RINO Bloomberg Sambas while New York Burns
Jack Kemp
Over 15,000 firefighters and their supporters – including the head of the International Firefighters Association, Harold Schaitberger, came to New York’s City Hall last Friday to protest Mayor Bloomberg’s proposed closing of twenty firehouses. Many of them marched across the Brooklyn Bridge, some with their small children, to join the protest. The event had a stage, loudspeakers and a jumbo video screen – and was hosted by WOR Radio’s Steve Malzberg.
IFA President Schaitberger took the stage and recalled that he stood with the Mayor and the President of the United States at Ground Zero praising the heroism of the firefighters and all first responders – and then called him a “hypocrite” for “putting people’s lives at risk” with these proposed cuts in service. He also stated that this attempt to close twenty firehouses is being watched by people all over the country as a very important indicator of what may be attempted in their communities. The Mayor himself was in Brazil at the time. Bloomberg was a Democrat most of his life, switched to the Republican Party to avoid a nasty primary fight in 2001 and now calls himself an Independent.
Mayor Bloomberg’s proposed new budget, with its firehouse closings – eight of them in Brooklyn alone – is a false economy. Bloomberg recently aired his rationale for this budget:
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/05/20/mayor-michael-bloomberg-defends-plan-to-shutter-20-firehouses/
On his weekly WOR Radio show on Friday, the mayor said firefighting has changed over the last century. He says most houses today are not made of wood, have sprinklers and “hopefully” smoke detectors.
END
Sorry, Mr. Mayor, but not everyone lives in an upscale high rise apartment. There are plenty of old wooden houses in the outer boroughs and even upper Manhattan – in neighborhoods where Mayor Bloomberg doesn’t travel to attend wine and cheese fundraising parties. These wood frame houses are in predominantly poor neighborhoods where most of the City’s fires occur because, as one speaker explained at the City Hall Rally, many poor people use faulty wired electric heaters to keep warm in the winter and often cook on hot plates. In a related observation, if the Mayor were to go into a major appliance store in New York, he would see that companies like Avanti, Haier and even General Electric are selling smaller refrigerators for older apartments and houses with narrow doors and hallways.
But the there are also many middle class neighborhoods, such as Bayside, Queens, which have many older wood frame houses and stores. City Councilman Dan Halloran, speaking at the same rally, told of a fire a week before in Bayside, near Engine Company 306, one of the firehouses Bloomberg wants to close, where the firefighters saved an elderly woman’s life - where a difference of one minute in response time could have meant her death.
Full Disclosure: I was a poll watcher for Dan Halloran (R-Queens) in his successful election bid to become a
New York City Councilman.
Two days before, in a local Bayside rally to spare Engine Company 306 from proposed City Budget cuts, a bipartisan group of Queens County politicians stood with Dan Halloran against the Mayor’s budget ax. Council Member Elizabeth Crowley (D-Middle Village, who pointed out later at the City Hall Rally that New York is still the nation’s Number One terrorist target), said that “we must first cut wasteful spending for failed pet projects and corrupt private contracts.” She was joined by Council Member Peter Koo (R-Flushing), Council Member Mark Weprin (D-Oakland Gardens), State Assembly Member Edward Braunstein (D-Bayside, who called the NY Fire Department a “most valuable investment”) and others.
Councilman Halloran mentioned the false economic rationalization that Bloomberg and his advisors have bought into, namely that response time to fires will only be increased by “one minute” with these cuts. Bloomberg did not calculate the time taken by the call to the 911 Emergency number, so that the total response time’s extra minute would occur as the fire is growing. Halloran also pointed out that the City has cut the number of firefighters on a truck from five to four, so that often two trucks have to respond to a fire to do the work where one truck could previously often could put out the fire.
At the Bayside rally, I spoke with William Kregler, President of the New York City Fire Marshals Benevolent Association, who explained some less well known hard, practical facts about increased response times to a fire.
This is a man who does building inspections for a living and knows neighborhood life. Mr. Kregler said that when a firehouse closes, the insurance rates for the homes and businesses in a neighborhood rise – and the real estate values go down. Contrast this with Mayor Bloomberg’s glib remark about people wanting a firehouse on every street corner of New York, an academic straw man argument exaggeration. The Mayor should know that straw men burn very easily.
