By Claire Davenport
The apartment building at 51 West 86th Street has a memorable entryway: a white sculpture of a ram’s head juts out next to a door gilded with iron leaves. But for almost 20 years these details have been invisible from the street, hidden behind a shroud of scaffolding.
“I’m tired of it,” said one resident, who wished to remain anonymous out of fear of retaliation from her landlord. “It’s been up here forever, and it feels like you’re in a construction zone. And the rent is expensive, of course.”
A few blocks away, at 420 West End Avenue, where a scaffolding shed has sheltered the sidewalk since 2016, a resident noted that the structure offers one small silver lining: “It’s nice for walking a dog on a snowy day.” But, added the resident, who also requested anonymity out of concern for possible landlord retaliation, “Besides that, it’s an abomination, and it’s been up for almost a decade.”
What we call scaffolding — the combination of sidewalk sheds and netting that allow workers to conduct building façade repairs while keeping pedestrians safe from falling debris — is ubiquitous in New York City.
On the Upper West Side, their criss-crossed poles and hunter-green hoods cover everything from churches to chain restaurants like McDonald’s; according to the Department of Buildings’ tracker, there were 476 active scaffolding sheds in the neighborhood as of this week. At least 24 of these have been up for over five years.
“It’s a catastrophe in terms of the aesthetics,” said longtime Upper West Sider Julia Vitullo-Martin, former director of the Manhattan Institute’s Center for Rethinking Development, where she specialized in housing policy and landmark development. “These sheds in front of these gorgeous buildings on the Upper West Side are truly a travesty.”
The metal frames, wooden platforms, and sheets of netting used as scaffolding have been called an “epidemic” and an “eyesore.” They have sparked news investigations, ironic awards, and even an episode of “How to with John Wilson.” And recent polling suggests that up to 77 percent of New Yorkers feel these sheds have overstayed their welcome, raising quality-of-life concerns like rats and litter, and causing businesses to lose thousands of dollars each month in potential revenue, according to a city-commissioned study that came out last summer.
In recent years, there have been multiple efforts by politicians to draw attention to the scaffolding issue — most recently, Mayor Eric Adams’ 2023 “Get Sheds Down” initiative, which shortened city-issued shed permits from 12 months to 90 days. The goal was to push landlords to speed up building repairs.
There’s also “Shed the Shed,” a package of legislative proposals championed by City Council member Keith Powers and Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, that promises to “streamline and expedite the use of scaffolding.”
“It’s the biggest constituent complaint I get,” Levine said in an interview with the Rag. Levine described the sheds as “unnecessary green monsters” and said they affect both public safety and economic development. “But more than anything else,” he said, “I think people feel that when scaffolding is up for years and years, it’s a sign of dysfunction.”
Levine’s “Shed the Shed” package proposes solving the scaffolding issue by reforming Local Law 11, the city’s Façade Inspection and Safety Program. Local Law 11 currently requires inspection of any façade taller than six stories by a qualified engineer every five years for unsafe conditions. “Shed the Shed” would lengthen the period between inspections, along with providing low-interest loans for financially-strapped buildings that might struggle to afford the repair costs.
Other efforts to raise awareness about the issue include “The Sheddie Awards,” introduced by State Senator Brad Holyman-Sigal, whose district includes the Upper West Side. These mock awards will honor the most egregious scaffolding sheds, as identified by Holyman-Sigal’s constituents, who have submitted over 100 nominations for the dubious award.
“Poking fun at a public issue is sometimes a great way to bring attention to it,” Hoylman-Sigal told the Rag in an interview. He also suggested that at the Sheddie Awards ceremony, scheduled for tomorrow morning (March 6), he will be announcing a new bill with State Assemblymember Micah Lasher that he said would offer “sticks and carrots to solve the issue.”
And yet, while both lawmakers and their constituents have seemingly reached a consensus – that the length of time these sheds stay up is a problem – the proliferation of scaffolding has proved a particularly gnarly issue to solve.
For instance, there was a failed legislative effort quite similar to “Shed the Shed” in 2016, which proposed mandating that owners finish necessary repairs within six months; if they failed to meet that deadline, city employees would be sent to complete the unfinished repair work. The bill for the city’s services would be sent to the building owner. That idea died in the face of opposition from building owners and the city Department of Buildings, which said it didn’t have the resources to do repairs.
