Dr. Meisha Porter
Photo Christian Fernandez
Two years ago, we lost 17 Bronxites in a devastating high-rise apartment fire in Twin Parks North complex, one of the deadliest fires in modern New York history. This anniversary comes just weeks after the partial collapse of a Billingsley Terrace building, just a mile away, that put 150 people out of their homes and destroyed several small businesses.
Sadly, neither of these horrific events happened in a vacuum. Bronxites are no stranger to loss and displacement from tragedies like these. Fortunately, the Bronx no longer experiences the serial building fires, many of them deliberately set, that defined the borough’s existence in the 1970s. But the Bronx continues to see more than its share of calamities that stem directly from a long-standing history of disinvestment in and neglect of our borough.
Make no mistake: neither of these events were mere accidents and both were entirely preventable had we heeded the warnings in time.
A broken heating system, dysfunctional fire alarms and faulty fire escape doors were just a few examples of the dozens of safety complaints that the Twin Parks complex received prior to the incident — all of which contributed directly to the disaster. Similarly, the Billingsley Terrace building had been flagged as “unsafe” by the Department of Buildings in 2020. Billingsley Terrace also had more than 100 fire and sanitary violations against it since 2019. The pandemic delayed repairs to the building’s facade; the DOB has not issued a report about the cause of the collapse.
These problems are more prevalent in the Bronx than in other boroughs. The Bronx consistently has the most homes in the city’s “250 most distressed buildings” list. In fact, on a per capita basis, Bronx homes end up on the list at double the rate of other boroughs.
To end the litany of building disasters in the Bronx, we need a concerted effort from City Hall to make sure proper oversight and…
Read the full article here
Leave a Reply