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The Fires: How A Computer Formula, Big Ideas, And The Best Of Intentions Burned Down New York City-and Determined The Future Of Cities (2010)

by Joe Flood(Favorite Author)

3.88 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

1594488983 (ISBN13: 9781594488986)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Riverhead Hardcover

review 1: "During the 1950s, city fire marshals attributed less than 1 percent of fires to arson. Until 1975, that ratio never rose above 1.1 percent. At its peak in the late 1970s, arson made up less than 7 percent of fires. What's more, arson occurred primarily in already burned-out, abandoned buildings -- after all, it made more sense to torch a building without rent-paying tenants than one that had at least some revenue coming in." (18)"If people do not believe that mathematics is simple, it is only because they do not realize how complicated life is." (quoting John Von Neumann, 73)"To figure out how much money the company [Ford] owed, they [the Whiz Kids] stacked up all the bills, measured them with a ruler, and through a formula of unknown provenance turned feet into dollar... mores." (78)"[B]y 1977, debt service made up a third of all city expenses." (237)
review 2: Thoroughly satisfying as a nerd-lite descent into the perils of trying to use statistical analysis to to turn societal ills into algebra. Veers into repetitiveness a few too many times in the middle, but what I liked most was the picture it painted of a moment in time when a small group of people's individual blind spots all happened to align, for different reasons, on the same spot (the Bronx) with catastrophic consequences. less

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