Crane Blame Game: 'Animals' Destroying Turtle Bay

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The deadly crane collapse just off Second Avenue in Midtown over the weekend was just the latest in a recent crop of construction site tragedies. As such, it's now open season on developers, and perhaps the strongest words over the weekend were penned by Post columnist Linda Stasi, a Turtle Bay resident who uses the crane accident as a launching pad for her argument that The Alexander (right) and "countless world-class-ugly buildings" are destroying her neighborhood. She writes:

Second Avenue from East 53rd Street to Dag Hammarskjold Park came under invasion by these animals about five years ago with the cooperation of the city, and what seems like rampant incompetence. Are there no rules that apply? No aesthetics, no safety that won't be overlooked? Apparently not.

As a resident of the neighborhood, I've looked on with horror, distress, anger and outrage - as have my neighbors - at the rampant construction turning a once-graceful area into a canyon.

Will a crescendo of criticism cause developers to slow their record-setting construction pace? There's about as much a chance of that happening as there is of The Alexander becoming a universally-praised architectural landmark.
· Greedy Death Blow to Neighborhood [NYP]
· It Happened One Weekend: Crane Collapse Aftermath [Curbed]
· CurbedWire: Massive Crane Collapse at 303 East 51st [Curbed]

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