Mayor promises review of vigilante insurance claims
City Hall has received 212 claims this year for damage "attributable to masked individuals." The mayor says every one will be read. The Council wants a $4 million fund.
The mayor stood on the steps of City Hall on Saturday beside a stack of folders two feet high and promised that every claim in them would be "personally reviewed." The folders contain 212 insurance claims filed with the city this year by landlords, shop owners and one hot-dog vendor for damage they say was caused by masked vigilantes, or by the people those vigilantes were chasing, or in one case by a pigeon that was "clearly startled."
The total asked for is $6.1 million. The city has so far paid out $140,000, most of it for a single awning on Lexington Avenue.
"New Yorkers should not be left holding the bill when somebody in a costume decides to use their building as a shortcut," the mayor said. Asked whether that somebody had a name, the mayor said the review would be "name-neutral."
What's in the folders
The Bugle obtained a summary of the claims through a records request. They include:
- 61 claims for web removal, at an average cost of $410 each.
- 38 claims for broken windows, skylights or glass doors.
- 19 claims for damaged water towers, fire escapes or roof hatches.
- 1 claim for "emotional distress to a parrot."
The parrot claim is from a pet shop in Bay Ridge and asks for $200. The owner told the Bugle the bird "has not said a word since" and that it previously said a great many.
“We cannot keep telling a bodega owner to take it up with a man who lives on the ceiling.”
Councilmember Dana Whitfield
The Council's fund
The City Council votes on Tuesday on a $4 million rooftop-safety and damage fund that would pay small claims within 30 days without requiring the claimant to identify who caused the damage. Councilmember Dana Whitfield, who sponsored the bill, said the current system "asks a bodega owner to take it up with a man who lives on the ceiling."
Opponents say the fund would invite claims. "If you pay people for webs, you will get a lot of webs," one Council aide said, which the Bugle considers the most honest thing anyone has said in that building this year.
What happens next
The mayor's review is expected to take "several weeks." The Council vote is Tuesday at 1 p.m. The hot-dog vendor, who is asking for $90 for a bent umbrella, told the Bugle he has stopped expecting anything.
"I've got a new umbrella," he said. "It's fine. If he lands on it again, I'll write another letter."