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Local District Faces Firehouse Closing

May 21, 2011 Staff Report

Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s proposal to close as many as 20 firehouses – including one in Long Island City—has drawn the scorn of many of this district’s politicians.

Ladder Company 128, which serves Sunnyside, Woodside, LIC, Blissville and Greenpoint, is among those firehouses that face the chopping block.

State Sen. Mike Gianaris said that “the closure of ladder company 128 would result in longer response times and would have a detrimental effect on the safety of people in western queens.”  Gianaris added that the closure made little sense at a time when the area is expanding and developers are building more high-rise buildings.

If the cuts went into effect, the first truck would arrive on scene in 6 minutes and 44 seconds after it were dispatched, according to a FDNY report. This would be up from the current response time of 5 minutes and 31 seconds.

The mayor argues that firefighting has changed over the last century, and cited declining fire deaths despite the closure of more than 20 firehouses in Lower Manhattan since the 1940s. Homes today are not made of wood, have sprinklers and smoke detectors, he said.

Meanwhile, in a statement, Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer said that he wants the mayor to “restore all firehouses slated for closure. We must continue to do everything possible to ensure these firehouses remain.”

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10 Comments

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John K. Wilson

I can’t comment because my neighbors above have said it already. So…why do we vote (almost exclusively) for one particular “type” of politician…almost all of whom are addicted to too much spending of our limited funds…when we should be frugal so we don’t have to cut Firehouses, Police Officers, and teachers?

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Roger_the_Shrubber

Those sprinklers the mayor is talking about is City Hall taking a piss on all of you.

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Marty Bloomberg

You dumb peasants still don’t understand! I need to spend $1billion on consultants to tell me how to handle laying off the 4000 teachers I can’t afford!

You just don’t understand basic maths. Here it is: 4000 teachers at an average salary of $60,000 costs our city $240 million dollars each year. So if I spend $1billion instead on consultants we.. wait I may have forgot to carry a 1 somewhere… well the consultants told me there was a good reason for it and it’s too complicated to try and explain to your puny minds.

And there are no panhandlers in the perfectly running subways I should know I took a subway once and my security detail checked for me.

And all houses in all fifty boroughs of my empire are fireproofed with water sprinklers, detectors, and miniature anti-fire fairies to protect you all.

http://articles.nydailynews.com/2011-05-13/local/29554015_1_chancellor-dennis-walcott-consultant-costs-black-hole

You are all safe. Believe me.
-Marty Bloomberg for a 4th term!

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Roger_the_Shrubber

Want to save the city some $$$$. Abolish the office of all the borough presidents. The mayor’s office and City Council are plenty. Nobody will go to bed at night feeling less safe because there isn’t a borough president.

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Randall

You don’t cut the fire fighting force or the police. Those are ESSENTIALS. See today’s New York Post in which Bloomberg claims that “there is no panhandling in the subways”. Laughable. I am tired of the panhandling and fake mariachis and performance artists that plague the subways. I am mentioning this to show that we have a mayor who is totally out of touch with how most New Yorkers live. Don’t forget that this was the same jerk who said that we should go “shopping” during the blizzard and “take in a Broadway show”. Can we have a recall of the mayor? And now the fire houses! And somebody else was seriously hurt existing the “Ed Koch Bridge”. And the number 7 is having a “limited run” this weekend!

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allow_me_to_retort

How much longer could we have kept a firehouse open with all the money the city spent re-naming the Triboro Bridge after some carpetbagging Kennedy?

There is plenty of fat in the city budget that can be cut, but no, they go straight for the legitimate and vital services first. May I suggest a pay cut for all city officials? How about getting rid of all patronage and no-show jobs? Stopping benefits for illegal aliens, I could go on all day.

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Marty Bloomberg

In response to the question “How is one fire house supposed to handle the job of two fire companies?”, Marty Bloomberg responded:

“Well that’s simple – all firetrucks are going to be equipped with a Flux Capacitor.

In the event that there are two emergencies within that area a single fire company can now respond to both by simply putting out the one fire and then using the flux capacitor to go back in time to put out the other fire.

We’re doing the same thing for our schools. Closing one school down and doubling the occupation of the remaining schools does not mean that classrooms will suddenly be overwhelmed. We will be giving all students a time-turner like the one Hermione has, this way students can simply attend all their classes simultaneously with the twist of a charm.

Furthermore, laying off experienced teachers does not mean we’ll lose out either. New and inexperienced teachers will travel into the future where they’ve now gained their experience and will then travel back to the present so that we can pay them a starting salary and maintain a quality of education you’ve come to expect from this administration.

I don’t understand why you dumb parents and insignificant peasants can’t understand these concepts!?!”

-M.Bloomberg

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Susan

“Homes today have sprinklers and smoke detectors.”
Really? I’d like to know which Sunnyside buildings have sprinklers.

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Jessica

I hope that Mayor Bloomberg has a fire house that closes near him… I can not believe that they want to close what keeps us safe, specially since NY has houses that are all together in one row or rows, If one were to catch on fire it’s so easy for another one to, and then a whole block is gone. Please Don’t close the Firehouses!!

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