Call 311 About 43 MacDougal Street!

GVSHP and neighbors have long suspected that there might be squatters living inside 43 MacDougal Street, the deteriorating, 1846 landmarked building about which we’ve blogged before. Yesterday neighbors woke up to find that the facade had gotten a fresh coat of graffiti, so we just ran over and snapped a photo. As it appears, if someone is not actually living inside the building, they certainly have easy access to vandalize the upper floors.

But whoa, hold on! Today apparently brings new, bizarre surprises. Let’s zoom in a little closer on that photo…

Yikes! Our eyes weren’t playing tricks on us. There is indeed a mannequin painted in psychedelic colors perched on the fire escape.

Is this a bizarre art installation or someone’s trash? The only thing we know for sure is that someone is definitely accessing the building, and maybe even living there. If we were the neighbors, we’d be pretty angry about this, especially since 43 MacDougal Street has been on the City’s radar as a health and safety threat ever since GVSHP began making noise about it several years ago. Since the mannequin is on a fire escape, this is surely a fire hazard, not to mention it could fall down and hit someone on the street. Since 2007, we have written numerous letters to nearly every related city agency, and still the building remains in this terrible state. That things continue to worsen is entirely unacceptable.

We urge our readers to take action to help solve this ongoing problem! Please call 311 to report this incident, and let us know if you see anything else suspicious taking place on the site.