For many people, the clock has become a frustrating reminder of the Bronx’s struggles, and a testament to the difficulty of leaving its past behind. Some critics have charged that Bronx leaders are quick to take offense at old stereotypes of a crime-ridden Bronx, but seem to have overlooked a broken clock that sends a message for all to see that no one cares enough to fix it.

The novelist Avery Corman, who wrote “Kramer vs. Kramer” and grew up in the Bronx, said he noticed the hole in the clock while passing through the neighborhood in the spring and sent an email to the borough president, Rubén Diaz Jr. He received no response.

“Can you imagine Marty Markowitz standing around with the big Williamsburgh clock with a hole in it?” Mr. Corman said the other day, referring to the Brooklyn borough president and the former Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower in Fort Greene. “How long would that have been?”

John DeSio, a spokesman for Mr. Diaz, said that staff members of the borough president’s office had made inquiries about the clock and had toured the building in recent years; but they were told by the owner that repairing the clock would be costly and would require specialized parts and equipment not readily available. “Just because we didn’t send out a news release on something doesn’t mean we’re not aware and involved,” Mr. DeSio said.

The clock stopped working long before the building became vacant, local residents say, but it is not clear when or how that happened. Torrey Brooks, who had managed Jefferson Realty Associates, said the clock was always a challenge. When it broke, he said, it was impossible to find anyone with the expertise to fix it. And at night, there was another problem entirely.

“People would shoot at it because it was a big, round, lit-up target,” he said. “We had bullet holes.”