Thanks for the story. I live on Highland and JFK and was wondering what was going on! I had seen people going in and out of the building earlier that week and I hope there wasn't illegal construction going on. It was quite the site to see and brought everyone out including Homeland Security (I don't know what that was all about?), but I'm glad no one got hurt and that the businesses next door are OK.

Thank you.

As I have written elsewhere, freelance writing is like tightrope walking; you either do it well, or not for long.

That is excellent writing. There's an art to being able to put words together like that.

Yes, I've been a newspaper editor, wrote the first nationally syndicated newspaper weekly column about the Internet, and occasionally still do a little freelance work.

See:

Travel The Net - bio

and

Jersey City Magazine

saw this tonight.

the exposed apartments reminded me of photos i've seen of houses hit by tornados!

Wow. A very well-written account.
Not justjoe, JOE !
Seriously, you must have worked as a writer, no?

The three story frame building at 2916 JF Kennedy Blvd took an obvious tilt to the south early today and appeared in imminent danger of collapse onto its shorter neighbors on each side, as well as out onto the boulevard itself. A one story law office is to the south side at 2914 and a one story liquor store is to the north.

As a result of the tilt, the building was immediately condemned. JC Police shut down the northbound lanes of traffic while the combined crews of the JC Incinerator Authority and a heavy equipment contractor, Nacerama Demolition, proceeded to take the building down one piece at a time.

But, before they could work, an emergency crew from Public Service removed electric lines to the affected property and shut off electricity to the immediately adjoining buildings.

The process of dismantling the building used a huge, insect-like "chomping" crane with a set of jaws that were extremely powerful, but delicately controlled by its operator. Complete sections of the building, starting at the top front, and working down and back into the deep property, were "bitten" off.

The power of the jaws was demonstrated when the entire cupola at the top of the building was removed virtually intact, lowered precisely into the bed of a waiting dump truck and then tenderly crushed flat by the closed jaws, with scarcely a few pieces of siding and wood falling onto the adjoining roofs. A similarly impressive series of controlled swipes removed a brick chimney a few courses at a time.

The building has been vacant for about two years or more. The Chinese restaurant and a Middle eastern convenience store that had flanked the central front door to the two upper floor apartments have been close for at least two years. Both had been shut down, and building vacated, by the Board of Health for a massive infestation of vermin and rodents.

In recent months someone has been attempting renovation on the building. When a front door was open, passersby could see men working with beams and concrete blocks. But if there had been permits for the work, they were never evident on the front of the building.

As the building came down a man and his wife, pointed out by neighbors as the owner of the building, calmly watched the building come apart. As the walls on the third floor were removed, exposing the rooms, hallways and closets, it was obvious the rooms and stairs had been freshly painted and new unpainted wood trim stood around a few doorways.

It's likely that a more detailed report will appear in the Jersey Journal after they inquire into the ownership and permits from official sources. I don't do that anymore.