NEW YORK—A large, lively, and apparently outraged crowd of Staten Island residents and elected officials from all over New York City stood outside Staten Island’s Engine 157 and Ladder 80 Firehouse on Tuesday to protest Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s decision to close 20 fire companies. Closing the 20 fire companies would save the city $55 million.
Councilmember James Oddo said this has been the third year in a row that Staten Island has had to rally to save their fire companies.
“All we keep hearing is that the city is broke, but a month from now we will pass a budget that will approach $70 billion. If you pass a $70 billion budget that has even one fire engine closed, you have a budget of misplaced priorities,” Oddo said.
“This is the priority of Staten Island, this is the priority of New Yorkers, respect that,” Oddo said in response to Bloomberg saying two weeks ago that “the city will never be as safe as it would be if we had a firehouse on every block.
That is just not practical.” Shouts of “that’s insulting,” came from a few members of the crowd at the mention of the mayor’s response.
The report containing the list, which was released on May 18, included Engine 157 and 161 from Staten Island. The report lists “surrounding companies are able to absorb workload” as one of the reasons for every company being closed.
Councilwoman Debi Rose said the average first response time for Engine 157 is 3 minutes and 26 seconds, and the second average response time is 4 minutes and 33 seconds. With this company closing, the estimated average first response time for the firehouse is said to go up to 5 minutes and 31 seconds. The list of reasons for closing firehouses includes “post-closing travel times are within acceptable limits” for Engine 157.
Uniformed Firefighters Association president Steve Cassidy said it takes two engines and one ladder truck to arrive before they can begin fighting fires.
Councilmember James Oddo said this has been the third year in a row that Staten Island has had to rally to save their fire companies.
“All we keep hearing is that the city is broke, but a month from now we will pass a budget that will approach $70 billion. If you pass a $70 billion budget that has even one fire engine closed, you have a budget of misplaced priorities,” Oddo said.
“This is the priority of Staten Island, this is the priority of New Yorkers, respect that,” Oddo said in response to Bloomberg saying two weeks ago that “the city will never be as safe as it would be if we had a firehouse on every block.
That is just not practical.” Shouts of “that’s insulting,” came from a few members of the crowd at the mention of the mayor’s response.
The report containing the list, which was released on May 18, included Engine 157 and 161 from Staten Island. The report lists “surrounding companies are able to absorb workload” as one of the reasons for every company being closed.
Councilwoman Debi Rose said the average first response time for Engine 157 is 3 minutes and 26 seconds, and the second average response time is 4 minutes and 33 seconds. With this company closing, the estimated average first response time for the firehouse is said to go up to 5 minutes and 31 seconds. The list of reasons for closing firehouses includes “post-closing travel times are within acceptable limits” for Engine 157.
Uniformed Firefighters Association president Steve Cassidy said it takes two engines and one ladder truck to arrive before they can begin fighting fires.
Engine 157 ranks 173 out of 198 of total runs on the list of fire houses to close, and the report lists it as being “among the less active units, ranking low in total runs, medical runs, and occupied structural work.”
Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer said the city officials understood budget cuts needed to be made, and also had a solution.
“You’ve got to revisit all those outside consultants that you’re giving hundreds of millions of dollars to while essential services hang. Mr. Mayor, that’s our plan,” Stringer said.
Fire and Criminal Justice Chairwoman Elizabeth Crowley added that this one fire company costs less than $2 million a year to run, and hundreds of millions of dollars are going toward non-essential contracts in the city’s budget.
State Senator Diane Savino added that they would be rallying at every one of the 20 firehouses with companies slated to close.
“And on Friday, we’re going have a huge rally downtown in Manhattan, telling City Hall what we want,” Savino said.
Savino disapproved of the mayor’s plan and said if he had stood with some of the NYC elected officials in Albany to extend the high-earners’ taxes, they would have had the budget needed to cover these fire companies, the education cuts, and more. “But he wouldn’t stand with us because he thought he had a better plan. Well, this is the plan and it’s not acceptable.”
At noon on Friday, June 3, 1,000 people are expected to march across the Brooklyn bridge to Manhattan to join more protesters gathered at City Hall to demand that none of the fire companies close.
Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer said the city officials understood budget cuts needed to be made, and also had a solution.
“You’ve got to revisit all those outside consultants that you’re giving hundreds of millions of dollars to while essential services hang. Mr. Mayor, that’s our plan,” Stringer said.
Fire and Criminal Justice Chairwoman Elizabeth Crowley added that this one fire company costs less than $2 million a year to run, and hundreds of millions of dollars are going toward non-essential contracts in the city’s budget.
State Senator Diane Savino added that they would be rallying at every one of the 20 firehouses with companies slated to close.
“And on Friday, we’re going have a huge rally downtown in Manhattan, telling City Hall what we want,” Savino said.
Savino disapproved of the mayor’s plan and said if he had stood with some of the NYC elected officials in Albany to extend the high-earners’ taxes, they would have had the budget needed to cover these fire companies, the education cuts, and more. “But he wouldn’t stand with us because he thought he had a better plan. Well, this is the plan and it’s not acceptable.”
At noon on Friday, June 3, 1,000 people are expected to march across the Brooklyn bridge to Manhattan to join more protesters gathered at City Hall to demand that none of the fire companies close.
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