I’ve often observed that the worse an organization, public or private, is at performing its basic responsibilities, the more work it gets. Virtue signaling covers a multitude of sins and the biggest of these is incompetence.
Lefty cities are terrible at performing the most basic functions expected of government (I know, I’ve lived in the two biggest ones in this country), but never stop virtue signaling or throwing money at their lefty echo chamber consultants to figure out the latest buzzwords.
(The current one is equity.)
Meanwhile, basic things get worse.
In the Bronx, 19 people are dead, including 9 children, and there are plenty of injuries, including firefighters who tried to help.
Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said a door left ajar enabled the smoke to permeate the 19-story tower, known as Twin Parks Northwest.
A city law passed in 2018 after an earlier Bronx tragedy killed 12 required all apartment and stairway doors leading to corridors to be self-closing as of July 2021.
Well a law was passed.
Residents who spoke with THE CITY said the building had a faulty alarm system for years, going off at all hours of the day for false alarms, so it caught them off guard when the blaze on Sunday turned out to be all too real.
“Nobody paid attention because they were so used to it ringing all the time,” 51-year-old Tawanna Davis, who was rescued by firefighters from her apartment on the 15th floor, said from a nearby corner store on 181st Street and Valentine Avenue.
A fraction of the money that was sunk into various equity initiatives by the state and the city might have produced tangible improvements in basic things in low-income housing like this. But virtue signaling is more important and it’s still going on.
The building where the fire occurred housed a largely Muslim population, Adams said, with many immigrants from Gambia, a small nation on the west coast of Africa.
The mayor said that one priority will be to make sure that Islamic funeral and burial rites are respected. Another will be to seek Muslim leaders to connect with residents.
The names of people who request government assistance will not be turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Adams added.
Virtue signaling first. Basic functions last.
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