Caught red-handed on video: Atlantic Yards construction worker uproots newly installed "No Standing" sign on Pacific Street

Ok, city and state officials overseeing Atlantic Yards, get a load of this.

There's a No Standing sign on the south side of Pacific Street, between Sixth and Carlton avenues, that doesn't sit well with construction workers looking for convenient parking at the nearby Barclays Center and railyard sites.

They apparently uprooted one sign in mid-December. A week later, its replacement was again uprooted (photo at left from Atlantic Yards Watch).

But documentary evidence compiled this morning shows exactly how it's done. Late yesterday afternoon, AY Watch contributor 700PacificW commented on the newly installed sign (photo at right):

Newly installed MTP "red no standing" sign could be destroyed within 1 day of installation again.

That prediction was quite accurate.

This morning's vandalism

As shown in the video posted below, at about 6:15 am today, a construction worker--as noted wearing a hardhat in a photo posted to AY Watch--parked next to the sign.

(Is he definitely working at the Atlantic Yards site? I can't be absolutely certain, but this is where AY site workers seek to park, and hundreds of others workers seen on that block work at the site. A witness saw this worker walking toward the arena site.)

He got out. At 1:10 of the video, he began rocking the sign with his hands, ultimately dislodging it.

At 3:16 of the video, he began moving the sign to the north side of Pacific Street near the MTA's Vanderbilt Yard, as shown in the screen shot at left.

And now he has free parking.

So he thinks.

The city and state responsibility

While this is first a matter for the New York City Department of Transportation and the police, it is fundamentally a matter for Empire State Development, the state agency that oversees Atlantic Yards and has the power to crack down on developer Forest City Ratner, its subcontractors, and ultimately their employees.

And it is also a matter for the city's new, almost-ombudsperson for Atlantic Yards, Lolita Jackson, who has yet to really start work.