Housing Crisis in Bushwick

Being said tour guide that Jimmy Legs mentioned, let me add to those comments, as they are germane for the current situation in NYC.

The cyclical concept I was mentioning to Jimmy Legs on my BCUE tour was developed from the ideas of epidemiologists Rodrick and Debra Wallace, who worked the streets of Bushwick in the 1970's, when they were hired to do research by the Community Board and HPD.

Among the conclusions of the Wallaces was that fire outbreaks--like Bushwick's fire storm--have the "spatial and temporal patchiness of a parasitic infection...that they have a life cycle" (see "Urban Fire as an Unstabilized parasite: the 1976-1978 outbreak in Bushwick, Brooklyn., Environment and Planning A, 1983)An important point to make is that the Wallaces see beyond arson as a cause, and point to a more ecological and political causes for fire outbreaks. For more on this you can read: http://www.upfromflames.com/uff_resources/images_resources/Wallace-aPlagueOnOurHouses-Chapter2.pdf

Yes, a part of what creates a fire outbreak is property value depreciation. This was the also the case in the 1970's FHA swindle.

Another fateful ingredient is a lack of adequate fire service--the FDNY laid off thousand in 1975 at the advice of RAND--and the FDNY still employed the same RAND Corp. to justify the 2003 firehouse closures.

Add to that there are as many Fire Marshall's investigating arson in the city as their were in 1977--just 62 city wide as of last week, as I was told by a retired Marshall.

Perhaps most worrying was this map in a 10/19 NY Times article, "Door to Door, Foreclosure Knocks Here" (http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2008/10/19/nyregion/19block.graf01.ready.html). This map has an eerie echo is an unpublished DCP map from 1980 of areas depopulated after arson waves. Its basically the same areas which burned 68-81 that are hit hardest by the foreclosure crisis--with the notable exception of the Lower East Side.

When I interviewed Dr. Wallace last year, he noted that it was not only a matter of "when", but "where". just not, "if"

But against this: A big difference is population. Your part of Bushwick lost about 50% of its population during the fire outbreak 76-78, and a 5th of its housing stock. That was the tail end of an urban abandonment that saw NYC lose a million people between 1970-1980.

Personally, I don't think an event of that scale is likely anytime soon, as folks are still wanting for housing, Bushwick and everywhere else. We are not currently in a time of urban abandonment.

That last part is just the optimist in me.

In my high school G.I.S. class this year, I am using the same data the Wallace's created to create an animated map of the 76-78 outbreak. Perhaps that will be of use sooner rather than later...

Posted by: upfromflames at October 29, 2008 7:40 PM