Wind knocks construction worker off 13th-story Brooklyn scaffold

BY MATT LYSIAK and DAVE GOLDINER
DAILY NEWS WRITERS

Thursday, January 31st 2008, 4:00 AM

Apowerful wind gustsent a Brooklyn scaffold worker plunging 13 stories to his death Wednesday, authorities said.

Jose Palacios, 43, a big-hearted father who sent money to his wife and daughter in Mexico, was installing stucco at the top of a Clinton Ave. building when the wind knocked over his scaffold. He fell 130 feet to the ground below, witnesses said.

"He was just a screaming blur," said laborer Ben Tee, 49, who was working a few floors down. "To pick a man up and throw him that far is unbelievable."

Another worker escaped with minor injuries when he fell to a landing one floor below just after 10 a.m. A third laborer cheated death when he managed to grab onto a roof bulkhead.

Ricardo Uribe was working on the seventh floor when he heard a "big whoosh" and a crash below. He rushed to help Palacios but found him motionless.

"This is a just a huge tragedy," said Uribe, 35. "That wind was like a whirlwind."

Forecasters said winds gusted up to 39 mphWednesday morning as a winter storm moved north of the city. Buildings Department officials said they issue warning advisories to contractors when forecasters warn of winds over 30 mph.

"This huge gust just tipped the scaffolding right over," said FDNY Chief Joe Woznic.

Buildings Department spokeswoman Kate Lindquist said investigators were looking into whether the scaffold - a type that is installed on the rooftop, instead of suspended from the side of the building - was adequately secured.

Inspectors issued a stop-work order at the site. A condo complex with a glass facade is being built on the property.

Palacios' relatives remembered him as a good father who sent money home every week to his wife, Virginia.

He lived with his niece and doted on her children, and loved chatting on the computer with his teenage daughter, Veronica. "He was very sweet," said Jasmine Solis, 28, Palacios' niece.

Palacios had been working construction jobs in New York for about three years. He planned to move back to Mexico at the end of the year. His body will be sent home for burial, his loved ones said.

The fatal accident was the city's second death plunge in the past two weeks. A worker died Jan. 14 when a floor collapsed at Donald Trump's 42story tower in SoHo.

Amid calls for better safeguards, the city plans to release new construction guidelines next week. At least 43 people died while working construction in the city in 2006, the deadliest year in at least a decade, the most recent federal statistics show. The toll was up 87% from 2005, when 23 people died.

Fatal hit-run suspect delivered to cops

BY MATTHEW LYSIAK, KERRY BURKE and MICHAEL WHITE
DAILY NEWS WRITERS

Saturday, December 29th 2007, 4:00 AM

Four witnesses to a deadly hit-and-run crash in Brooklyn chased the cowardly driver for a block - then hauled him back to the scene in a cab, police said Friday.

Witnesses watched helplessly as the driver mowed down Francisco Guerrero, 73, while making an illegal U-turn at 52nd St. and Fourth Ave. in Sunset Park, cops said.

Lawrence Meyers, 38, who was dressed in a black suit and driving a blue minivan, attempted to flee the 3:30 p.m. crash, police said.

As he sped off, Meyers, who lived nearby, sideswiped a van driven by Chris Blake, 41, who began chasing the minivan. A gutsy city bus driver also helped, using the bus to corner the escaping minivan.

"[The bus driver] boxed him in from the front and I got him boxed in from behind," said Blake, of Bay Ridge. "He jumped out and tried to run. We grabbed him and held him. He slipped out of his jacket and two other guys grabbed him.

"I was glad we got the bastard. He killed a guy. He was meant to get caught. He deserves to go to jail."

The two good Samaritans piled into a cab with Meyers and returned to the scene, where cops arrested him.

Witness Efrain Santos, 26, who works with one of the brave men at Nuevo Estillo barbershop, said everyone in the shop was watching the drama unfold. "The taxi pulled out front. They put the cuffs on him and he looked real nervous," Santos said.

