A Plague on Your Houses How New York Was

A Plague on Your Houses is a scorching indictment of the decision to close fire companies in New York City 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. Using an approach more commonly associated with epidemiology, Deborah and Rodrick Wallace paint a terrifying picture of rampant social collapse spreading in the patterns of a pandemic plague.

Deborah Wallace is the author of In the Mouth of the Dragon: Toxic Fires in the Age of Plastics and, with Rodrick Wallace, Studies on the Collapse of the Fire Service in New York City. She works as an ecologist for Consumers’ union.

Rodrick Wallace is a research scientist in the Department of Mental Health Epidemiology at the New York State Psychiatric institute.

Acknowledgments

vii

Preface

xi

Introduction

xv

PART ONE

Introduction to Part One: Baptism by Fire

3

(6)

Setting the Scene

9

(12)

Benign Neglect and Planned Shrinkage

21

(26)

A Plague on Houses: Contagious Fires

47

(36)

PART TWO

Introduction to Part Two: Epidemics

81

(2)

Tuberculosis: The Captain of All the Men of Death

83

(26)

Substance Abuse

109

(14)

AIDS: Incurable and Fatal

123

(14)

Epidemics Galore

137

(22)

PART THREE

Introduction to Part Three: Beyond New York City and Policy

157

(2)

Metropolitan Region and Nation

159

(26)

Policy to Heal the Wounds

185

(10)

The 1990s: Fighting the Symptoms

195

(12)

Notes

207

(10)

Index

217

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A Plague on Your Houses How New York Was Burned Down and National Public Health Crumbled

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials