Fire Company Closures
10:17 am • 17 May 2011
Fire company closures are the latest point of budget contention between the City Council and the Mayor and some Brooklyn elected officials are speaking out.
Finance Committee Chairman Domenic Recchia (D-Bensonhurst) posted this statement on his website demanding a list of fire companies to be axed:
This list has already been shared with members of the Bloomberg administration, but not with the City Council. It’s incredibly important to our ongoing budget negotiations. We are very concerned about the effect that fire company closures will have on response times, and, in a broader sense, the safety of our city and its citizens. We cannot accurately gauge the impact of any proposed closures without knowing where they are slated to happen.
Councilman Lew Fidler (D-Sheepshead Bay) has also rallied, including echoing the above, “The administration is asking us to make budget choices and priorities. To do it blind is not fair.”
Additionally, Councilman Erik Dilan (D-Bushwick) has rallied in front of a Bushwick fire company that is reportedly one of the most likely to be cut.
It’s not like Bushwick just had a fatal fire or anything.
54th A.D. special election candidate Rafael Espinal also drew the same connection to the fatal fire and the cuts on his Facebook page, adding, “There are ways to fill the budget gap without cutting vital services to neighborhoods like Bushwick. The Mayor should consider other alternatives before playing with fire.”
Update: Assemblyman Peter Abbate (D-Bensonhurst) also penned an op-ed on the fire company closures, where he introduced the topic in strong terms:
There are some topics that transcend politics. In New York City, there is no more respected and unequivocally vital contingent of men and women than those who serve in the New York City Fire Department.
