Brooklyn is burning and arson is suspected.

I first became suspicious when 1033 Pacific Street burned down, killing four people. It was while reading about this fire that I became aware that there has been an unusual spike in suspicious fires in Central Brooklyn. What particularly struck me was how many of those suspicious fires were around the area Bruce Ratner wants to develop. It was one of those thoughts you don’t like having. When you make a connection that is far fetched and disturbing, but does fit the facts. There is a huge push to declare the entire region blighted so Ratner can come and develop it. It isn’t just Atlantic Yards. There are surrounding neighborhoods that have already been promised to Ratner by Pataki and Bloomberg, a fact that was only made public because of a freedom of information act request by the group Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn.

My wife and I both had the same thought: that the sudden spate of suspicious fires was awfully convenient for Ratner’s plan to declare the area blighted. Coincidence? Quite possibly. But it is a disturbing thought. I pushed that thought aside because although Ratner certainly employs thugs to push his agenda (I have encountered some), I have never witnessed any sign of anything beyond run of the mill, in-your-face intimidation. In fact I even saw Ratner foe, Letitia James, diffuse that intimidation by essentially going up to the thugs and hugging them, leaving them rather sheepish looking.

Last night two politicians independently raised the same specter of arson in Brooklyn at the Park Slope Democracy for NYC meeting. This time the suspicious fire was the massive Greenpoint warehouse fire. First Wellington Sharpe, running for Assembly in the 58th district, then Bill Batson, running for Assembly in the 57th district, called the recent fires in Central Brooklyn and now at the waterfront arson and linked them with the plans to overdevelop Brooklyn.

The Greenpoint warehouse fire was one of the largest fires in NYC in recent years. It spread so rapidly that the police suspect arson. What raised eyebrows at the DFNYC meeting was the revelation that the warehouses that burnt were the focus of a fight to declare them landmarks, which would interfere with plans to develop the Williamsburg/Greenpoint waterfront. The fire occurred mere days before the meeting scheduled to discuss landmark status for the warehouses. Coincidence? Quite possibly. But once again I am disturbed by the implications.

Another explanation for the sudden spate of Brooklyn fires is Bloomberg’s closing of firehouses. The Central Brooklyn fires have been occurring in the very neighborhoods that are now distant from firehouses since Bloomberg’s mass closing of firehouses to “save money.”

Neglect or arson? Either explanation is a condemnation of NYC. Is Brooklyn burning because Bloomberg wants to save some money or is it because developers want to get inconvenient buildings and people out of the way.

Wellington Sharpe and Bill Batson expressed deep concern that these fires are deliberate attempts to push undesirable communities (mainly blacks) out of Brooklyn so that developers can build more office space and housing for the wealthy. They also expressed concern that the development, aided intentionally or unintentionally by the fires, is destroying the diverse culture and heritage that Brooklyn should be proud of. Batson in particular finds it interesting that black heritage sites like the Harriet Tubman museum are among the first things to be destroyed by the new development. Batson suspects that there is an effort to destroy black heritage in Brooklyn as a prelude to pushing out poor blacks to make room for the wealthy.

Bill Batson called it the Disnification of NYC through Arson. This is a phrase that just might be a true and chilling picture of our future. I am not one to believe conspiracy theories. I think 9/11 was carried out by al-Qaeda and that the Bush administration was guilty only of incompetence and hubris, not complicity. I believe that JFK was killed by Oswald’s bullet. I do not believe that vast, evil conspiracies are common. But arson for insurance money and arson to drive out residents blocking real estate deals do occasionally happen. And anytime there is an unusual spike in fires, we have to consider that the fires are being set intentionally and are benefiting someone. This cannot be merely dismissed as paranoia.

Do I really believe that developers are burning down Brooklyn to make it easier for them to rebuild? I certainly don’t want to believe it! But whether neglect or deliberate destruction is destroying the diverse and unique Brooklyn we all love, it is still a trend that is horrible and disastrous. Katrina wasn’t caused by Bush, but the disaster that befell New Orleans was the fault of deliberate neglect of the infrastructure on the Gulf Coast. The fires of Brooklyn are at best the result of similar deliberate neglect by the Republican Bloomberg administration that closed our fire houses. At worst it is an example of criminal acts by people who want to profit from Brooklyn’s loss. At a bare minimum we need our firehouses back. But we also need a thorough investigation into why Brooklyn is burning.

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