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

by Deborah Wallace, Rodrick Wallace

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.

Genres: Urban Studies, History, Nonfiction, New York

242 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1999

Reviews

[Asha · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book tackles the notorious fires and abandon buildings that over took NYC in 70's- 80's . This book proves that "policies create ghettos not people", and shows how really 20 years of urban renewal and policies are ultimately responsible for the "ghettos " that came about in Harlem , South Bronx, Bedstuy & Brownsville.

Unfortunately, like most social science books it focuses on only one theory and only provides a puzzle piece to whole story. The authors skim on key factors like fiscal crisis, specific segregating practices like redlining and details of community disruption from highway building. Background information on the loss of jobs due to de-industrialization & globalization would have provided more context. Finally, the authors should have given specific examples of how accidental fires are more prevalent in poor households, such as using stove for heat, candles during power outage.

Despite these concerns, it does provide a comprehensive discussion of the prejudicial policies that turns neighborhoods and the ultimate consequences ( is drugs, infections etc). I definitely gained a greater understanding after reading.

[Meghan · Rating 5 out of 5]

if you are at all interested in new york politics and urban/social science/public health stuff, this hits all marks. truly eye-opening.

[Tchaiko]

this book really broke down how hiv/aids and crack were able to spread thru the black community and latino community in nyc. it also gives a great history of how new york's urban planning was molded by robert moses and others and how this adversely affected poor, blk, latino and how it broke up the voting liberal jewish block.
fascinating, made me miss being a student.

[Karen Kohoutek · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was a little intimidated by this, because there's some math (including square roots!) and a number of graphs, but I was able to read the text explaining it, and it wasn't incomprehensible at all! So if you're interested, don't be put off. I picked this up because it was cited in some of Mindy Thompson Fullilove's books, and I'd like to see an equally clearly-written follow-up using its insights for the age of gentrification of COVID. The focus here is on the social policies in New York City that removed fire fighting resources from areas most in need of them (a deeply angering story, and there's a good documentary called "Decade of Fire" about this, which you can find on YouTube), and the multiple public health impacts that followed.

The authors trace spreads of illness (and related issues that have a socially contagious element) in multiple ways: from one large metro area to another, and in an outward cycle from a hard-hit "inner city" that radiates into suburbs and more affluent areas. The pattern is (simplistically) that a disease will first be noted and spread rapidly within specific communities (where there is overcrowding and poor sanitation, through no fault of the population other than being the victims of racist housing practices and economic disadvantage). There are few resources, and little public interest, so by the time the disease begins its inevitable spread into whiter and wealthier areas, it has become much more difficult to control.

The other main point, and the one that hearkens back to the policies of "benign neglect" and "planned shrinkage" that led to NY neighborhoods burning down, is that physical displacements of neighborhood residents hasten the spread of illness (and things like drug addiction) in relatively predictable patterns throughout an entire state, and across the country. The loss of housing inevitably leads to overcrowding somewhere else, which is an important factor in susceptibility to illness and social disorders. So they're using the math to show that we are interconnected, and no gated communities can prevent this.

Lots of food for thought, and leading me to further research!