Also present in both the Bayside and City Hall Rallies was United Firefighters Association (the union) President Stephen Cassidy who pointed out that firefighters also come the aid of people with heart attacks and other medical emergencies where minutes are critical. In my own apartment house, a few years ago on separate occasions, two elderly men fell ill and firefighters had to rush in and break open the door in order to get them medical attention in order to save their lives.
Stephen Cassidy went on to say that, “New Yorkers must demand their elected officials fight for the fire companies that protect their family’s safety, because the Bloomberg Administration is abdicating its responsibility to protect our city and its citizens.” I would later see Mr. Cassidy marching across the Brooklyn Bridge with a huge group of firefighters to join the City Hall Rally.
This speech in Bayside was followed by Al Hagen, President of the UFOA, the Uniformed Firefighters Officers Association, who pointed out that Bloomberg mismanagement resulted in $100 million stolen from the City (from a business incentive program, I believe) and that the Mayor’s cuts were “unconscionable.”
At the City Hall Rally, one speaker pointed out how Mayor Bloomberg was not born in New York, how he was not part of New York. While New York City has many immigrants and descendents of immigrants who were not born in the City, these others know what it is like to be in the city and struggle to make a living – or see their parents struggle to make a living and fear fires. Contrast this with a latecomer mayor who overlooks at least one opportunity to save money needed for firehouses:
http://www.examiner.com/manhattan-conservative-in-new-york/bloomberg-spending-245-000-taxpayers-money-on-three-chefs
“Bloomberg spends $245,000 in taxpayers' money on three chefs…”
END
How many firefighters could be kept in their current companies for the approximately $160,000 saved if Bloomberg only had one chef?
I save the final word for Marty Markowitz (D), the Borough President of Brooklyn in his speech at the City Hall
Rally:
“I’m going to give the shortest speech of my life. Twenty fire houses. Eight in Brooklyn. Fugheedaboutit!”
Over 15,000 firefighters and their supporters – including the head of the International Firefighters Association, Harold Schaitberger, came to New York’s City Hall last Friday to protest Mayor Bloomberg’s proposed closing of twenty firehouses. Many of them marched across the Brooklyn Bridge, some with their small children, to join the protest. The event had a stage, loudspeakers and a jumbo video screen – and was hosted by WOR Radio’s Steve Malzberg.
IFA President Schaitberger took the stage and recalled that he stood with the Mayor and the President of the United States at Ground Zero praising the heroism of the firefighters and all first responders – and then called him a “hypocrite” for “putting people’s lives at risk” with these proposed cuts in service. He also stated that this attempt to close twenty firehouses is being watched by people all over the country as a very important indicator of what may be attempted in their communities. The Mayor himself was in Brazil at the time. Bloomberg was a Democrat most of his life, switched to the Republican Party to avoid a nasty primary fight in 2001 and now calls himself an Independent.
Mayor Bloomberg’s proposed new budget, with its firehouse closings – eight of them in Brooklyn alone – is a false economy. Bloomberg recently aired his rationale for this budget:
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/05/20/mayor-michael-bloomberg-defends-plan-to-shutter-20-firehouses/
On his weekly WOR Radio show on Friday, the mayor said firefighting has changed over the last century. He says most houses today are not made of wood, have sprinklers and “hopefully” smoke detectors.
END
Sorry, Mr. Mayor, but not everyone lives in an upscale high rise apartment. There are plenty of old wooden houses in the outer boroughs and even upper Manhattan – in neighborhoods where Mayor Bloomberg doesn’t travel to attend wine and cheese fundraising parties. These wood frame houses are in predominantly poor neighborhoods where most of the City’s fires occur because, as one speaker explained at the City Hall Rally, many poor people use faulty wired electric heaters to keep warm in the winter and often cook on hot plates. In a related observation, if the Mayor were to go into a major appliance store in New York, he would see that companies like Avanti, Haier and even General Electric are selling smaller refrigerators for older apartments and houses with narrow doors and hallways.
