When the Bronx Burned
When the Bronx Burned

Author: John J. Finucane

Publisher:

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 236

ISBN-13: 9780595428304

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In the South Bronx during the 1960s and 70s, unscrupulous landlords and their torch-men set in motion a murderous wave of arson-for-profit, driving hundreds of thousands of people from their homes and injuring, maiming, and killing thousands more-including firefighters. Yet New York's mayor consistently refuses to give the fire department the manpower it needs to investigate the arson, and thousands of suspicious fires go uninvestigated. Jackie Mulligan and his brother firefighters stand up to the heartless evil of the slumlords by demanding that the mayor take action. But when the mayor refuses, Mulligan and his men take a stand against the arsonists, putting their jobs-and their lives-on the line. For Mulligan, the fight has become personal. And there will be only one winner. " John Finucane has written a riveting and fast moving novel Not only does he nail the drama in a way only an experienced firefighter can, he literally puts the reader inside the fire scene Reading John Finucane's comprehensive description brought back memories of my admiration for firefighters everywhere." -Charles J. Hynes Kings County District Attorney Former Fire Commissioner of NYC Author of first novel, Triple Homicide "For twenty years John Finucane breathed the acrid smoke, hauled the heavy hoses, and climbed the telescoping ladders for New York City's heroic fire department. He now writes about it from the gut-with verve, power, and poignancy. This is a fireman's fireman, pulling no punches and telling the story of a firefighter in New York's grittiest neighborhoods during the turbulent 1960s and 70s." -Roger D. McGrath, Ph.D. Author, Gunfighters, Highwaymen & Vigilantes Featured Commentator on the History Channel

Before the Fires
Before the Fires

Author: Mark Naison

Publisher: Fordham Univ Press

Published: 2016-09-01

Total Pages: 195

ISBN-13: 0823273547

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Residents of the South Bronx during its promising postwar decades tell their stories in their own words. In the 1930s, word spread in Harlem that there were spacious apartments for rent in the Morrisania section of the Bronx. Landlords, desperate to avoid foreclosure, began putting signs in windows and placing ads in New York’s black newspapers that said “We rent to select colored families”—by which they meant those with a securely employed wage earner and light complexions. Black families moved in by the score, beginning a period in which the Bronx served as a borough of hope and upward mobility. Chronicling a time when African Americans were suspended between the best and worst possibilities of New York City, Before the Fires tells the personal stories of men and women who lived in the South Bronx before the social and economic decline of the late 1960s. Located on a hill overlooking a large industrial district, Morrisania offered migrants from Harlem, the South, and the Caribbean an opportunity to raise children in a neighborhood with better schools, strong churches, more shopping, less crime, and clean air. It also boasted vibrant music venues, giving rise to such titans as Herbie Hancock, Eddie Palmieri, Valerie Simpson, the Chantels, and Jimmy Owens. Rich in detail, these interviews describe growing up and living in communities rarely mentioned in other histories. Before the Fires captures the optimism of the period—as well as the heartache of what was lost in the urban crisis and the burning of the Bronx. “Excellent . . . profound, moving.” —Robert W. Snyder, Rutgers University, Newark

Bronx Is Burning
Bronx Is Burning

Author: Al Efron

Publisher:

Published: 2019-03-04

Total Pages: 111

ISBN-13: 9781798674314

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The story of New York during the period in the 1960s & 70s when unscrupulous landlords and tenants were setting fire to their buildings to take advantage of rent control and insurance rules.

South Bronx Battles
South Bronx Battles

Author: Carolyn McLaughlin

Publisher: University of California Press

Published: 2019-05-21

Total Pages: 362

ISBN-13: 0520288998

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Community activist Carolyn McLaughlin takes us on a journey of the South Bronx through the eyes of its community members. Facing burned-out neighborhoods of the 1970s, the community fought back. McLaughlin illustrates the spirit of the community in creating a vibrant, diverse culture and its decades-long commitment to develop nonprofit housing and social-services, and to advocate for better education, health care, and a healthier environment. For the South Bronx to remain a safe haven for poor families, maintaining affordable housing is the central—but most challenging—task. South Bronx Battles is the comeback story of a community that was once in crisis but now serves as a beacon for other cities to rebuild, while keeping their neighborhoods affordable.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning

Author: Jonathan Mahler

Publisher: Macmillan

Published: 2006-03-21

Total Pages: 380

ISBN-13: 9780312424305

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By early 1977, the metropolis was in the grip of hysteria caused by a murderer dubbed "Son of Sam." And on a sweltering night in July, a citywide power outage touched off an orgy of looting and arson that led to the largest mass arrest in New York's history. As the turbulent year wore on, the city became absorbed in two epic battles: the fight between Yankee slugger Reggie Jackson and team manager Billy Martin, and the battle between Ed Koch and Mario Cuomo for the city's mayoralty. Buried beneath these parallel conflicts, one for the soul of baseball, the other for the soul of the city, was the subtext of race. The brash and confident Jackson took every black myth and threw it back in white America's face. Meanwhile, Koch and Cuomo ran bitterly negative campaigns that played upon urbanites' fears of soaring crime and falling municipal budgets. These braided stories tell the history of a year that saw the opening of Studio 54, the evolution of punk rock, and the dawning of modern SoHo. As the pragmatist Koch defeated the visionary Cuomo and as Reggie Jackson finally rescued a team racked with dissension,1977 became a year of survival but also of hope. -- Publishers description.

