New York City didn’t get the snowstorm forecasted for this past weekend, but the City Department of Buildings issued what’s become its customary and standard warning to contractors to secure construction sites when the forecast calls for severe weather and gusts of high winds. A review of the Buildings Department’s website reveals that it has been routinely issuing such advisories on-line for several years. Yet just 2 weeks ago a 15-block area near City Hall Park was closed to pedestrians and traffic after high winds scattered debris from a nearby construction site where a 77-story tower is being built on Spruce Street.  A piece of metal was found two blocks away at City Hall Park.  (more…)