Wouldn’t you love to be a Government Institution able to collect fees every time someone crosses the sidewalk, drives a truck or requests a garbage container; all while condemning the Real Estate industry for not providing enough affordable housing for working people living in NYC?
I’ve analyzed one month-worth of construction bills for a medium sized 15-unit rental building in Brooklyn and found one bill that caught my eye. This bill represents ongoing permits required by NYC to operate a construction site (they do not include the requisite expediter cost to navigate this bureaucracy).
What strikes me are the amount of permits needed, the granularity of permits and last but not least the cost of each one. Here they are:
Open sidewalk to install foundation | $ 405 |
place material on street/sidewalk | $ 140 |
Crossing Sidewalk | $ 50 |
Temporary Pedestrian Walkway | $ 50 |
Occupancy of Roadway as Stipulated (partial) | $ 50 |
Debris Container | $ 50 |
Occupancy of Sidewalk as Stipulated (full) | $ 50 |
Construction signage | $ 50 |
Boom Truck | $ 50 |
Concrete Truck | $ 50 |
Excavator | $ 50 |
Lull | $ 50 |
Maintain Fence | $ 50 |
Two (2) Port-o-Sans | $ 100 |
Barrier | $ 50 |
Concrete Truck | $ 50 |
Subtotal | $ 1,295 |
You be the judge!