Local News: New York's biggest fire since you-know-what

[womzilla]

I was at the Flatiron Building Wednesday for the weekly NYRSF meeting, and David pointed out that smoke was still visible from the smoldering remains of the Terminal Market fire in Brooklyn on Tuesday. Rather an eeire sight--billows of grey fog snaking through the buildings of the upper Lower East Side, on a bright sunshiney evening.

Strong suspicion is of fire; the owner of the unused market wanted to demolish it to build condos; although this article from the Boston Globe says that the owner had the permits to demolish the site, I've heard that there were landmark questions that might keep him from doing exactly what he wanted. Or it could have been squatters, or some other accidental blaze.

The main thing, though, is that I'm amazed, given the location of the fire, that neither of NYC's tabloids used the headline "Greenpoint Burnt".

Comments

[pnh.livejournal.com]

Um, perhaps I am being slow. Are you making a joke on the fact that, in the local neighborhood diction, "Greenpoint" is often pronounced "Greenprnt"?

[womzilla.livejournal.com]

That's it, indeed, a spoken rhyme and visual anti-rhyme. Perfect for a tabloid headline.
(There was a Rocky & Bullwinkle storyline in 1960 now known as "Greenpernt Oogle", so that pronunciation has been canonical for a long time.)

[readwrite.livejournal.com]

Another possible motive for arson, which has been pointed out on curbed.com, is removal of environmentally sensitive materials during the demolition. Up in smoke--end of problem.

It seems pretty clear that it was an arson fire; whether it's linked to the landlord is the million-dollar question.