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UN "Swing
Space" Hit by Partial Stop Work Order for Unsafe Conditions, Records
Show, Skanska Parties at UN
Byline: Matthew
Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
May
4-- In the run-up to Monday's groundbreaking on the UN's North Lawn, it
has
emerged that the "swing-space" building the
UN has leased one block away, on 46th Street and 2nd Avenue, was hit
April 25
with a partial stop work order by the city's Department of Buildings.
The
notice about 305 East 46th Street describes "Work without a permit,
failed to notify the Department of Buildings for c hooks, no protection
of
ropes, failed to provide... sign, operating hoist equipment unsafe." Only at the UN -- or in this case at the
contractor the UN chose despite evidence even then of litigation for allegedly
shoddy work in Boston, and involvement in what the press
in Argentina
calls the
"Skanska
scandal." At the UN, a smaller one is brewing: what
strings were pulled to give Skanska the fourth floor Delegates Dining
Room on a
much sought after Friday night before Christmas? And if the unit that
gave the
space to Skanska deals with the company on the Capital Master Plan,
might there
be conflict of interest at work?
In other Capital
Master Plan partying news, while
the UN Spokesperson's office told Inner City Press on May 2 that
Monday's
festivities will cost "$30,000 to $50,000 depending on the weather,"
well placed sources put the actual cost at $80,000, and say that other
reporters were given a "$25,000 to $30,000" figure. Go figure.
Sloppiness
with numbers has become something of a trend. Beyond the CMP budget
"add-ons" introduced in the March 2008 session of the UN's budget
committee, Inner City Press has been told by a senior Department of
Public
Information official that thus far there has been no disclosure to or
approval
by the budget committee of funds for the needed replacement broadcast
facility.
So there are more costs to be disclosed -- something on which Capital
Master
Plan chief Michael Adlerstein might want to spend the time recently
invested in
monitoring
the press and spinning
about trees.
Markings for UN's
Capital Master Plan - written in stone?
Adlerstein was
questioned by staff members
last week, on topics ranging from safety during construction to unsafe
conditions in the proposed swing spaces. While there are many
well-intentioned people involved in the CMP, and Adlerstein has claimed
that these
spaces, at 305-311 East 46th Street and 380 Madison Avenue,
will be as safe as the current UN compound, a staff member said that if
barriers against car or truck bombs are not installed, he will
recommend
refusing to move in.
Inner
City Press asked NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly about this issue on April
18 when Kelly was at
the UN during the Pope's visit. Video here.
Kelly indicated that safety issues are still
being reviewed and discussed. He might want to add to the review the
documented
unsafe conditions at the 46th Street site to which the UN wants to
move... And,
looking forward, in an April 2 Congressional hearing, Rep. Nita Lowey
said of
the CMP, "I am concerned about whether adequate security upgrades are
in
the plan." These concerns must extend to the swing spaces. Watch this
site.
Footnote: Among
some CMP safety malcontents, there is talk of previous uses of the 46th
Street site, known as the Albano Building, having left residues, at
least online, that might be
of interest to the UN's own International Atomic Energy Agency. It's
all in the microfiche; they are getting out their Geiger
counters...
* * *
Beyond the daily sturm
und drang, we note with
sadness the passing of the point-man on the UN Declaration of the
Rights of
People with Disabilities, Thomas Schindlmayr. When
last we reported on
his needed work, he was "taking the high road" and promoting
implementation of the Declaration. Article and photo here,
video here.
He will be missed.
* * *
These reports are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click
here for a Reuters
AlertNet piece by this correspondent
about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click
here
for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali National
Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an
undefined trust fund. Video
Analysis here
Feedback: Editorial
[at] innercitypress.com
UN Office: S-453A, UN, NY 10017 USA
Tel: 212-963-1439
Reporter's mobile (and weekends):
718-716-3540
Other,
earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available
in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
Copyright
2006-08 Inner City Press, Inc. To request
reprint or other permission, e-contact Editorial [at]
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