But the there are also many middle class neighborhoods, such as Bayside, Queens, which have many older wood frame houses and stores. City Councilman Dan Halloran, speaking at the same rally, told of a fire a week before in Bayside, near Engine Company 306, one of the firehouses Bloomberg wants to close, where the firefighters saved an elderly woman’s life - where a difference of one minute in response time could have meant her death.
Full Disclosure: I was a poll watcher for Dan Halloran (R-Queens) in his successful election bid to become a
New York City Councilman.
Two days before, in a local Bayside rally to spare Engine Company 306 from proposed City Budget cuts, a bipartisan group of Queens County politicians stood with Dan Halloran against the Mayor’s budget ax. Council Member Elizabeth Crowley (D-Middle Village, who pointed out later at the City Hall Rally that New York is still the nation’s Number One terrorist target), said that “we must first cut wasteful spending for failed pet projects and corrupt private contracts.” She was joined by Council Member Peter Koo (R-Flushing), Council Member Mark Weprin (D-Oakland Gardens), State Assembly Member Edward Braunstein (D-Bayside, who called the NY Fire Department a “most valuable investment”) and others.
Councilman Halloran mentioned the false economic rationalization that Bloomberg and his advisors have bought into, namely that response time to fires will only be increased by “one minute” with these cuts. Bloomberg did not calculate the time taken by the call to the 911 Emergency number, so that the total response time’s extra minute would occur as the fire is growing. Halloran also pointed out that the City has cut the number of firefighters on a truck from five to four, so that often two trucks have to respond to a fire to do the work where one truck could previously often could put out the fire.
At the Bayside rally, I spoke with William Kregler, President of the New York City Fire Marshals Benevolent Association, who explained some less well known hard, practical facts about increased response times to a fire.
This is a man who does building inspections for a living and knows neighborhood life. Mr. Kregler said that when a firehouse closes, the insurance rates for the homes and businesses in a neighborhood rise – and the real estate values go down. Contrast this with Mayor Bloomberg’s glib remark about people wanting a firehouse on every street corner of New York, an academic straw man argument exaggeration. The Mayor should know that straw men burn very easily.
Also present in both the Bayside and City Hall Rallies was United Firefighters Association (the union) President Stephen Cassidy who pointed out that firefighters also come the aid of people with heart attacks and other medical emergencies where minutes are critical. In my own apartment house, a few years ago on separate occasions, two elderly men fell ill and firefighters had to rush in and break open the door in order to get them medical attention in order to save their lives.
Stephen Cassidy went on to say that, “New Yorkers must demand their elected officials fight for the fire companies that protect their family’s safety, because the Bloomberg Administration is abdicating its responsibility to protect our city and its citizens.” I would later see Mr. Cassidy marching across the Brooklyn Bridge with a huge group of firefighters to join the City Hall Rally.
This speech in Bayside was followed by Al Hagen, President of the UFOA, the Uniformed Firefighters Officers Association, who pointed out that Bloomberg mismanagement resulted in $100 million stolen from the City (from a business incentive program, I believe) and that the Mayor’s cuts were “unconscionable.”
At the City Hall Rally, one speaker pointed out how Mayor Bloomberg was not born in New York, how he was not part of New York. While New York City has many immigrants and descendents of immigrants who were not born in the City, these others know what it is like to be in the city and struggle to make a living – or see their parents struggle to make a living and fear fires. Contrast this with a latecomer mayor who overlooks at least one opportunity to save money needed for firehouses:
http://www.examiner.com/manhattan-conservative-in-new-york/bloomberg-spending-245-000-taxpayers-money-on-three-chefs
“Bloomberg spends $245,000 in taxpayers' money on three chefs…”
END
How many firefighters could be kept in their current companies for the approximately $160,000 saved if Bloomberg only had one chef?
I save the final word for Marty Markowitz (D), the Borough President of Brooklyn in his speech at the City Hall
Rally:
“I’m going to give the shortest speech of my life. Twenty fire houses. Eight in Brooklyn. Fugheedaboutit!”
posted by Timothy Birdnow | 7:13 AM
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