Demolition to make way for a new mega jail in New York’s Chinatown is causing cracks in an adjacent building used for senior housing, a day care center and health clinic.
ABC7 New York reports the city has issued a partial stop work order while it investigates the issue.
“You can see all the cinderblock walls cracked, out of alignment, that sort of thing,” said the owner of the Chung Pak building. “Especially over here, clearly there’s some sort of tapering with the cinder block. It’s bulging out.”
Tenants are outraged and are demanding full oversight of the project.
“I’m very scared and live in fear,” said one tenant to WPIX through a translator. Recently the floor always shaking. She felt like it’s an earthquake.”
Gramercy Group Contractors which the city hired for the demolition declined to comment, but the city says its confident that there is “no immediate danger or threat to safety.”
The community isn’t as sure.
“We learned at an early age to respect our elders and they are disrespecting our seniors,” said New York Assemblymember Grace Lee to WPIX.
“We absolutely do not trust Gramercy Group with anything anymore,” Jan Lee of Neighbors United Below Canal said to ABC7. “They violated the trust of this community. They violated the trust of the building next door. They’ve cracked their building. There’s water seeping into this building as we speak.”
(Correction: An earlier version of this story misidentified Assemblymember Grace Lee. We apologize for the error.)
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