January 1, 2020
New York

Co-Op City residents happy turbine collapsed, taking out ugly billboard

Gone with the wind, tenants say | By Stephen Rex Brown and Carla Roman | New York Daily News | Dec 31, 2019 | www.nydailynews.com

Some Co-Op City residents are looking on the bright side of a frightening turbine collapse – it’ll finally remove an eyesore they’ve complained about for years.

The towering turbine damaged an electronic billboard when it toppled Monday, prompting the city Department of Buildings to order its removal.

Co-Op City residents had complained the sign shined into their apartments at night. They were also steamed about the turbine that sat atop a 195-foot “monopole,” which they’d criticized as unsafe – and ugly. Nevertheless, the building owner obtained proper permits for both structures.

“We couldn’t stop him, so Mother Nature took it down,” Hattie Overman told the Daily News.

The self-proclaimed “proud senior citizen” living in the development since 1998, said the turbine made her uncomfortable before its blades went flying in high winds, destroying a car and taking a chunk out of a billboard. The structure, which stood in the middle of a one-story commercial building with three storefronts, loomed over the nearby New England Thruway and Bay Plaza Shopping Center.

No one was hurt in the Monday collapse.

“It’s not like it’s on a field or on a farm,” Overman said. “This man has put this community, the highway and everything in danger.”

The property owner, identified in legal papers as Baychester Retail III, installed the turbine earlier this month after losing a court battle in February to install a bigger, brighter electronic billboard.

Sandy Krasnove, a Co-Op city resident of nearly 50 years, had long complained the sign lit up her apartment at night.

“I was happy to see it go down – but not that way. Somebody could have been killed,” Krasnove said.


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2020/01/01/co-op-city-residents-happy-turbine-collapsed-taking-out-ugly-billboard/