{"id":132329,"date":"2026-02-13T12:06:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T12:06:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/132329\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T12:06:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T12:06:15","slug":"man-81-who-died-on-frigid-brooklyn-roof-ran-cleaning-business-employing-artists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/132329\/","title":{"rendered":"Man, 81, who died on frigid Brooklyn roof ran cleaning business employing artists"},"content":{"rendered":"

The family of an 81-year-old man who died alone on the frigid rooftop<\/a> of his Brooklyn apartment building has blocked a city medical examiner autopsy for religious reasons, the Daily News has learned.<\/p>\n

Everet Goldberg was found dead on the roof of the building on Avenue H near New York Ave. in Flatbush at about 9:55 a.m. Saturday.<\/p>\n

Goldberg used to run a well-known cleaning business that employed many struggling artists, giving many of them a lifeline.<\/p>\n

Neighbors believe Goldberg, who lived on the top floor of the six-story building, slipped on the icy roof trying to cross from one side of the building to the other because the elevator on his side wasn\u2019t working. He was discovered dead by the building\u2019s super 18 hours later.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no apparent physical trauma, and so it seems most likely that he fell and died due to the extreme cold temperature,\u201d the building\u2019s management wrote in a letter to residents that reminded them roof access is not allowed.<\/p>\n

But the victim\u2019s family\u2019s objection to an autopsy means his cause of death will never be known. Attempts by The News to reach Goldberg\u2019s family were unsuccessful.<\/p>\n

Eighteen people have perished in the city\u2019s brutal cold stretch, Mayor Mamdani said Monday. Goldberg\u2019s death is not being counted as one of them.<\/p>\n

The victim was the owner of Manhattan Feather Dusters, a cleaning company that employed artists, musicians, writers and other creative New Yorkers as cleaners to help supplement their sometimes unstable incomes. He would befriend many of them and attend their performances and openings.<\/p>\n

Artists are \u201cesthetically oriented, detail oriented and fastidious,\u201d Goldberg explained<\/a> to the New York Times in 1998. Cleaning \u201chelps them think,\u201d he said. \u201dAnd they get instant results. If you\u2019re a writer, you work a long time to see your book published. But if you clean a bathtub, you see the fruits of your labor instantly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Everet<\/p>\n

Rebecca White \/ New York Daily News<\/p>\n

Everet Goldberg was found on the roof of his apartment building on Avenue H near New York Ave. in Flatbush just before 10 a.m. on Saturday. (Rebecca White \/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

On Friday afternoon building management alerted residents that the elevators on the right side of the building were out of order, said a woman who shared the text alerts with The News. Soon after she watched through her Ring camera as Goldberg opened the door to the roof around 3:40 p.m. while struggling to carry heavy grocery bags.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had like one big bag in one hand and then two medium-sized bags in the other,\u201d said the woman, who declined to give her name. \u201cI know he struggled with those bags and to maneuver his way across that icy path, it was very treacherous. I feel bad. I saw him but I would never think \u2026 .\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHis car was double-parked,\u201d she added. \u201cI\u2019m assuming his intention was to go drop off the stuff and then go back downstairs. He never came back.\u201d<\/p>\n

The next morning, she looked outside and saw Goldberg\u2019s body sprawled in the middle of the roof, with groceries all around him, as cops investigated. \u201cI saw him lying on his back, and I saw one of the bags close to him,\u201d she said. \u201cStuff was spilled, like grocery stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goldberg was one of the first residents to move into the building and had lived there for over 40 years, neighbors said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Rebecca White \/ New York Daily News<\/p>\n

A resident saw victim Everet Goldberg struggle with bags as he ascended these 6th floor steps to the roof on Friday afternoon. (Rebecca White \/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

\u201cOur elevator has been acting up. It\u2019s nothing new,\u201d Luis Irizarry, 43, told the Daily News. \u201cSo what we\u2019ve been doing forever is that we would take the elevator on this side to the roof, just cross over on the roof and then just come down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Irizarry crossed the roof Friday, before Goldberg\u2019s fateful attempt.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did that myself, just to get home,\u201d Irizarry said. \u201cIt was very icy. It\u2019s just a sheet of ice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goldberg started cleaning apartments as a New York University student in 1988, according to the New York Times. Over the years he expanded the business and at one point had a staff of 25.<\/p>\n

\"Everet<\/p>\n

Mayita Mendez for New York Daily News<\/p>\n

Former cleaning company owner Everet Goldberg in a client’s apartment in Manhattan in 2008. Goldberg was found dead Saturday on the roof of his Brooklyn apartment building. (Mayita Mendez for New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

\u201cAt first, I said, \u2018Forget it \u2013 that\u2019s like being a maid,\u2019 \u201d singer Gene Howard told the NYTimes in 1995<\/a>. \u201cBut I was tired of asking Mom for carfare and it was more money than I was making, so I put my tail between my legs and went down to see Everet Goldberg. He interviewed me for more than an hour \u2014 of course, he did most of the talking \u2014 before he would let me clean for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Howard went on to perform in \u201cLa Boheme\u201d with Opera North of Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

When Emmy Award-winning costume designer Nancy Adzima\u2019s rent skyrocketed, she picked up work with Manhattan Feather Dusters, crediting Goldberg with helping her stay in her apartment. \u201cIn the beginning, my friends didn\u2019t understand,\u201d Adzima told Crain\u2019s New York in 2008.<\/a> \u201cBut I really like to clean. I don\u2019t think people realize how much fun this job can be.\u201d<\/p>\n

City Building Department records show no open violations in Goldberg\u2019s building but dozens of prior complaints, many of them about the elevator being out of order.<\/p>\n

An official at Medallion Real Estate,<\/a> which manages the buidling, declined to comment Wednesday.<\/p>\n

A warning sign near the stairs leading to the roof reads, \u201cDo not walk up the steps. Alarm will sound.\u201d But there was no alarm in operation when News reporters visited the building after Goldberg\u2019s death, and neighbors said it had been removed some time back.<\/p>\n

With Rocco Parascandola<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The family of an 81-year-old man who died alone on the frigid rooftop of his Brooklyn apartment building…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132330,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[98,262,263,266,85,267,9,24,264,11,10,12,261,265],"class_list":{"0":"post-132329","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-brooklyn","9":"tag-city","10":"tag-county","11":"tag-crime-and-public-safety","12":"tag-latest-headlines","13":"tag-local-news","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-new-york-county","17":"tag-new-york-headlines","18":"tag-new-york-news","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-nyc-crime","21":"tag-sub-county-region"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}