LITTLE ITALY, Manhattan (PIX11) -- Neighbors have a lot to discuss along Mulberry and Grand Streets. Little Italy is a neighborhood with character. 

Last week, a chimney structure collapsed inside a residential building that was being worked on at the corner. 

The city says the owner has to submit repair and stabilization plans, or it will have to be demolished. A partial stop work order and a vacate order were issued. 

On the block, John DeLutro owns Caffe Mulberry and is known as the Cannoli King.

Lou Di Palo's family has had a nearby food and cheese shop. They hope the special features of the neighborhood are preserved. 

A message left with a contact for the current owner was not returned. The city is in communication with the owner, who has had the century-old property for decades. 

A city report showed city building inspectors completed 373,937 inspections of properties in 2023. That’s about 20,000 more inspections than the previous year. 

In a statement to PIX11 News, the department said there’s an increased reliance on technology to improve routing operations.

“Enforcing building safety regulations is one of our highest priorities here at the Department of Buildings, which is why we continue to expand both our inspection operations and protocols. The department also recently implemented two new inspection requirements for property owners of higher-risk structures: parking structures and building parapets. These important new inspection requirements for property owners will help them identify potential structural stability issues at their buildings prior to an incident occurring,” the spokesperson said. 

The Periodic Inspection of Parking Structures took effect at the beginning of 2022 and requires an inspection by professional engineers for all parking garages in NYC every six years.

The city said the first deadline for the parking garage engineering reports in Lower Manhattan, Midtown and the Upper West Side was Jan. 1. Parking garages in other areas must submit an initial observation by August. 

The annual Parapet Observation requirement took effect on Jan. 1, and it requires owners of buildings with public-facing building parapet walls to hire a “competent person every year to create an annual observation report for the parapets.”

The reports must be kept by the property owners for at least six years and provided to the city upon request. Hazardous or unsafe conditions are to be reported immediately.