Mayor Bloomberg did a Q-and-A at the Roosevelt Hotel on Sunday. He talked about the criminal investigation into Friday's fatal crane collapse; though, as he noted (check out the exchange just after the four-minute mark!), it falls well outside his jurisdiction.

Video courtesy of The Observer's Azi Paybarah.

The Daily News and The Times over the weekend ran stories about Mayor Bloomberg's responsibility regarding the Friday crane collapse on the Upper East Side that killed two people.  read more »

“We're like refugees," said Chris Ryan, 28, one of an estimated few hundred residents forced to evacuate seven Upper East Side buildings this morning following the collapse of a crane that killed at least two people.

Mr. Ryan, temporarily wallet-less, lives at 1748 First Avenue, between 90th and 91st streets. But this afternoon he was inside Richard R. Greene High School, on 88th Street, where officials had set up a First Aid center.

The Observer fanned out this morning and afternoon to interview people directly impacted by the collapse. The overwhelming emotion? Anger.  read more »

Governor Paterson and Mayor Bloomberg spoke at a hastily organized press conference scheduled for 11:15 a.m. at the site of this morning's crane collapse on the Upper East Side.

This morning, a crane at the site of the Azure condop development at First Avenue and 91st Street tumbled onto the building across the street, damaging it from the 20th floor to the Duane Reade on the ground floor, and killing at least one person (if not two, depending on reports).  read more »

For many Turtle Bay residents, the fatal crane collapse at 303 East 51st Street on March 15 was more than just an accident that should have been prevented: It was three years of frenzied residential development come home to roost.

A New York Post column published the morning after began, “Katherine Hepburn must be turning in her grave,” in reference to the late actress and one of the more famous Turtle Bay locals. “Shoddy construction by greedy moneymen is destroying the whole Turtle Bay area around Second Avenue, filling the neighborhood she loved with countless world-class ugly buildings,” Linda Stasi wrote. “What they’ve done to Second Avenue in the last few years is criminal. Yesterday it turned deadly.”

Like most neighborhoods in Manhattan, many new condos have gone up recently in Turtle Bay—the area roughly between 42nd and 53rd streets east of Lexington Avenue—and more projects are in the pipeline. But aside from the recently arrested buildings inspector, no criminal activity has been linked to the other developments. Bruce Silberblatt, vice president of the neighborhood residents’ group the Turtle Bay Association, rattled off at least 11 residential projects that are in various stages of development or have recently come on-line.  read more »

A seventh body was recovered at the site of Saturday's crane collapse, the AP reported this afternoon.

All of the casualties from the 19-story crane's collapse on Saturday were construction workers at the site, except for one woman visiting a friend in a nearby townhouse to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.  read more »