Fighting To Stay Alive

The City Council last Friday proposed $13.5 million in alternate FDNY budget cuts, hoping to save eight firehouses presently slated for closure.
"Keeping our firehouses fully manned and maintaining low response times is more important than ever," said Joe Addabbo. "The councils proposal will maintain community firehouses and protect neighborhoods."
The four-cornered plan includes improvement of EMS revenue collection, the hiring of new firefighters to share overtime, reduction of the departments civilian personnel, and corporate sponsorship of five firehouses. Acquiring $1.6 million in sponsorship for firehouses over a three-year period is a recent project involving the city and the Uniformed Firefighters Association.
The plan would save almost $3 million dollars more than eliminating the eight firehouses would have, according to the councils calculations.
A statement by Mayor Michael Bloombergs press office called the councils plan an attack on the "commission they insisted on creating and even made several appointments to." But Council Speaker Gifford Miller called the proposals alternatives to be considered by the blue-ribbon commission appointed by the council and mayor.
"This city has a number of talented economists and fiscal experts," said Miller. "That we cannot find alternative means of meeting our budget without jeopardizing the lives of New Yorkers defies common sense."
"Cutting the Fire Department through closures should be the endgame for the administration," said Addabbo.
In a Friday statement, the council said that some of the proposed closures are intended for "densely populated low-income neighborhoods that are predominately black and Latino."
Brooklyn Council Members Diana Reyna and Erik Martin-Dilan, whose districts lie side-by-side, could see three firehouse eliminated. Reynas district includes Bushwick, which has seen several devastating fires in recent years.
Eric Gioia , whose district will lose Engine Company 261, said: "This is not quality of life were talking about. This is life. Engine 261 in Long Island City is one of the first units that responds to the two largest public-housing developments in the city. It is also one of just a few engines that serves Roosevelt Island."