joists with a concrete spray and the ones on the wall with plasterboard.

  Blaich and Humble looked at the basement. The block of Lorimer Street buildings was supposed to have elevators, but instead there were wood staircases to the cellar. Blaich took a look from one end of the cellar to the other. A fire could come through here like it was a wind tunnel.

  A firefighter coming into a burning building can gauge how long it will take burning wood beams to give way. It could be five minutes, it could be nine. Experience tells him when to flee. But when the C-joists get ready to give, you have nothing to see and everything to fear.

  FIRE DEPARTMENT

  2/9/96

  e-239 responded to reported bldg collapse 49 Lorimer St. Upon arrival found row of new construction in progress. Bldgs are 2-story M/D’s.

  Questionable construction tactics being used. Bldg’s experienced a lean-to collapse in early phase of construction.

  Request review of bldg. dept. permits and architectural plans.

  Request on site inspection by Building Dept.

  Respectfully submitted,

  Joseph M. Sweeney Lt. E-230

  TO: Edmund P. Cunningham, Chief of Fire Prev.

  FROM: Roderick J. O’Connor, Battalion Chief, Bn. 57

  Upon receiving the report from E-230 and speaking with Capt. Regan E-230, I performed an on-site inspection. I concur with Lt. Sweeney’s opinion and request for an immediate inspection by the building department.

  The materials used for this construction appear to be acceptable but the practices putting them to use does not seem appropriate. There have been two incidents of collapse and upon viewing the site today, the floors in place seem uneven and incapable of withstanding the heavy loads they will be expected to carry. I collected two pieces of the metal floor beams used. It seems that if the flooring material (three quarters inch plywood) is not placed on these floor beams immediately, the metal floor beams tend to twist loose from their perch which is a cutout in the concrete block walls.

  This construction site should be inspected as soon as possible in order to prevent any possible improper practices of construction. It is open frame now and can easily be evaluated.

  Respectfully submitted,

  Roderick O’Connor

  ON FEBRUARY 29, 1996, there was a third collapse, this one in the dark of night. The sound ran down empty streets. At that hour, with no workers on the job, nobody was hurt. At daylight, Chief Dillon of the Fifth Battalion arrived from the firehouse on Union Avenue, alongside the Ninetieth Precinct. Around a corner of the building was Truck Eight of Police Emergency Services. They were not needed—this time.

  Dillon arrived at the scene of new rubble and had his men put up yellow crime scene tape. The Mexican workers stood across the street, uncertain. Suddenly Richie Ostreicher got out of a car with police lights and shields and any other placard he had been able to get from police commanders who thought they were dealing with a police chaplain. He called to the laborers, “We go to work.”

  Dillon said no.

  “Forget it,” Ostreicher told his crew. “We go to work.”

  Dillon said, “You don’t.”

  “Who are you?” Ostreicher said.

  “I’m Chief Dillon, New York City Fire Department. I closed this place.”

  “You can’t do that.”

  “Yes, I can. I’m in charge here until I hand over the place to somebody else, the Buildings Department.”

  “I own this place,” Ostreicher said.

  “I closed it,” Dillon said.

  “What do you know?” he asked Dillon.

  “I know I’m a fire chief in charge.”

  “You don’t know buildings.”

  “I went to school for it,” Dillon said.

  “What degree did you get?”

  “GED.” (Everybody knew that he got that degree from a high school continuation course.)

  “What’s that?”

  “General Engineering Diploma.”

  “Oh,” Richie Ostreicher said.

  Dillon’s men stood in a semicircle with him and tried not to smile.

  Now Ostreicher said, “Can I talk to you?”

  “That’s what you’re doing,” Dillon said.

  “No, I mean, alone. Over there.” He pointed to the other side of the street.

  “All right,” Dillon said. He tapped his aide, Chris Steidinger, who walked over with him.

  “We can talk alone,” Ostreicher said.

  “We are alone. He counts as me,” Dillon said.