One reason these sheds are so difficult to get down is cost. According to the Wall Street Journal, installing and maintaining a shed can cost around $100,000 a year, but the actual façade repairs can cost millions.
This means landlords don’t have a strong incentive to make timely repairs. “Building owners who put off making these necessary repairs are a major reason why some sidewalk sheds in the city are up for over ten years,” said Andrew Rudansky, the press secretary for the city’s Department of Buildings.
New York’s every-five-years façade inspection requirements were codified in 1980 after a Barnard student named Grace Gold was killed by a hunk of façade masonry falling on her at Broadway and West 115th Street.
”Right now it’s a one-size-fits-all approach, where every building, no matter how new, has to go through a five-year inspection cycle,” said Levine.
In addition, if an inspector deems a building unsafe or in need of repair and maintenance, the property owners are required to set up sidewalk sheds to protect against falling masonry. The Upper West Side has a particularly high concentration of these sheds due to the age of many of the buildings — especially in landmarked areas.
Megan Fitzpatrick, director of preservation and research at Landmark West, a group that advocates for the architectural heritage of the Upper West Side, said that sometimes supply-chain bottlenecks for the parts needed to repair older buildings, like brownstone and terracotta, can slow down the renovation process.
However, she said that building material holdups do not explain why so much scaffolding stays up for months or years at a time.
“It’s definitely a uniquely New York thing,” said Fitzpatrick. “I’ve been to a lot of places in Europe -– places where the buildings are much older — and I’ve never seen this much scaffolding.”
In cases like the apartment building at 51 West 86th Street, the length of time the sheds are up can become particularly egregious. According to Department of Buildings records, the owners of 51 West 86th Street have applied twice for permit extensions on the scaffolding sheds that flank the building’s exterior — once in 2009 and again in 2015. Google Maps Street View shows what the scaffolded facade looked like in 2009; by 2021, residents were so fed up they threw the scaffolding a satirical anniversary party. In 2025, 51 West 86th Street is one of the most-nominated sites for Holyman-Sigal’s Sheddies award.
“Some of these scaffolding sheds are older than our kids,” the senator said.
The Rag reached out for comment by phone and email to Jacob Weinreb, one of two officers listed at the long-scaffolded properties at 51 West 86th Street and 420 West End Avenue, but did not hear back. Weinreb, a real estate investor and owner of Weinreb Management LLC, has been charged by the city with multiple violations involving longstanding scaffolding sheds and fire safety hazards.
In recent weeks, there have been movements suggesting an end date for some of the neighborhood’s longest-standing scaffolding sheds. For instance, earlier this month, the Upper West Side Coalition, a group that represents UWS block associations and other community groups, announced that the scaffolding shed at the West Park Presbyterian Church will soon be coming down. And residents at 420 West End Avenue said they understand the scaffolding outside their building is due for removal soon.
Meanwhile, in the absence of new legislative solutions, the city Department of Buildings said it uses some bureaucratic mechanisms to try to reduce the scaffolding inventory. The department has authority to automatically enroll all sidewalk sheds that are up for over five years in a “Long-Standing Shed program.” Once in the program, buildings are subject to more frequent inspections, and owners can be criminally indicted if they fail to make needed repairs.
The department is also supportive of legislation that would give it additional enforcement power against resistant owners, said spokesman Rudansky. “These powers [would] include the ability of the Department to start issuing monthly penalties to property owners who erect a sidewalk shed on a public sidewalk,” he said.
In the meantime, sheds continue to blanket the neighborhood. On a recent two-hour walk up and down Broadway, Amsterdam, Columbus, and West End avenues, the Rag counted at least 112 scaffolding sheds — a generous lowball compared to the city’s tracker. On some streets, it was difficult to tell where one scaffolding shed ended and another began. Many spanned entire blocks, and despite residents’ irritation, it seems likely they will remain standing for a while.
If you have an issue with a scaffolding shed on your block, you can call 311 and complain. A building owner can be penalized if their permits are expired or conditions are deteriorating.
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A great example of the absolute incompetence of government. NYS and NYC are most likely beyond fixing as people will just continue to blindly vote for the same old thing time and again.
