I stole a laundry bag from the Alvear Palace Hotel in Buenos Aires. It was made of thick ivory linen, embroidered with the words "dry cleaning" in cerulean blue, and looked like something that I could have found at an antique textiles show. But that wasn’t the case.
The cause of the midday collapse of the building on Myrtle Avenue between Ryerson and Hall streets was not immediately known. All residents of the building were accounted for, authorities said. Three people were given medical attention at the scene and a fourth person was taken to a Brooklyn hospital, said a fire department spokesman. It was not clear whether any of the injured lived in the building. The New York Department of Buildings said residents in six adjacent buildings were told to leave those structures as investigators worked to determine the cause of the collapse. A spokeswoman for that department confirmed that the owner of the collapsed building was cited in May after inspectors noticed several vertical cracks on an exterior wall. That case was scheduled to be heard Monday by the city’s Environmental Control Board, which handles citations issued by the buildings department.
