Black Box Report

The mayor may be asking why, he may be saying it's unacceptable, but the sad fact is construction mishaps have become so common in New York, nobody should be surprised. Things have gotten so bad congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, whose district has seen two fatal crane collapses, said she's appalled and is calling on OSHA in Washington to come in and do a complete inspection of safety conditions at construction sites. Make no mistake, that’s a clear smack to the mayor, who she and a growing chorus believe isn't getting the job done.

Coming from a fan of the mayor, the outrage is completely legitimate. We've had a City Inspector resign after being arrested for falsifying business records. The city's Building Commissioner was pushed out. But what's changed?

Today's collapse happened at a site that was shut down for a day because they were working without a permit and operating the crane unsafely.

Obviously, New York, we have a problem.

Earlier this week we learned 80% of building plans had violations and the city's self-certification system is part of the problem.

We didn't need a second deadly crane collapse to convince us we have a big problem. Enough talk, enough buck passing Mr. Mayor. Construction workers and the people down below shouldn't have to hold their breath every time a building goes up in the Big Apple.