Eyes on the Street: Sidewalk Sinkhole in Sunset Park

A reader sent in these photos of a sidewalk cave-in next to the office of Assembly member Felix W. Ortiz, on Fourth Avenue and 55th Street in Sunset Park:

Over the weekend, a bunch of neighbors called in the ominous crack in the sidewalk to 311 (resulting in tape! And a safety horse!), and this morning that crack became a gaping sinkhole. Luckily no one appears to have been injured.

Here’s what the sidewalk looked like after the slab began to buckle, a situation that festered for a few days:

I don’t want to extrapolate too much from one incident, but maybe it wouldn’t take so long to repair NYC sidewalks if the state DOT were releasing the federal funds they’re supposed to send to the city — a story we’ll be taking a closer look at here on Streetsblog.