The owner of an Upper West Side apartment building finally removed its longtime sidewalk shed Monday after nearly two decades, and neighbors are shedding no tears.
The infamous green blight at 51 West 86th St. was even awarded the title of the Worst Sidewalk Shed on the West Side at Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal and Assemblymember Micah Lasher’s inaugural “Sheddie Awards” this spring.
“It’s been up for a very long time, so the building’s very excited,” resident Omet Hit told The Post. The 31-year-old tech worker added, “There’s so much of it,” referring to the scaffolding that covers much of the Upper West Side. “Then it’s like a whole new world when it’s finally gone.”
“Now it’s so exciting. It’s so beautiful, it’s so open,” Hit said. “It’s like a new breath of fresh air. We had champagne already… but I think there’s going to be a party.”
“We’re organizing a big party,” confirmed another building resident who declined to share her name. “It’s a disease in this city—scaffolding—and there’s more of it there [across the street]; ours was up the longest.”
An 11-year resident of the building added, “I was actually gone for the Jewish holidays for a full month, and I had to come around again because I just didn’t recognize the building. It’s great. I think everybody’s going to be happier, and it’s nice and clean.”
The scaffolding and netting that had covered the area since 2020 came down four months ago, the West Side Rag first reported. The building’s notorious shed was erected in 2006. It is owned by Weinreb Management, which did not return a request for comment on Thursday.
In 2022, Weinreb Management was sued by the city for hundreds of building violations, including fire safety issues and “failing to correct hazardous facade defects,” following a tragic fire at another Weinreb-owned building in the Bronx that killed 17 residents.
According to the lawsuit, “Defendants have displayed a pattern of failing to correct hazardous façade defects at their buildings: rather than taking corrective action, Defendants have allowed their buildings to deteriorate to the point where they pose an imminent threat to the health and safety of the tenants and the public.”
The 51 West 86th St. building was issued two violations cited in the 2022 lawsuit, including faulty sprinklers and alarm systems, as well as missing fire extinguishers.
This litigation was part of the city’s Long Standing Sheds program, which sought to compel owner Jacob Weinreb “to make needed repairs across 11 of their buildings, several of which had long-standing sidewalk sheds,” a Department of Buildings (DOB) representative told The Post.
Weinreb Management has been “making progress on these repairs and have already resolved hundreds of open violations across their portfolio of buildings,” the DOB confirmed, including the façade repairs finally made to 51 West 86th St.
“Through an affirmative litigation case brought by our partners at the Law Department, we were able to compel the owners of this property to finally make needed façade repairs and return the valuable sidewalk space in front of the building back to the public,” said Buildings Commissioner Jimmy Oddo.
Longtime resident Ellen expressed mixed emotions: “Everybody’s so happy, and everybody is so mad that it took this long. I’m very grateful that the city sued because that’s what really got things going… and after that, I think Weinreb Management company had no choice but to respond, obviously, and they did. I hope it’s a model.”
The oldest current sidewalk sheds in New York City date back to 2010 and can be found at a pair of apartment buildings in Yorkville and the East Village, according to a Post analysis of Buildings records. They are part of 10 buildings across the city that still have scaffolding at least a decade old.
“It’s [scaffolding] clearly out of hand,” added the unnamed 11-year resident of 51 West 86th St. “The city’s beautiful, and I hope we can see more of it.”
https://nypost.com/2025/10/23/us-news/nyc-sidewalk-shed-that-earned-worst-award-taken-down-after-nearly-20-years-and-locals-are-throwing-a-party/
