IF Mayor Bloomberg and other city officials sound even more defensive than usual in discussing last week’s lethal crane collapse, it might have to do with an overlooked fact about the catastrophe site: The city owns it. And while it would be unfair to say the city has blood on its hands, it was the city itself that set the building project in motion. In 2004, the city’s Educational Construction Fund – an agency controlled by the mayor – leased the land to the DeMatteis Organization and the Mattone Group.

The luxury condo building going up at the site will also include the new, 520-seat Middle School 114. The developers will pay for both the $40 million school and the $103 million apartment building.

But the city was closely involved in every aspect of the project – including its height, which required the crane.

The plans had to pass through the city’s review process and required approvals by Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and Community Board 8.

The ECF was set up by the state legislature in the 1960s to promote New York City school development but had largely fallen inactive until Bloomberg took office. In 2005, ECF executive director Jamie Smarr told The Post the mayor’s capital plan encouraged the agency to “aggressively leverage the system’s air rights.”

Source: NY Post