Broken record, Bill. Tiresome.
Why do you say that? We are stuck with a problem – building facades that are unsafe (there have been several accidents in recent years that support that) – that costs a lot of money to fix. We can eliminate the inspection and scaffolding requirement and leave that risk unaddressed. We can seize buildings that don’t comply, or fine them so it costs more not to comply than to comply, but that will result in a lot of owners losing their buildings and potentially hasten the hollowing out of the profit-making elements of the city (which we all need and rely on, even those (perhaps especially those) who are anti-capitalist in rhetoric). Or it may end up with the city owning the buildings, which did not work out well at all the last time around. Or we can allow building owners to make a choice but protect people – with sheds – until they do the work. None of the choices are great. Of the three, I prefer the sheds.
What if it’s actually because comments like this one reflect a worldview that is at once lazy, unoriginal, supercilious and defeatist?
It is not a worldview. it is a very local view. The MTA is mismanaged and broke, criminal justice system broken, mental health system broken, public education incompetent and ineffective, mental health services ineffective, homeless services and agencies scamming the taxpayer, quality of life in decline whether navigating sheds, dog crap or garbage on the streets. So in essence anything that government is doing is being done at a huge expense and incompetently. The basic functions of government are failing and yet the same people are voted in again and again often circumventing term limits by moving from position to position. But hey get back to worrying about where to put bike lanes.
Bill, this is not about the government. These sheds are on PRIVATE property and the property OWNERS are the ones who leave the sheds up. Geez, let’s put some brain power into this. The landlords are not repairing their buildings in a timely manner. The point is to not let them linger in fixing their properties. Sadly the expense of fixing things is high, so they leave the sheds up. It’s the REAL ESTATE INDUSTRY that is responsible for this, not the government. They are all powerful. As a matter of fact, while you’re screaming about government incompetence, you can start with the real estate developer in chief. Who do you think is really responsible for them holding so much power? As an additional note, I slipped and fell on ice and shattered my right ankle badly and on both sides in February of 2024, because of faulty scaffolding with a huge water drip that turned to ice, when the rest of the sidewalks were clear in Broadway. Few people know better than I do how dangerous this scaffolding issue is. I now have a leg filled with titanium, feel the pain with every step, and I walk with a cane. It was an incredibly long healing progress as I was housebound for more than half the year. Let’s stop blaming the government for what is the private, corporate landlord’s responsibility!!
It is the government, which requires to be inspected every 5 years, and which sets very expensive requirements for repairing the facades. Just making facades safe is not that expensive. Satisfying Landmarks is wildly expensive.
Sam, government incompetence wrote the local law that permits these indefinite sheds and a cycle of inspection that is unworkable. The landlords are following the law! This same scenario plays out with issues big and small throughout the city and state because we are ruled by career politicians most of whom have no experience doing anything and who are beholden to lobbyists.
I don’t think it is the real estate industry, I think it is private property owners.
When I was last on the board of my building, we had a terrible time lining up the company to do the work, and had scaffolding up longer than we would have if there were more people providing the service, and more inspectors to do the inspections (which would, of course, involve taxes). All of which is to say that it is private property owners – but at least some may not have a lot of control over how quickly the work gets done.
So the choices are (1) limit the inspections (and take the risk of falling debris), (2) seize the buildings, or (3) sheds. Maybe there is another I’m not thinking of?
I’d suggest a slightly different take: local law 11 is more onerous than it has to be – while, yes, landlords, the DOB and others all have their responsibility for the excess shed time. If the requirement were every 10 years, or even every 8, instead of every five, that would help a bit, while chances of people’s being hit by falling debris would not seem to increase much.
Agree. The costs are killing us. I still think it is all a kick back scheme
It would be worth looking at that question – but I think we first have to take into account whether the existing system has been operating as it should. I cannot forget the story of the grandmother sitting next to her grandchild on a bench on West End Avenue when the child was killed by a falling piece of facade, and it turned out the inspector hadn’t bothered to actually do the inspection. It was a heartbreaking, unnecessary loss and left me with an impression- not supported by statistics – that these inspections are pretty darned important.
Bill, why don’t you turn for office?
All true, Bill. And yet people, young, ambitious people in particular, continue to flock here. More would come if they could afford it. Why? Because New York remains a great city!
