Why won't the Department of Buildings/Bloomberg do anything about JYP Entertainment? (rent)

[minervawalker]

Every year people die in fires in illegal fire traps.

Now the mayor is pretending that he suddenly cares about this phenomenon.

Hello - the more money you have, the more connections you have, the safer your illegal building is apparently.

There was a HUGE story in the South Korean press about a multi-million dollar entertainment company called JYPE that is still, apparently,
illegally housing 5 - that's FIVE - young female performers in an illegal residence.

At one point this company was held accountable by the NYFD and they did not even appear in court to face the consequences of their illegal conversion.

A judge slapped them with a $2,500 fine.

When further complaints were made (that performers are still being illegally housed) the staff of this company would not even let investigators in.

So this company wants to make money in America, but they do not want to cooperate with city investigators. And the mayor doesn't care.

And so the city has chosen to do nothing.

FIVE young women might be living in a firetrap. Bloomberg doesn't care. Here's the record from the Dept. of Buildings web site:

Complaint Disposition History


Disposition Disposition Inspection Date
Date Code By
05/25/2010 G7 COMPLAINT REFERRED TO MAYOR'S OFFICE OF SPECIAL ENFORCEMENT 2224
05/19/2010
REFUSED ACCESS BY BUILDING ATTENDANTS
10/18/2010 C1 INSPECTOR UNABLE TO GAIN ACCESS - 1ST ATTEMPT - 2224 05/19/2010
REFUSED ACCESS BY BUILDING ATTENDANTS

Here are the stories reported in the Korean press:

http://www.koreaherald.com/entertainment/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20100511000742

http://www.koreaherald.com/entertainment/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20100512000682

[Fred314X]

Well, this isn't something that couldn't be predicted. If there was a problem housing a multimillionaire, the mayor would be on it like white on rice. For some peculiar reason, his priorities don't seem to match those of the eight million people who call this city home.

[babo111]

Because most of time, it's not worth their (DoB or Mayor)'s effort to take something like this on either publicly or behind the scenes. Gov't usually won't take the effort to take on more challenging opponents (ie: ones with money and/or political connections) because they have less to gain than what will be spent.

In this case of JYP. The group is flush with cash and they can afford very good lawyers to take on the city in court if they want. Or if they want, they can just spend the money and rent a hotel instead.

So what will city get out of it? Spending extra time (aka money) to go after 1 foreign entertainment group that's housing 5 folks in a dwelling they shouldn't but decided to. Or use those time to go after more worthwhile and perhaps easier tasks or projects?

If I was in DoB or Mayor's shoes, I'd be doing samething. It ain't worth city's money to make an example by going after a foreign entertainment group which won't set a good example anyway in first place.

Edit: If you feel that strongly about it, most basic action you can take is to boycott any JYP products/services but I kind of doubt you are doing that since most pepole don't even know what JYP ent is.