Mayor and Council fiddling while NYC burns

From the NY Times:

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and the City Council, reacting to a spate of recent deaths involving fires in illegally subdivided apartments, announced a program on Tuesday to crack down on the practice.

Calling illegal conversions a “serious danger to New Yorkers,” Mr. Bloomberg said the city would prioritize complaints based on historical risk factors and send teams of workers to the most dangerous apartments within 48 hours.

The risk factors identified by the city include whether a building was constructed before 1938, whether it is located in an area with a history of dangerous fires and whether the property is in foreclosure.

Most housing was built after 1938 (including many buildings with walk-in basements for the express purpose of illegal conversion), many of the fires did not happen in areas with history of fires or high rates of foreclosures. This program will not do dick. This is like putting a band-aid on a severed limb. And they are using the FDNY to gain access to these units...an agency which they are planning to gut.