Report from Engine Co. 82
Report from Engine Co. 82

Author: Dennis Smith

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Published: 2009-09-26

Total Pages: 165

ISBN-13: 0759521425

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From his bawdy and brave fellow firefighters to the hopeful, hateful, beautiful and beleaguered residents of the poverty-stricken district where he works, Dennis Smith tells the story of a brutalising yet rewarding profession.

A Plague on Your Houses
A Plague on Your Houses

Author: Deborah Wallace

Publisher: Verso

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 246

ISBN-13: 9781859842539

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A Plague on Your Houses is a scorching indictment of the decision to close fire companies in New York in the 1970s and a frightening study of the way misguided and malevolent social policy can spark a chain reaction of enormous and unforeseen urban collapse.

South Bronx Rising
South Bronx Rising

Author: Jill Jonnes

Publisher: Fordham Univ Press

Published: 2022-10-04

Total Pages: 380

ISBN-13: 1531501222

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Thirty-five years after this landmark of urban history first captured the rise, fall, and rebirth of a once-thriving New York City borough—ravaged in the 1970s and ’80s by disinvestment and fires, then heroically revived and rebuilt in the 1990s by community activists—Jill Jonnes returns to chronicle the ongoing revival of the South Bronx. Though now globally renowned as the birthplace of hip-hop, the South Bronx remains America’s poorest urban congressional district. In this new edition, we meet the present generation of activists who are transforming their communities with the arts and greening, notably the restoration of the Bronx River. For better or worse, real estate investors have noticed, setting off new gentrification struggles.

Nonstop Metropolis
Nonstop Metropolis

Author: Rebecca Solnit

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2016-10-19

Total Pages: 232

ISBN-13: 0520285948

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Nonstop Metropolis,Êthe culminating volume in a trilogy of atlases, conveys innumerable unbound experiences of New York City through twenty-six imaginative maps and informative essays. Bringing together the insights of dozens of expertsÑfrom linguists to music historians, ethnographers, urbanists, and environmental journalistsÑamplified by cartographers, artists, and photographers, it explores all five boroughs of New York City and parts of nearby New Jersey. We are invited to travel through ManhattanÕs playgrounds, from polyglot Queens to many-faceted Brooklyn, and from the resilient Bronx to the mystical kung fu hip-hop mecca of Staten Island. The contributors to this exquisitely designed and gorgeously illustrated volume celebrate New York CityÕs unique vitality, its incubation of the avant-garde, and its literary history, but they also critique its racial and economic inequality, environmental impact, and erasure of its past.ÊNonstop MetropolisÊallows us to excavate New YorkÕs buried layers, to scrutinize its political heft, and to discover the unexpected in one of the most iconic cities in the world. It is both a challenge and homage to how New Yorkers think of their city, and how the world sees this capital of capitalism, culture, immigration, and more. Contributors:ÊSheerly Avni,ÊGaiutra Bahadur,ÊMarshall Berman,ÊJoe Boyd,ÊWill Butler,ÊGarnette Cadogan,ÊThomas J. Campanella,ÊDaniel Aldana Cohen,ÊTeju Cole,ÊJoel Dinerstein,ÊPaul La Farge,ÊFrancisco Goldman,ÊMargo Jefferson,ÊLucy R. Lippard,ÊBarry Lopez,ÊValeria Luiselli,ÊSuketu Mehta,ÊEmily Raboteau, Molly Roy, Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts,ÊLuc Sante,ÊHeather Smith,ÊJonathan Tarleton,ÊAstra Taylor,ÊAlexandra T. Vazquez,ÊChristina Zanfagna Interviews with:ÊValerie Capers, Peter Coyote, Grandmaster Caz,ÊGrand Wizzard Theodore,ÊMelle Mel, RZA

The Bronx
The Bronx

Author: Evelyn Gonzalez

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2007-01-05

Total Pages: 298

ISBN-13: 0231121156

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The Bronx is a fascinating history of a singular borough, mapping its evolution from a loose cluster of commuter villages to a densely populated home for New York's African American and Hispanic populations. In recounting the varied and extreme transformations this community has undergone, Evelyn Gonzalez argues that racial discrimination, rampant crime, postwar liberalism, and big government were not the only reasons for the urban crisis that assailed the Bronx during the late 1960s. Rather, a combination of population shifts, public housing initiatives, economic recession, and urban overdevelopment caused its decline. Yet she also proves that ongoing urbanization and neighborhood fluctuations are the very factors that have allowed the Bronx to undergo one of the most successful and inspiring community revivals in American history. The process of building and rebuilding carries on, and the revitalization of neighborhoods and a resurgence of economic growth continue to offer hope for the future.