Aftermath of the fire September 5, 1985

 


 The smoke begins to clear after five whole days, but the press as put the issue of the fire itself on the back burner.

Who is responsible? What is the damage? What will happen to the people, city, even the criminals when all is said and done?

Strangely, the news media has learned the name of our part of town: Dundee. The estimated loss is at about $425 million.

Yet is a predicable loss. Over the last few months, we have been particularly conscious of fire. I got rid of tons of paper from the big apartment just in case something was destined to start inside it. When you live in a stick match apartment building like these, sparks become a concern.

But the Labor Fire was no accident, despite the rumors that circulated that day. Two boys, one 13, the other 15 claimed to be playing with matches behind one of the massive factory buildings when the garbage dumpster burst into flames.

All this sounds too familiar. Last summer I stopped two boys from running over a stray dog with their bikes. Shortly before that, two boys were charged with setting a homeless man on fire.

Were these the same boys? It seems potentially possible. Local hoodlums often talked about how isolated they are from the community.

Mayor Lipari, who is hardly free of sin himself, told CBS that he hopes to try the two boys as adults.

But Lipari must secretly applaud them since they seem to have accomplished something he has been trying to do since getting elected, how to clear out all the poor people to make way for luxury developments built by Helmsley Spear.

A strange coincidence happened yesterday up on Rifle Camp Road in West Paterson near Garret Mountain. Safire and I were watching a white cloud of smoke through one of those 25 cent a minute binocular when a park cop came up to empty the coin box. He told us he was Lipari’s cousin and how much easier it was going to be for the mayor to rebuild Passaic the way he wanted.

“Just start from scratch,” the man said. “The land will be cheap and easier to clear.”

Fire has always been a developer’s best friend.

Lipari has been trying for the last two years to get big developers interested in building in Passaic, primarily at the expense of local poor, planning condos and entertainment centers, upgrading property values and thus pushing the poor out in much the way Koch did in Manhattan.

It is a sin to be poor these days, to pay cheap rent and live frugally.

Unfortunately, nobody wanted any part of Lipari’s Manhattan project. Too expensive to clear the land, they said, turn of the century factories standing like monuments to a working man’s past – many of which existed until the fire as sweat shops of which Lipari was ashamed.

The fire changes everything, levels everything and everybody, rich and poor, giving new life to the mayor’s grand plans, our city like a phoenix expected to rise up out of its own ashes to become something magnificent, but also something only a handful of wealthy can afford, fancy housing, great sports venues.

Lipari’s plans could not have been better fulfilled had he hired the boys himself.

 

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