Yes NYC remains a great city but partially because NYC is so great and so productive that these parasitic constituencies like scaffolding companies pop up and its important to for our legislators to ask themselves if local law 11 is really serving public safety or just enriching scaffolding companies at the expense of the everyone else.
Not to mention the inane approach of packaging the entire building on all sides from the start of the project. My building has been surrounded on 3 sides for a year+, even though actual work only ever took place on one side at a time (and each side took months). Not sure if this is a legislative requirement, or a scammy scaffolding rental company requirement, but it certainly seems like a giant overkill.
This is not only a problem with private landlords. (some are co-op’s too) My son went to LaGuardia high school and the entire building was encased in scaffolding for the entire four years he spent there. Imagine not ever seeing what your high school looks like for your entire academic enrollment. So, yes this is city owned buildings as well.
Yesterday I walked around the reservoir several times. Far more dogs were off leash than on leash. But dogs are supposed to be on leash in Central Park in general betw 9 and 9.
When laws, rules, norms aren’t enforced, why not break them? You don’t make rules for me is the attitude.
So as with dogs off leash and many things, so with sidewalk sheds. From the OP: “owners can be criminally indicted if they fail to make needed repairs.” And that’s after FIVE YEARS of non-compliance with repair schedules. The city is like a school that has a dress code but admins and faculty don’t have the will to enforce it, for various reasons.
“How could this possibly happen?” says city that created a 5 year facade requirement.
These costs are passed on to residents in the form of higher rent, exacerbating the affordability crisis.
You’re either pro housing or your pro preventing a brick from ever hitting someone on the head. But you can’t be both.
Any regulation that increases housing costs should be isolated and removed.
Sounds like Mark Levine has this one right and Brad Hoylman is just faffing about.
Any regulation that increases housing costs? Those that require heat? That require no harassment to evict? That require non-discrimination? That require maintenance of habitability?
I’ve said this many times before.
The BIGGEST issue with LL11 is that the work is required on a rolling 5 year basis.
If your building cycle starts in 2025 and it takes 2-3 years to complete the work, you have to start AGAIN in 2030.
This is insane.
The next cycle should start 5 years AFTER you finish the most recent work. In the example above, if you finish in 2028, the next cycle should start in 2033, not 2030.
This will not cause any risks AND it will reduce the scaffolding by 30-50%.
Easy fix, no safety issues.
No one is focused on this aspect of the law unfortunately.
Excellent point!!!!
Scaffolding is needed only if you fail the inspection. Most buildings do not. If the work was done just 2 years prior the building should pass with no problem and then have another 5 years till next inspection.
It is not true that most buildings do not fail the inspections – that’s why we have so much scaffolding.
Are you on the Board of your condo/coop? I have been for about 20 years.
Consultants/Engineers find problems EVERY SINGLE time, doesn’t matter the time lapse from the last inspection.
That’s how they make money.
I have been through 4-5 LL11 cycles. NOT ONCE has the building passed an inspection.
Absolutely true from a long-time coop board member.
Our building is completing a 2 year plus Local Law 11 project. The process is at least one year longer than it would be otherwise because of Landmark’s requirement that terracotta ornamentation on the 1st through 6th floors be replaced with terracotta rather than cast stone (which is permitted above the 6th floor). Unfortunately there is only one manufacturer of terracotta and the lead time for orders is at least six months (and there are further delays if the terracotta is incorrectly fabricated (grrr!)). Perhaps Landmarks’ policy should be reconsidered in the interest of removing the awful Sidewalk sheds more expeditiously…
Same here. The landmarks law adds an absurd amount of time and expense to the process of rehabbing a facade.
The odd point is that law bans the use of casement air conditioning and requires that ugly air conditioners stick out of a window in every room. That looks better than a conforming, tasteful casement exterior?
We’ve had the same experience – though worse. There were only two suppliers in the US who made the terracotta we needed: one in California had a 13 month lead time, the other, in Buffalo, 15 month. So we went with California. The 6 month proposed timeline for repairs is a bad joke to anyone who has actually gone through this.