Early this morning, as he was led out of a police precinct, Meyers told reporters, "It was an accident. It was just an accident."

The victim, who lived nearby, died at Lutheran Medical Center, officials said.

"He's a nice guy. I can't believe that happened to him," said Daniel Feliciano, who owns a beer distributor company where Guerrero often redeemed empty cans and bottles.

Warmer winter riling up raccoons

BY MATTHEW LYSIAK
DAILY NEWS WRITER

Thursday, December 13th 2007, 4:00 AM

Brooklyn residents have been dealing with an unexpected side effect of the recent climate change - raccoons.

Sightings of raccoons are way up in Brooklyn at a time when they should be down, and some are blaming the strange behavior on warm winters.

Whatever the cause, residents have had enough of the masked menaces.

"I deal with these raccoons all summer, but they are usually far less trouble this time of year," said hairstylist Chad Nardine, 28, of Bay Ridge who has had the critters hiss at him when he takes out his garbage.

"This is kind of crazy. I mean, we are in December and these crazy creatures are running around like it is July."

One inconvenient truth may be that warmer-than-usual winters are throwing raccoons out of kilter, causing confusion in their biological sleep clocks, which are set by the timing of the cold weather.

"Seasons are lasting longer and unusual things are happening," said New York State Department of Environmental Conservation spokesperson Laurie O'Connell. "It is safe to say that mild winters are one of the reasons they are still out and about."

The strange abundance of December raccoons are even leaving tracks across the blogosphere as the garbage eaters appear in a broad belt stretching from Cobble Hill to Prospect Park and down to Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights.

"I saw a raccoon running across the street ... on Marine Ave.," posted a blogger on Bayridgetalk.com. "Went to take out the garbage yesterday and I have a raccoon lying in my garbage pail in my backyard and it scared the heck out of me."

Last spring, the raccoon problem got so bad that Councilman Vince Gentile (D-Bay Ridge) began handing out supplies of Critter Ridder, a humane raccoon repellant - but demand quickly exceeded supply .

"It's something that a lot of people are still dealing with, and the city isn't offering us any help," said Gentile. "It looks like now we might have to keep a supply of Critter Ridder into fall and early winter."

Hotel Le Bleu: New luxury hotel features a gritty Park Slope view!

BY MATTHEW LYSIAK
DAILY NEWS WRITER

Tuesday, December 11th 2007, 4:00 AM


Adams IV for News

The eight-story upscale LeBleu Hotel is located on Fourth Ave.'s industrial - but up-and-coming - strip.

Rooms renting for up to $369 a night feature plasma television, a Bose stereo system and complimentary flaxseed body lotion.
This hotel has all the accommodations: 42-inch plasma televisions, Bose stereo systems, complimentary flaxseed body lotions - and a Jiffy Lube right next door.

Its Hotel Le Bleu, Park Slope's lap of luxury right in the heart of Fourth Ave.'s industrial strip, jammed between a taxi company and a car repair service.

The elegant eight-story Brooklyn hotel features 48 rooms ranging in price from $329-$369, with the higher price offering a view of the lower Manhattan skyline - and a nearby Hertz Rent a Truck depot.

But the upscale hotel in an area sooner associated with prostitution than fine living has raised more than a few eyebrows since it opened its doors last month.

"It's crazy to see this kind of hotel popping up in the middle of this area," said Joseph Panaro, a dog walker who regularly traverses the strip. "It took me by complete surprise. It just doesn't make a whole lot of sense."

Most residents were surprised, but they're quick to agree that this isn't your father's Fourth Ave. - especially since the trendiness of Seventh Ave. has crept down to Fifth Ave. in recent years and seems to be unstoppable.

"We thought it was weird at first, but this area is changing," said Susan Cee, 46, who works at Staples on the next block.

