An argument can certainly be made that the school is simply perpetuating a non-conforming situation which was inherited from the District Office before it. The only fallacy in that logic is that in order for a non-conformity to be legally protected, it needed to be legal at the time it began. The relevant NYC Administrative Code section predates the use of the Courtyard by roughly a century.
Unfortunately for those in Carroll Gardens, and for lovers of logic everywhere, the DOB sent inspectors out to look for a violation...on December 30th, 2009; a date when all schools, public and private, were closed. Shockingly, no violation was found on that date. Unfortunately for us, the DOB and Hannah Senesh, every single day that school has been in session SINCE that date, vehicles have been parked in the Courtyard. If only there were some proof, in the form of an animated gif, or perhaps a video compilation set to some funky, smooth sounds, maybe the DOB would be able to find them in violation...
I called a complaint in to 311 in January, as suggested in the Brooklyn Paper article. With license plate numbers!
ReplyDeletehttp://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/OverviewForComplaintServlet?requestid=2&vlcompdetlkey=0001257368
It was apparently referred to DOT in Feb and has been in a black hole since then. Maybe they are waiting for the next school holiday to show up and inspect.
Your vengeance over this issue is simply baffling. I held my tongue on the earlier skimrish over this - but after seeing that you videotaped a private school I think your motives has to be personal or religious focused.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, you should not be videotaping a school or any child-centric environment. And to make matter worse put this video on the web. Anyone who sees someone videotaping a school should call 911 immediately. I know I will if I see someone with a camera outside this school, 58, 29 or anywhere else.
ReplyDeleteThe images in the video focus on property owned by the city. Not the school. What you call "vengeance" is actually an overwhelming sense of frustration at the rules being ignored. The Brooklyn Paper got a DOB official Carly Sullivan to say they are supposedly "keeping an eye on the courtyard." Yeah right.
ReplyDeleteWow, someone totally missed the point, lovingneighbor!
ReplyDeleteAlso, does the video look like a video tape of kids to anyone? All I see is public property being used for private benefit...
Point is someone was videotaping a child-centric environment. IF I walked by and saw this -- and I clearly would not be able to discern what his viewfinder showed -- I would be MAJORLY concerned about a pervert pedophile or worse. And I def would call 911.
ReplyDelete1) No video taping of children; still photographs (assembled into a video) of a courtyard being used as a parking lot illegally. If any children are driving to school and parking in the lot, I think we have a whole 'nother bag of worms to tackle.
ReplyDelete2) Instead of leveling wild accusations about prospective crime, how about calling 311 and reporting an actual violation happening in front of your eyes?
"Oh that guy with a videocamera outside a school - ignore him. He's just videotaping what he thinks is a school parking lot violating a 100 year old city regulation. Don't worry about the nearest possible buildings being filled with kids from K to 8th grade. his motives are pure and i am sure this will only end up on some blog about some dumbass parking lot issue."
ReplyDeleteRight. I see someone videotaping near 2 schools - I call 911.
To be the FOURTH commenter to clarify, this in no way, shape or form shows any evidence of a video camera being used!
ReplyDeleteI attended ps 58 in 70's and that courtyard has always been used as a parking lot when the board of ed school district was there. It never caused us (kids or neighbors)any problems and don't see why it does now!
ReplyDelete