You just catch any breaks in New York. First superstorm Sandy comes rolling though and destroys a great deal of property and then the state comes rolling through punishing people fro suffering storm damage:
Residents in one Queens neighborhood are crying foul after they were written up for failing to clean up the city’s own mess. It is yet another new complication in life after Superstorm Sandy.
Rosanne and Joe Cavaliere are still trying to clean up from the hurricane.
They have branches through their roof, busted front windows, and, to add insult to injury, they recently received a citation notice from the city.
Apparently denizens of New York are supposed to have cleaned up all the damage by now. What’s even funnier is the state’s excuse for issuing these citations:
The Department of Buildings said the citation is a mere formality. It’s a way to keep track of all downed trees.
That makes sense. The only way the Department of Buildings can keep track of all the fallen trees is to issue citations. There is no way they could have a team going around New York with tablets and use and application tied to Google Maps API to mark locations where fallen trees have been sighted. While the Department of Buildings has officially stated that the issued citations carry no monetary penalties it is likely some other penalties will be tied to those citations at a future date (for example, a citation against the property may appear when the current homeowner tries to sell the house and cause unnecessary headaches).