"Look around. This is not an industrial area anymore," said Steve Winson, who works at Taxis Needed, next to the new hotel. "We are up and coming."

Hotel owner Joe Tonacchio said people laughed at his idea to build a hotel surrounded by noisy construction and a Jiffy Lube - but he could end up with the last laugh.

"Mark my words, within five years Fourth Ave. will be the next Park Ave.," Tonacchio said.

That's because the industrial buildings and smokestacks that formerly marked the strip are giving way to condos as the historically gritty stretch is in the midst of a face-lift to accommodate the growing demand for housing overflowing from Manhattan.

Tonacchio, who also owns a condominium directly across from the hotel, says get used to it.

"Parts of Fourth Ave. are still industrial, but in the next year or two, 3,000 apartments will be nearby," Tonacchio said.

"Most of these people don't have enough room to house guests from out of town."

Of course, there also will be the Manhattan business class looking for a slice of Brooklyn.

"It's different, but I like it," said first-time Le Bleu guest Joel Billings, who was on a business trip from South Carolina. "It is kind of eclectic and it is cheaper than Manhattan. I have to say we are satisfied."

Bee-lieve it! Keeper: Cellphones killing honeymakers

By Matthew Lysiak
The Brooklyn Paper

Honeybees are dying all over the country — and one Brooklyn beekeeper thinks that cellphones are the culprit!

Brooklyn bee-maven David Graves, who sells his high-end “Rooftop” brand honey at the Union Square Farmers Market, is sounding the alarm about the possible cause of the crisis that has claimed the lives of billions of bees in 24 states.

“Every year, more and more bees are just disappearing and I am real concerned that cellphones are messing with their ability to find their way,” said the beekeeper.

Graves said he has about a dozen rooftop hives throughout the boroughs, with one on Bergen Street in Brooklyn, and claims to have made much of his honey on the rooftops of Bay Ridge (though he likes to keep the exact locations secret).

Graves says the apiary “die-off” is playing havoc with the production of honey and other products from the hive.

“I have had to raise the price of my honey this year to $15 for a half-pound,” Graves said. “I am anticipating having a bad year and have already put the order in for 30 packages of honeybees from South Carolina.”

More than half-a-billion bee colonies have been affected by a mysterious bee die-off — and more and more, people think this “colony collapse disorder” is due to radiation from mobile phones and the antennae that help you reach out and touch someone.

How important is this bee-tastrophe? Well, as Einstein once said, “If honey bees become extinct, human society will follow in four years.” So start spreading the news: The end is near! (Just don’t spread it with a cellphone.)

“Something is happening to the number of bee hives in New York — and studies have shown that bees get disoriented from cellphones,” said Timothy McCabe, the curator of Entomology at the New York State Museum.

A study found that bees refuse to return to their hives when mobile phones are placed nearby, though its unclear what happens when the phone or the tower is a bit further away, said McCabe.

“The study shows that if you put the phone very close to the hive it affects their ability to communicate,” McCabe said. “But the effect on the bees still needs further study in terms of greater distances from the cellphones.”

Graves, whose rooftop bees are especially vulnerable due to their high location and close proximity to cell phone towers, believes the theory may be more than just buzz

“Bees are very sensitive with their direction, if you move a hive just three feet away, the bees get confused and hover in the spot where the hive used to be for hours,” Graves said. “I believe that these towers are messing up my bees.”

Today, there are approximately 10.5 million wireless phone subscribers in New York City, and thousands of cellphone antennae throughout the boroughs, although there has been no way of accurately measuring the amount of radiation or the effect, if any, it is having on the bees ability to bumble.

In March, 2005, the City Council, citing health concerns, required the city to maintain a list of the locations of cellular phone antennae.

But it may not be so easy to save the bees. Even the beekeeper admitted that he’s part of the problem.

“I do have a cellphone,” Graves admitted. “But I feel so guilty every time I use it that I may just get rid of it.”