FDNY

This is third of a series of “special messages” on my plans as Mayor.

“A first-term mayor, facing a budget crunch, shuts a firehouse, assuring neighboring residents that their community will remain safe. But, within days of the closing, a blaze sweeps through a home near the shuttered company. Two men die.”

— Gotham Gazette, August 11, 2003

Past Mayoral administrations have disserved our brave fire fighters and EMS professionals, and, more broadly, the public. Two problems are most notable. As Mayor, I will address both.

First, past administrations closed fire houses and did not make fire safety a priority in areas with booming populations, nor did they provide enough EMS stations to speed response times. I will reopen or build fire houses and EMS stations where they are desperately needed. I will start with Engine Company 261 in Queens (LIC), and then tackle the needs of Harlem (in the vicinity of the Apollo Theater), Staten Island (South Shore), Brooklyn (Cobble Hill), and Manhattan (Hudson Yards). I will also place address a critical problem in the Bronx: we lack facilities to respond to incidents involving toxic or hazardous materials. I will solve that.

Second, the current administration has intruded on fire-safety-plan reviews, allowing big developers with favored projects (or those who made big campaign contributions) to jump the review queue. I will address the issue of FDNY independence in at least three ways.

The next FDNY Commissioner will be selected by a Blue Ribbon Panel in my Policy Council—the members of which all bravely served FDNY. Former FDNY Chief of Department James Leonard will serve as Chair of the Panel. The Panel will give me three candidates. I will choose from among them. I will never use appointments as political favors, as we saw in the current administration.
The fire-safety-plan-review process will have a newly appointed gatekeeper, whose job will be to ensure no one gets preferential treatment.
But I will create a special unit for large development projects, staffing it with a multi-disciplinary team of experts, so that (a) tall buildings are safer and (b) large developments can move through the process faster and more reliably. The special unit will include experts from FDNY and the Department of Buildings. I will partner with REBNY to get this done.

This is my promise. You have it in writing. Hold me accountable.

Jim Walden,

Candidate for Mayor