Yeah sounds like in this article it’s clear that excessive Landmarks requirements are partially responsible for the scaffolding blighting the UWS
Engineers have seen LPC reps delay projects based on the rep’s own impossible approval criteria of samples for 2+ years before ordering material that could take months to get. There have also been neighboring buildings holding up access agreements for more money preventing projects from getting completed and sheds coming down. In addition to what materials are allowed on the buildings, This red tape needs to be streamlined to cut down on the average timeline of work/sheds being up. Additionally the use of drone inspections and tie back netting for expensive stone that could take a year+ to get, should be used in conjunction with lifting this beurocratic red tape. The vast majority of coops/condos/landlords want to expedite this work being completed but start looking at the average life of a shed in an LPC district … it’s historically longer.
Partially, but surely not a major factor. Of all the buildings with long-standing sidewalk sheds, how many are landmarks?
Many. For example, almost every building on West End Ave and on Riverside Dr. is in a Landmark zone.
Very true. Landmarks has earned much of the blame for blighting our city. Their rules are silly. Their rule that terracotta on the street to the 6th floor has to be replaced with terracotta, not cast stone, is nuts. Cast stone can be supplied from Brooklyn, with 6-8 weeks lead time. Terracotta is a lousy building material in NYC. It might be OK in Italy or Spain or California, but in NYC it cracks in the freeze/thaw cycle – so it is likely to get damaged. It is hard to make – it shrinks 10% during production, so it needs experienced and expensive suppliers. It will fail again. To reduce scaffolding, Landmarks must realize their absolutist position about replacing terracotta with terracotta dooms our beautiful buildings to be eyesores, draped in scaffolding.
Scaffolding definitely has its benefits for dog owners when it is rainy or snowy. But I urge these owners to please, please, please curb and pick up after their dogs. There has been scaffolding on my block for several years. The sidewalk is absolutely disgusting after any bad weather. There is an elementary school nearby, so young children have to walk through literal excrement on their way to school, not to mention adults heading out to work in the morning.
amen on that – i shuddered when i read “its so convenient in winter” — curb your dog ! Dogs do their business under the sheds and unless building staff hose it down – we are stuck with it! Also every time i go into whole foods here come the dog owners strutting around inside the store with their beloved mongrels/labradoodles, etc. – what is up with that?
I emailed theu manager there when a pit bull was in there. No response. You will get attacked by dog owners for saying anything. This is NYC now – do what you want
The answer is to reform the existing law. Make it a 10-year inspection cycle, for buildings over X number of years old. Stiffen penalties for landlords. Offer incentives for quick repairs. Also, design sheds that are not so ugly!
What about Park West Village on West 97th and Columbus Ave. The scaffolding have been up for 2 years and the work is completed. The renters can’t get an answer as to when are they coming down. The sidewalks the grass the trees have not been taken care of for two years.
It’s disgusting. These landlords just don’t care. Keep collecting the rent but no service.
For those interested, here’s a link NYC’s Active Sidewalk Shed Permits. It’s helpful in providing permit start and end dates, as well as other information.
https://www.nyc.gov/assets/buildings/html/sidewalk-shed-map.html
The scaffolding on our block at WE & 100th just came down after 3 years and it feels like a new street. It’s a blight
“It’s nice for walking a dog on a snowy day.” – Oh we know. from the remnants left behind.
Follow the money: In 2022 Bloomberg estimated that construction scaffolding in NYC was a $1 billion business in NYC. Other estimates go as high as $8 billion. The industry has its own trade group, the Special Riggers Association, that lobbies city officials. A study commissioned by Mayor Adams found that scaffolding and sidewalk shed cost Manhattan businesses up to $10,000 per month in lost revenue.
Please start publicizing, shaming, reporting, and fining these buildings with long standing scaffolding. They need to come down. They really hurt the business hidden underneath. This goes all the way up to the 1010’s.
What rights does a tenat have in regard to scaffolding? The building next to me erected scaffolding three years ago and bleeds over into my apartment. Zero work has been done in all of this time and my landlord cannot do anything as it is part of a different building. So now, i have three years of a scaffold view out my apartment and seems like I am justs tuck that way forever.
The city desperately needs to increase the years in the inspection cycle. It is way to frequent and costly.
But…but…won’t someone please think of how this impacts the BIKE LANES??!
