Thread by @annia

The fire was caused by a space heater. Meaning the fire was caused by a landlord.

People using space heaters means a. broken windows, or b. landlord illegally withholding heat.

This building has 174 violations. Including for heat.

Is @NYCMayor going to do something about this?

https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1480302155999457285

The complaint history for this building. Note the frequent complaints of NO HEAT:

Here's the ownership of the building. The man listed as landlord, Rick Gropper, is on @NYCMayor's transition team—for housing:

Reliant is associated with 123 other buildings in New York City. Most of them in low-income neighborhoods.

whoownswhat.justfix.nyc/en/address/BRO…

If you've ever gone to tenant meetings in low-income Black & Brown neighborhoods, you know that one of the most frequent complaints is low or no heat. Often coupled with broken windows.

The investors who own these properties lavish $$$$ on politicians instead of on repairs.

The amazing inspectors @NYCHousing do an incredible job of following up on these complaints, btw. But it's a neverending battle—for slumlords, paying fines & buying politicians is almost always cheaper than doing actual repairs.

https://twitter.com/Jomairabsp/status/1266928848752521220

Sure, cops save lives. So do housing inspectors.

Imagine if we had as many housing inspectors as cops.

Imagine if politicians cared about renters.

Imagine if sleazy landlords didn't run this city—and don't forget, our last president started out as a New York City slumlord.

Imagine if politicians cared as much about these people

Including "the Death Towers"

nytimes.com/2020/05/26/nyr…

As they do about these people

Correction: the pic on the top left is Reliant Group, NOT Reliant Realty Services (yes, two different realty groups, both specializing in multifamily affordable housing, with almost exactly the same name). The other three screenshots, however, are the Reliant in question. Whew

For background on affordable housing in the Bronx, read this superb piece by the great Eileen Markey—just posted today:
newrepublic.com/article/164915…

More on buildings like this, from Eileen's excellent piece. This tragedy was so predictable:

1998: "They would not have died if they had stayed in their apartments."
—then-NYC mayor Rudolph Giuliani, blaming the victims of a high-rise inferno for [checks notes] dying

2021: "Be careful with these space heaters," Rep. @RitchieTorres abcn.ws/3GbyEQt

Thanks to @dmsouthasia for digging up the archives on this 1998 fire, which he covered back in his salad days as one of @Newsday's inkstained wretches

Friends, if you want to help the people displaced by this fire, here's a Google doc with a list of groups and ways to help: docs.google.com/document/d/1-d…