  Ostreicher went into his pocket and brought out a gold badge. He had it cupped in his hand and held the hand close to his pants pocket.

  “Do you know what this is?”

  Dillon looked at. A gold shield with two stars on it. Some kind of police inspector’s badge.

  Dillon said nothing.

  “This doesn’t mean anything to you?” Ostreicher said, pushing the cupped hand toward Dillon.

  “Are you a member of the Police Department of the City of New York?” Dillon said.

  Quickly Ostreicher put the badge back in his pocket. Once Dillon started making it official, he stepped back.

  Dillon drove back to the firehouse.

  FIRE DEPARTMENT

  ENGINE CO. 230

  FEB. 25, 1996

  Responded to a structural collapse at 49 Lorimer Street. This was the THIRD COLLAPSE in the past few weeks at this construction site. Fortunately, the workmen were able to escape without injury. The Owner Chaim Ostreicher was given three summons.

  I AM REQUESTING A PERMANENT STOP WORK ORDER AND JOINT INSPECTION OF CONSTRUCTION SITE TO DETERMINE STRUCTURAL STABILITY OF EXISTING STRUCTURES.

  See attached report dated 2/9/96 from BC O’Connor, fwded after the SECOND COLLAPSE. …

  Respectfully submitted,

  Edward J. Regan, Captain, E230.

  Hertzberg & Sanchez

  Consulting Engineers

  295 Northern Boulevard, Great Neck, NY 11921–4701

  Feb. 26, 1996

  Department of Buildings, Borough of Brooklyn

  Att: Mr. Darryl Hilton

  Chief Inspector

  RE: 29 Lorimer Street (#300437800)

  21 Lorimer Street (#300437837)

  41 Lorimer Street (#300437064)

  Dear Mr. Hilton:

  This will confirm that Hertzberg and Sanchez will be observing the construction in progress to assure that the walls will be properly braced by the installation of the floor joists.

  The bricklayers have been instructed to brace the walls before they close for the day.

  We require immediate approval to continue with the work as vandalism is rampant in the area.

  Very truly yours,

  Louis Sanchez, P.E.

  Vice-President

  The engineers wrote as if they were in charge, which they were. Because the city Building Department, which sounds like a massive government bureau, is so small, with only eight hundred workers, including office maintenance workers, receptionists, and computer workers, there is no way to inspect the eight hundred thousand buildings
in the city, particularly if City Hall cuts the funds to nothing. Buildings Department people rarely see any structures. The architects and professional engineers supposedly put up their reputations and license and certify each of their construction jobs. If anything falls down, their licenses flop with it. That never happens. What does happen every day is that the trust of a huge city is given to people with no official responsibility.

  On March 14, 1996, Michael Caterina, a compliance officer from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration—which is commonly known as OSHA—received an anonymous complaint about collapses of Ostreicher buildings on Lorimer Street. In the building world, an anonymous complaint is too often a phoned-in stiletto. Business competitors or personal enemies regard them as a marvelous way to hurt another. Caterina, then, was wary when he walked down Lorimer Street.

  Here, standing in the street, a statue of a biblical character who suddenly was breathing, was Eugene Ostreicher. He was short, stocky, and suspicious. He was in black from hat to shoes. A great white beard billowed at the cheeks. Prominent dark eyebrows stood out over his pale blue eyes. He had the brusque movements of someone used to being in charge on the street. He was impatient when Michael Caterina of OSHA spoke to him in the middle of Lorimer.

  Caterina asked Ostreicher if there had ever been a collapse at the site.

  “What collapse? What are you talking about? Do you see a collapse? Tell me. Do you see a collapse?” He waved at his site of attached three-story brick condominiums. “A collapse. Where did you get that from?”

  “I heard that,” Caterina said.

  “Where did you hear that from? Who told you that? You heard a fairy tale from somebody.”

  “You’re stating that there have been no collapses at this site?” Caterina said in official tones.

  “Absolutely. There never is a collapse here.”