Local Law 5

Sometimes the landlords of New York City’s high-rise office buildings must get so angry at City bureaucrats that they want to burn down their own buildings out of spite. Trouble is, high-rise office buildings just don’t burn that easily. But that hasn’t stopped the City from imposing a draconian fire code—and therein lies another chapter in the collapse of New York City.

Once upon a time, back in the late nineteenth century, New York City had a series of spectacular fires out of whose ashes grew a stringent building code, which seems to have afforded the citizens remarkable protection. At least, following the adoption of the code, there have been very few deaths caused by fire in high-rise office buildings (buildings more than a hundred feet high—the distance fire-department ladders can reach). And most people assume—post hoc ergo propter hoc—that it is the building code that has been responsible.

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Daniel Oliver

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Sometimes the landlords of New York City’s high-rise office buildings must get so angry at City bureaucrats that they want to burn down their own buildings out of spite. Trouble is, high-rise office buildings just don’t burn that easily. But that hasn’t stopped the City from imposing a draconian fire code—and therein lies another chapter in the collapse of New York City.

Once upon a time, back in the late nineteenth century, New York City had a series of spectacular fires out of whose ashes grew a stringent building code, which seems to have afforded the citizens remarkable protection. At least, following the adoption of the code, there have been very few deaths caused by fire in high-rise office buildings (buildings more than a hundred feet high—the distance fire-department ladders can reach). And most people assume—post hoc ergo propter hoc—that it is the building code that has been responsible.