In the Land of the Blind, the Department of Buildings is King

Although the fight against the proposed expansion of the Hannah Senesh school into their Carroll Gardens Courtyard is seemingly over, there remains a hanging chad in the room. Back in January, the Brooklyn Paper reported that the Department of Buildings had in fact, attempted to inspect the Hannah Senesh courtyard for violating New York City Administrative Code Section 19-132 which states that "It shall be unlawful for any person, directly or indirectly, to use any portion of a sidewalk or courtyard, established by law, between the building line and the curb line for the parking, storage, display or sale of motor vehicles."

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...