Turtle Bay

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 »

My first apartment in New York was conveniently located right across the street -- well within stumbling distance -- from the dive bar Fubar at 305 East 50th Street.

I always wondered how the reputedly rowdy tavern -- which the doorman warned me about on move-in day -- got its trade name past the liquor board.

As the Times glossed over today: "It is a military term that, in its polite form, stands for fouled up beyond all recognition." Or, as anyone who has seen the film Saving Private Ryan (or the Stallone classic Tango & Cash) would tell it: "Fucked up beyond all recognition."

The term was an accurate descriptor of the place -- even before Saturday's horrifying crane collapse, which literally pulverized the whole building.  read more »