Council Speaker Fans the Flames,
Seeks to Reopen Six Firehouses

By Henry J. Stern
March 26, 2004

While the 2004 presidential campaign is well under way, the 2005 mayoral campaign is nudging along right behind. The quest for public office is now programmed on a four-year basis. Years one and two are devoted to raising money, making friends and traveling the circuit. In the third year the candidate increases his public statements and tries to define him or herself. The fourth, or election year, is the bell lap, where one makes the maximum effort, raises more money, spends it all and sometimes goes into debt (which is easier to repay after a victory).
 
The gradually warming local political climate is illustrated by Speaker Gifford Miller's press conference calling for the reopening of six firehouses closed last year. Mr. Miller is right on one point: the city can afford to reopen the firehouses. The question is whether or not this is a wise expenditure, and what will the city be unable to afford if it reopens the firehouses..
 
It should be noted that eight firehouses were on the original closing list, but two were saved when a Republican state senator, backed by his leader, made it clear that he would not approve any financial aid for the city if his firehouse was closed. The mayor wisely yielded to that economic pressure; now he is faced with Mr. Miller's political pressure.
 
Firehouse closings have always been contentious because the houses are so visible in people's neighborhoods. The People's Firehouse campaign to reopen Engine Company 212 in the Northside section of Williamsburg lasted from November 1975 to May 1977, when the firehouse was finally reopened. The reopening did not help Mayor Beame; he was defeated by Edward I. Koch in the Democratic primary, a political aftermath of the Fiscal Crisis I, in 1974-75.
 
The firehouse was closed again on May 25, 2003, on the basis of a review by a panel of Fire Department officials who measured the number of calls and the prospective increase in reaction time if the firehouses were closed. City Council members participated in the process, but withdrew when it came time to actually close the buildings.
 
The call for reopening is a siren song. First, people do not want to burn to death or lose their homes or jobs, and anything that makes those possibilities less likely, even remotely so, is appealing. Second, the presence of firefighters, usually strong young men, in a community is reassuring even when they are not fighting fires. Many little boys want to become firemen when they grow up, and thousands do. One of my nephews is a firefighter, although not in New York City. Third, the presence of a city facility in a neighborhood gives people the sense that the city supports the community.
 
The underlying issue the Fire Department faces is the enormous decline in severe fires, since buildings are by and large no longer built out of wood. Many fire stations were built over eighty years ago, when the city was much more combustible. Changes in construction materials and installation of sprinkler system could have prevented the deadly Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire on March 25, 1911 (93 years ago yesterday), where 146 people, mostly young women, died. In that case, fire doors were locked and many jumped out of windows. The site of that fire, the northwest corner of Washington Place and Greene Street, is now a national historic landmark. (Google 'Triangle Factory fire', 67K entries).
 
The worst fire in the city's history was the burning of the steamboat General Slocum on June 15, 1904, where about 1400 people, mostly women and young children, were burned to death or drowned in Hell Gate (Google 'General Slocum', 59K entries). The centennial of this tragedy is ten weeks away, and the city should hold an appropriate memorial observance.. For many years, I conducted a small Parks Department service at the modest Slocum monument in Tompkins Square Park. When we began, there were a few elderly survivors who attended, small children who somehow escaped the flames in 1904. By now, all have passed away.
 
The number of civilian fire deaths has steadily declined over the years. The number of structural fires has fallen even more sharply. As a result, we simply do not need the firefighting strength we currently maintain. Mayor Giuliani, who was a great friend of the Fire Department, found them additional work as first responders in medical emergencies. He succeeded in merging the Emergency Medical Service (EMS), which operates ambulances, into the Fire Department.

The Council speaker at the time was Peter Vallone, Sr., whom history will judge favorably. Although Vallone was running for mayor—as speakers, comptrollers and public advocates often do—he was not a constant critic of the incumbent. True, Vallone was running for an open seat in 2001, since under term limits Mayor Giuliani could not seek re-election. But he was not overly aggressive in criticizing the mayor, perhaps because in some ways they were compatible.
 
Vallone came in third in the Democratic primary, but there are demographic and political reasons for that. Fernando Ferrer was the minority candidate, and Mark Green appealed to radicals, the intellectual elite, and bandwagon types who thought he wound win. Both Vallone and Alan Hevesi were moderate, middle class candidates from Queens. They came in third and fourth, respectively,their base being sundered. Hevesi was not that unpopular a person—the next year he won the primary and general election, and is now comptroller of the state of New York. Since he is not running for governor, he is happy in his job. His son stepped down after four years as a minority member of the State Senate. Vallone is practicing law and lobbying; his son and namesake is chair of the public safety committee of the City Council. Vallone, Jr. can only serve through 2009, unless he can upset term limits, but he does have two very able brothers.
 
The number of firehouses should have been reduced many years ago, but no mayor dared to do it, not even the good ones. The disaster of September 11, 2001, in which 343 firefighters lost their lives, many through communications failures, created enormous sympathy for and goodwill towards firefighters.

Unfortunately, a few recent instances of drunkenness, violence and drug use at firehouses illustrate the timeless problem of human beings misbehaving when they have too little to do.
 
The exploitation of the firehouse closings for personal political advantage is a sample of what the next two years will bring. It is not evil for a candidate to exploit an issue; it is politics, the essence of democracy. There is no law against pandering, and in any event, one man's pandering is another man's truth-telling.
 
The firehouse issue is, however, symbolic to both sides. To the politicians and the unions, it is a cruel decision that could possibly kill people, and certainly will result in fewer jobs and less union dues. To those who have to pay the city's bills and balance its books, this is a small and harmless reduction to a bloated service, indicating fiscal prudence and the knowledge that the city must economize in order to avoid disaster. The city treasury is not a bottomless pit.

Awareness of this bite of reality is more common in executives, who must balance budgets, than in city and state legislators who are often more willing to tax, to borrow and to spend. That is one way for a legislator to become an executive. Then, he can worry.
 
The mayor's position may be more meritorious, but he is already the mayor.

The speaker's position is probably more popular with voters. However, spenders have a moral, but not a legal responsibility to offer alternate reductions when they demand increases. The municipal budget is not a zero-sum game. In fact, the chickens have already come home to roost, but we keep borrowing eggs from the one basket of taxation in which we have put them.

(Anyone seeking or providing elucidation of this scrambled metaphor need only click Reply. The best suggestion will win a dozen Grade A's.)