Avella calls on Lancaster to resign

City Councilman Tony Avella of Queens has called on Buildings Commissioner Patricia Lancaster to resign following the Saturday collapse of a crane at an East Side high-rise that killed at least four people, along with a fatal accident at Trump Soho in January and a vacant building that collapsed in Harlem this month. Lancaster said the construction industry was to blame for the recent spate of accidents. “It seems to us that the result of our special enforcement program yields that the construction industry needs to pay more attention to safety,” Lancaster said. “We’re going to be all over the construction industry and force them to be safer.”