Monday, November 23, 2009

Building dept evacuates 20 Longdale 20 people in house

Today, Building Department inspectors acting with Greenburgh Police, caused the evacuation of 20 Longdale Ave. This house was occupied by 9 people on the first floor and 11 people on the second floor. There also were occupants in the basement, which were evacuated at an earlier date. Many unsafe conditions were evident, the most dangerous being electrical violations to the extent that light switches were smoldering and melting. Steam irons were being used to provide heat. There were also many children residing there. The owner (who resides in Georgia) is paying for temporary lodging at a motel. Child Protective Services was called by the police and is assisting in locating the children in a home.

TONIGHT--Joe DeCarlo will be sworn in as Greenburgh's next Police Chief. Captain DeCarlo will be assuming his new post this weekend, after Chief Kapica retires.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

HORRIBLE! Why in the world has this been allowed to happen in the 1st place? These people didn't all move in over night!

Anonymous said...

What a disgrace. It takes way too long for authorities to take appropriate action. Next time there could be a major tragedy from a situation like this from another greedy home owner illegally renting to roomers and boarders, not even as blatantly egregious as this case.

I would suspect that this is not the only situation like this currently existing in Greenburgh. As 6:31 said, these people didn't move in overnight.

Often everyone who lives on the street knows what's going on and in the event of a tragedy they will be very willing to tell the newspaper reporters how many times they complained to Town Hall - to no effect.

Anonymous said...

Often everyone who lives on the street knows what's going on..

Yes. They do but many have illegal tenants themselves and are not quick to complain. THIS is the real problem. There needs to be a complete crackdown. Zero tolerance.

Anonymous said...

What exactly do the building inspectors do all day long that this is allowed to happen. Is it going to take a tragedy before all these illegal houses are shut down.

Anonymous said...

Not necessarily the Building Inspectors fault. For POLITICAL REASONS, the Town stopped the Fairview Fire Department from conducting inspections of multi family homes about five years ago. The Town now realizes what an enormous mistake that was and is now allowing the inspections to proceed. Regardless of whether Longdale is in fairview or hartsdale, allowing the fire departments to conduct inspections will find these issues alot sooner and result in saving lives.

Anonymous said...

What "political reasons" did the town have for not allowing inspections?

Anonymous said...

good work building dept

Anonymous said...

*waves to Paul @ 6:04*

Paul, isn't it dinner time?

Anonymous said...

What was the political reason behind the fd not doing inspections? I always see them in hartsdale village doing inspections.

Anonymous said...

I suspect that the political reasons are that either town board members or friends have illegal roomers. Or maybe it's just that Fairview is special?

Anonymous said...

Why did the town pressure the Fairview FD to ignore illegal and dangerous conditions? Why did Fairview FD succomb to this pressure and ignore public safety?

Anonymous said...

Perhaps it was the $100,000 Fairview Fire recd every year from the Town

stop the madness said...

You've seen them at meetings. Like the poor, poor woman who got caught with the illegal basement apartment in Fairview. She was crying hardship, please make an exception for her. She kept eluding to others with the same illegal setup but stopped short of pointing fingers knowing she was going to be run out of town if she did.
Oh woe!

Back in Hartsdale my neighbor, wife and newborn in tow, has moved out of town due to a job loss. House on market for over a year. The only bites are from buyers looking to move multiple families in but where warned against it. They are looking to sell short next month. Devastating financial loss to them. Since I own the adjacent duplicate house, big depreciation in my biggest investment.

So, why would the town not investigate overcrowding in Fairview? Why would the town even allow any owner to come before then asking for a hardship exception to illegally house people who burden our school district, use our services for free, do not pay taxes, owners not paying taxes on the rental income? Are Fairveiw home owners special? Is there something about them that makes their hardships harder, more burdensome and hence justify that they be supported with our taxes that many can not afford to pay any longer?

How is this fair to my neighbor who is losing everything due to hardship? How is this fair to any home owner in TOV?

Anonymous said...

Confirm info with Chief Mauro. Ask him why.