Exclusive | NYC-owned buildings have 130 scaffolding sheds up longer than 3 years and one a decade old as it proposes landlord crackdown: Clean their own house first

The Big Apple claims it’s cracking down on the scourge of sidewalk sheds but there’s scaffolding at roughly 500 city-owned buildings — with about 130 that are more than three years old, according to public data.One troublesome building has had scaffolding up for over a decade.All-told, the sheds on city-owned properties account for 5% of the 8,600 sheds standing across all five boroughs — which if combined would stretch for nearly 400 miles, about long enough to reach from Manhattan to Cleveland.Despite that staggering count, members of the City Council are proposing a bill — Int.0393 — which proposes to have the city take over renovations from private landlords who fail to address work in a timely manner.It’s just one of several changes that have been proposed since Mayor Eric Adams announced his “Get Sheds Down” initiative in the summer of 2023, which City Hall says has helped remove hundreds of scaffoldings, including 18 at city-owned buildings.But in light of the 500 still out there, many New Yorkers are skeptical that the city has any business sticking its nose in private work until it proves it can take care of its own sheds.“I think that they should clean their own house first,” said 70-year-old Sandy Rocks.

“This is really kind of pathetic.”“They have to organize themselves first.It doesn’t make any sense at all,” added 54-year-old Michelle, an entrepreneur who lives on the Upper West Side.

“I don’t think the city is gonna help that situation.If they can’t get their own buildings together, I don’t know why taking on additional landlord owned buildings would help,” she said.The pair were each passing by 2720 Broadway, an Upper West Side building which has been surrounded by scaffolding since around 2012 — and the building has been owned by the Department of Homeless Services that entire time.Now housing a homeless shelter — which has been vacated the last few months over a fire alarm issue — the building has ...