Last week was a dangerous one to be outside in the East Village and on the Lower East Side. Nearly 50 mile-per-hour winds on Thursday toppled a 50-foot-long, 10-foot-high brick-and-cinderblock wall into a playground by the vacant P.S. 12, at Jackson and Henry Sts., above. Jim Quent, an aide to Assemblymember Sheldon Silver who responded to the scene, said apparently no one was injured, but that it potentially could have been disastrous, since the playground is heavily used by children from the surrounding housing developments; luckily, though, the strong winds had probably kept people inside, he said. Also last Thursday, a large tree on Tompkins Square Park’s north side at 10th St. and Avenue B was uprooted by the wind, below left. Again, there were no reported injuries. On Saturday, in a non-wind-related incident, a driver smashed into a Muni-Meter on Avenue A, below right. Following the wall’s collapse by the long-vacant school building, Silver wrote to the Buildings Department commissioner, calling for an immediate investigation and for removal of the remainder of the wall.
Villager photo by Clayton Patterson
<Villager photo by Isaac Rosenthal
