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Houses at the Redhill Peninsula, a luxurious residential estate in the Tai Tam area of Hong Kong, on September 13. She was referring to the Hong Kong International School, one of the most prestigious in town. Flooded roads after heavy rains in Hong Kong on September 8. Typhoon Saola, which barreled through Hong Kong on September 1, was the strongest to hit the city in five years. Scientists say climate change will make such weather events only more frequent and some are urging Hong Kong to rethink its rain mitigation strategy.

Persons: Hong Kong CNN —, Feng Shui, –, Benny Chan, Chris Lau, ”, Tyrone Siu, Saola, Haikui, Hong Kong, Leung, ” Leung, Mai, Ray Su, Su, wouldn’t, John Lee, Chan, ” Chan, “, Chan Kim Organizations: Hong Kong CNN, South China, Hong Kong Institute of Architects, CNN, Redhill, Porsche, Rover, Ferrari, Hong Kong International School, RTHK, University of Hong, Hong Kong’s Buildings Department, Liber Research Locations: Hong Kong, South, tycoons, Redhill, Tai Tam, Malibu, Los Angeles, “, Hong, University of Hong Kong

In a dramatic scene, a construction crane atop a high-rise building in Midtown Manhattan burst into flames and partially collapsed onto the street on Wednesday morning, injuring 11 people, officials said. The fire began just before 7:30 a.m. in the engine compartment of the crane, 45 stories above the street at 550 10th Avenue, officials from the fire and buildings department said. A crane operator who had been working in the machine’s cabin, lifting 16 tons of concrete, saw the fire and tried but failed to put it out with a hand extinguisher before fleeing to safety. As the top part of the crane — and its 16-ton load — fell, it struck a neighboring building at 555 10th Avenue.

Locations: Midtown Manhattan

A criminal investigation into the former commissioner of New York City’s Buildings Department has reached its final stages and charges are expected as soon as this week, according to three people with knowledge of the inquiry. The commissioner, Eric Ulrich, resigned in November shortly after investigators with the Manhattan district attorney’s office seized his cellphone and then interviewed him the next day. The inquiry continued after his resignation, with the prosecutors focusing on crimes related to bribery that occurred when Mr. Ulrich was still in office. A spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office declined to comment. A lawyer for Mr. Ulrich, Samuel M. Braverman, said that until he knew what the indictment contained, he would not comment.

Persons: Eric Ulrich, Ulrich, Samuel M, Braverman Organizations: Buildings Department Locations: New York, Manhattan

☆ How a 77-square-foot apartment with no bathroom for $2,350 a month sparked a bidding war: 'If you want to be on a prime block, you can't have everything'
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-06 | by ( Hana R. Alberts | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A tiny New York City studio with no bathroom and $2,350-a-month rent was quickly snapped up. "If you want to be on a prime block," a student who bid on it said, "you can't have everything." But does a 77-square-foot studio apartment in New York City — which has no kitchen, a shared bathroom in the hallway, and recently rented for $2,350 after a bidding war — count? Homes like these, however, are actually relatively common in New York City. "This apartment has allowed me to live in the center of NYC, which was a priority for me.

Persons: —, David Brand, Gothamist, Omer Labock, Brand, Labock, Douglas, Gothamist's Brand, Alaina, haven't, they'd, Hendrix, fryer Organizations: New York City, Greenwich Village, Service, TikTok, Zillow, Pace University, New York, New, Via, Hendrix, futon Locations: New York, Greenwich, Manhattan, it's, New York City, St, —

☆ A Crumbling New York Garage Collapsed. Dozens More Have Similar Problems.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Patrick Mcgeehan | Asmaa Elkeurti | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

After a parking garage collapsed in Lower Manhattan last month, killing one person and injuring five others, officials scrambled to check dozens of other garages across the city for structural problems that could cause another disaster. They immediately identified dozens of garages with potential hazards, ordering some shuttered and closing off sections of others until their structural defects could be repaired. Three weeks after the fatal collapse, city officials have revealed little about what they found in their sweep. They have not identified the more than 170 parking structures they rushed to inspect or divulged what conditions they discovered within them. But a New York Times examination of the city’s garages has found that serious structural problems are widespread — and in many cases have been allowed to persist uncorrected for years.

☆ 4 Parking Garages Ordered Evacuated After Deadly Collapse in Manhattan
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Patrick Mcgeehan | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In the wake of a deadly collapse of a parking garage in Lower Manhattan last week, New York City officials found structural problems at four other garages so dangerous they ordered the buildings at least partially vacated. At those four garages — two in Manhattan and two in Brooklyn — the city’s Buildings Department found that the structures had “deteriorated to the point where they were now posing an immediate threat to public safety,” said Andrew Rudansky, a spokesman for the department. The discoveries, he said, came during inspections of garages conducted after the April 18 collapse of a garage on Ann Street in the Financial District in Manhattan that left its manager dead in the rubble and five others injured. Engineers found that a two-story garage at 2781 Stillwell Avenue in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn was in “severe disrepair,” Mr. Rudansky said. The department issued a “full vacate order” for the entire building and ordered its owners to close for business and immediately retain a professional engineer to compile a structural report, he said.

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