A glut of vacant apartments and office space, empty hotel rooms, closed restaurants and entertainment venues, shuttered retail storefronts — all such signposts of the current economic plight of New York undermine the city’s glittering boom of the past two decades.

Yet as explained by the late radical urbanist Robert Fitch and others, all are outgrowths of the city’s FIRE economy, meaning the finance, insurance, and real estate sectors that have dominated the city since the mid-1970s. Those same interests propelled the rise of gentrification, tourism, and the various culture industries that have helped create a “luxury city” that caters to the middle and upper classes.

In the wake of past economic crises, including the fiscal collapse of 1975 and 9/11, the FIRE elite has mobilized behind their preferred candidate for mayor. In 1977, that figure was Ed Koch, and during his three terms, he helped enact the new blueprint, starting in Midtown Manhattan. A member of that same elite, during his three terms, Mike Bloomberg then brought that blueprint to Brooklyn and Queens, rezoning manufacturing areas along the East River waterfront in order to make way for condo towers.