Bloomie to Feds: Butt Out

Mayor Bloomberg by manuelaoprea on Flickr.

Today Mayor Bloomberg reacted to a call for Federal inspections of city construction sites that utilize cranes and other construction sites the government might deem hazardous. The call to get the Feds involved originated in a letter from Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (who represents much of Manhattan’s East Side in addition to Western Queens) to the head of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). In the letter, Representative Maloney highlighted the recent spike in construction-related accidents in New York City and seemingly lax city oversight–self-certification, anyone?–and asked that OSHA “conduct a complete investigation of all construction sites in New York City that are using cranes and any others that you deem appropriate.”

Bloomberg reacted today at a press conference, “I appreciate the intent, but it’s tough enough within the city to do an investigation and to make progress in terms of making this city safer and growing…we’ll spend our time on investigating a tragic accident which we’ll find out where we could have prevented.” The Mayor also noted that the Congress has got enough on its plate as far as health care, taxes, and the world situation to be prying into the city’s business.

The Mayor’s argument that another layer of bureaucracy in the investigations would slow things down and needlessly duplicate efforts seems to ring true–the only problem is that the city’s own bureaucracy, namely the Department of Buildings, has shown itself to be incapable of carrying out its most basic mission of making sure New Yorkers have safely and securely-built roofs over their heads.