February 10th, 2022
Mayor of New York City Eric Adams
209 Joralemon Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201
Dear N.Y.C. Mayor Eric Adams:
I am a first-year college student who was born and raised in Queens, New York. As each year passes, I experience new aspects of the lively borough I grew up in, in addition to the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Manhattan. While I deeply love the city that raised me, I can’t deny the hardships that residents of the 5 boroughs, including my own family, face here.
The truth is that New York City does not provide equal opportunities to us all. Immigrants with less economic privilege in particular struggle with living here because their obstacles are interconnected and correlated with each other. Without a steady job or income, immigrants often resort to cheap living conditions, cheap food options, cheap health care, and more. It is a cyclical process of people not accessing standard means to survive, and then getting harmed by the circumstances that they were forced into. This is unfortunately and regrettably displayed through the Bronx apartment fire that claimed 17 lives last month, including 8 children.
The disastrous accident occurred when an electric space heater malfunctioned inside 333 East 181st Street, formerly known as Twin Parks North West. The source of the fire begs the question: why were the residents using space heaters? In your press conference that was held on the Monday after the incident, you stated, “There was no outstanding violation of our knowledge of a heat complaint in the building” (“NYC Mayor Eric Adams on deadly Bronx fire,” 26:25 - 26:40). However, records of the building show that tenants had recently complained about inadequate heating and that there had been seventeen outstanding violations at the time of the fire. Upon inspection of the accident, F.D.N.Y. Commissioner Daniel Nigro stated some of the doors within the apartment were not functioning properly, which suggests the building’s safety features were not up-to-date (Feldman).
Upon reviewing your recorded press conference, I’d like to note that you consistently emphasized there was a straightforward solution to stop the spread of fires: residents should close the doors (“NYC Mayor Eric Adams on deadly Bronx fire,” 25:53 - 26:18). This was especially infuriating to hear because instead of addressing the fact that the apartment building clearly has flaws that need improvement, much like the rest of the housing in our city, you demeaned this horrible tragedy and simplified it to an insulting point, placing responsibility on the tenants.
If the apartment had offered sufficient heat to the tenants, there would never be any need for space heaters in the first place. If anyone should be held accountable for the beginning and spread of the fire, it is negligent building owners and corporations who have the means to make changes, yet don’t. In our case, we have people like Rick Gropper, who partially owns Twin Parks and conveniently happens to be a member of your mayoral transition team.
In your words, “this is a global tragedy because the Bronx is representative of the ethnicity and cultures across the globe, and everyone is experiencing the pain that we are feeling” (“NYC Mayor Eric Adams on deadly Bronx fire,” 02:19 - 02:29). Indeed, the Bronx maintains very diverse communities; A majority of those in 333 East 181st Street were known to be Muslim immigrants from The Gambia, a country in West Africa. You neglected to mention that this tragic incident was even more so representative of the common issues that people from culturally diverse backgrounds face when living in our city. Referring back to my introductory claims, there is an evident, concerning connection between immigrants and unsafe housing conditions. They are pressured into settling for cheap buildings with outdated features that pose a threat to them and the rest of the community.
My heart goes out to the 17 people who lost their lives in the Bronx fire last month. My heart goes out to the 11 victims of Asian and Caribbean descent who died from Hurricane Ida’s heavy rainfall drowning them in their unsafe basement apartments last year (Okeowo). My heart goes out to every other immigrant who suffered such terrible circumstances and had no one to advocate for them.
What will it finally take for our elected representatives and officials to make a change that would actually benefit the residents of our city? How many more lives need to be stolen in order to convey that these unfortunate accidents, which disproportionately affect immigrants of lower classes, are preventable and avoidable?
As you may know, Councilmember Oswald Feliz is advocating for heating policies, specifically “strengthen heating requirements for apartments when the temperature drops below freezing” and “requiring the city to conduct more regular inspections” according to Gothamist reporter Jake Offenhartz. You, Mayor Adam
s, should follow suit and become a part of the solution as well.
You have the power to make a difference and ameliorate New Yorkers’ living conditions. I urge you and your team of affordable housing strategists to take responsible action against such systemic inequality and increase the quality of life across the city.
Bibliography
CBS News. “NYC Mayor Eric Adams on Deadly Bronx Fire | Full Video.” YouTube, 10 Jan. 2022, www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tM7dafC7OM.
Cullinane, Susannah, et al. “Space Heater Sparked Fire in the Bronx That Killed 17 People, Including 8 Children.” CNN, 10 Jan. 2022, www.cnn.com/2022/01/10/us/nyc-bronx-apartment-fire-monday/index.html.
Feldman, Ari Ephraim. “Records Show Complaints at Bronx Building Over Faulty Door, Lack of Heat.” Spectrum News NY1, 10 Jan. 2022, ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2022/01/10/records-show-complaints-at-bronx-building-over-faulty-door--lack-of-heat.
Offenhartz, Jake. “In The Wake of Bronx Fire, Councilmember Wants to Raise the Heat in NYC.” Gothamist, 20 Jan. 2022, gothamist.com/news/wake-bronx-fire-new-councilman-wants-raise-heat-nyc.
Okeowo, Alexis. “What a Fire in the Bronx Says About Immigrant Life in New York.” The New Yorker, 22 Jan. 2022, www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/what-a-fire-in-the-bronx-says-about-immigrant-life-in-new-york.
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