😀 😀 😀
According to the scaffolding link thingy, there are currently almost 380 linear miles of scaffolding in NYC. That’s impressively oy vey! And, while I find the scaffolding an eyesore, according to some kids I know and who refuse to be seen totting an umbrella, the silver lining of scaffolding is that knowing ‘the lay of the scaffolds’ makes it possible to walk in the rain and barely get wet…
There are VERY few issues that unite this City but this is one of them. I wish the politicians would stop whining and wringing their hands and actually change the law that set this horror show in motion. I just returned from 2 weeks in London and Salzburg. The only sheds in these two cities which are far older than NYC are for new construction. I lived in Istanbul for 4 years…an ancient city…ZERO sheds except for new construction. Out of town folks always ask me “how can you stand these sheds”….right now virtually the entirety of Central Park South is covered occluding some of the most beautiful buildings in NYC. I can only guess that the construction unions and the shed companies are potent lobbying machines. The simplest solution would be to extend the the inspection period to once every ten years. Why is 5 the magic number? I live in a co-op on W. 57th that is well managed and well maintained. Yet once again we have to go through the annoyance of the sheds…not to mention the cost to the owners. This is yet another tax that is supporting a small minority of people who are tilting at windmills. The deaths of the two women were tragic for sure. But this current situation is unsustainable.
Whenever I walk under scaffolding I think of Mr. Burns’ plan to steal the sun. Scaffolding steals the sun for that period of time you are walking under it. It may be brief, but it adds up. The permit fee for scaffolding should progressively increase the longer the scaffolding is in place. And agree that the inspection period should be less frequent for newer buildings and buildings that don’t have a history of facade issues.
Don’t forget about The Astor, on Broadway & 75th St. Their shed has been up close to 10 years, if not longer. Plus, they installed chain link fencing for dedicated parking in front of the building entrance.
Levine is closest to right on this. But we also need to reform how Landmarks works so that buildings can replace terra cotta with cast replicas.
Landmarks requires you to prove that you can’t source stone from the original quarry where it came from. It’s absurd, expensive and takes forever — and during that whole time you need a shed on your sidewalk.
Our coop has just gotten rid of scaffolding after 3 intense and very expensive years. Our fifty unit building had to impose two large assessments totaling around $4 million to fund the work, so our residents essentially had to pay 5 years maintenance over a three year period. We funded it, we intensively managed it, it still took hundreds of hours of Board time to get it done. In my experience, the narrative that the long-standing scaffolding is the fault of greedy or lazy landlords is dead wrong. The most to blame is Landmarks, for imposing onerous, wildly expensive requirements that do very little to make the visual outcome better, but in the meantime slow the projects, so the scaffolding stays up.
The rule requiring inspections every 5 years is also to blame.
And perhaps this will appeal to UWS woke politicians imposing these rules: more workmen have been killed working on scaffolds that Barnard girls hit by falling debris. But you don’t hear about them.
Excellent points.
Great coverage of constant problem. On my block there is scaffolding 8 years old heading towards Riverside Park . A dangerous walk
It was much worse in the ’80’s
Or was it better?
I’m so confused.
Kinda miss Ed Koch.
After all, who doesn’t love a parade?
The shed at 86 and Amsterdam protects pedestrians from falling debris. Will the owners insure that the building is safe when the shed comes down after 20+ years.
There is but one bright side to this dilemma: I hardly have need for an umbrella
Just repeal the law! This a fake problem, as evidenced by the one example that is always cited happened 45 years ago. NY isn’t the only city in the world with buildings over 6 feet tall, yet it’s the only city covered with sidewalk sheds. Why is this? They are just not necessary.
There have been multiple people killed by falling facades. You might not care about a 2 year-old child being killed by a falling brick in this very neighborhood, but most people aren’t ghouls.
It’s always seemed to me that scaffolding companies hold buildings hostage after they have erected the scaffolding. For them to come back and remove the scaffolding they make the building pay a LOT more, Don’t know if its true, but it seems that way.. Wish the @NYCCouncil would investigate this issue and do something to deal with it.
Scaffolding shouldn’t be up forever (like a forever postage stamp). But it does stay up–for far too long. Rome, Tokyo, London? No such problem there. Council member Gale Brewer says ten years ought to be the very max; I disagree: five years maximum is genough..