Hillary Clinton vs. Christine Quinn

The story that seems to have been intentionally leaked, or planted in The New York Times, that Mayor Michael Bloomberg approached Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to run for mayor in 2013 is full of half-truths. First, it was an attempt to saddle Mrs. Clinton in another public office, so that she would not run for president in 2016, a win for Republicans. Second, it was an attempt to make it appear that Mayor Bloomberg was not so invested in electioneering machinations to clear the Democratic Primary field for the mayoralty, so that Speaker Christine Quinn could have an easier time at winning, because, as we all know, the only way that she can win is if a billionaire Republican with his own Super PAC would interfere with the election process.

From The Wall Street Journal :

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg organized an awkward show of unity with City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, standing side by side at a press conference Tuesday following reports that he had discussed next year’s mayoral race with Hillary Clinton.

Quinn, of course, is the mayor’s political ally and the potential candidate widely viewed as his favored successor. Bloomberg on Tuesday didn’t confirm or deny a report in the New York Times that he has sought to lure Clinton into the race.

When asked why he recommended that the current U.S. secretary of state consider running for mayor, Bloomberg replied: “Why do you think I encouraged Hillary Clinton to run for mayor? I mean, were you — did you hear me say that?”

“I have run for mayor three times, successfully each one,” he added. “I considered a fourth. Chris [Quinn] and I talked about it. She kept urging me to do it. But I said, ‘No. It’s enough.’ ”

The mayor was joking about running for a fourth term. As he did so, Quinn made a face and motioned with her hand to suggest Bloomberg was talking crazy.

In 2008, Quinn reversed her position on term limits and persuaded her colleagues in the City Council to overturn the law, paving the way for the Bloomberg to run for a third term in 2009. As she pursues an expected mayoral campaign in 2013, her position on term limits will certainly be brought up by her opponents.

On Tuesday morning, however, Bloomberg focused more on extolling Quinn’s leadership. He said her role in the council had been a major factor in his success at City Hall.

The two politicians were speaking at a news conference marking the ground breaking at a 26-acre development on Manhattan’s West Side. During the mayor’s first term in office, he attempted unsuccessfully to win approval to build a stadium at this location — marking one of his biggest setbacks. Quinn, who was not yet speaker, fought aggressively against the stadium.

Bloomberg did not dwell on that Tuesday. “This woman has made an enormous difference in this city,” he said of Quinn. “She’s a leader and I have nothing but respect for her.”

When asked if he’s dissatisfied with the current crop of mayoral candidates, the mayor said: “I don’t know who’s going to run. But if you want to start a fight between me and Chris Quinn, you’re not going to do it. It’s cheap, lousy journalism.”

For her part, Quinn said she thought Clinton would make an excellent mayor. Clinton, a former U.S. senator from New York, is planning to step down as secretary of state next year and is being discussed as a potential Democratic candidate for president in 2016.

“You know, I think Hillary Clinton would excel in any position she ever takes. And why do I say that? Because she has,” Quinn said. “I don’t think there’s anything Hillary Clinton would put her mind to that she wouldn’t do extremely, extremely well — better than maybe anybody else who’s ever done it.”

Interfaith Files For Bankruptcy, May Become Tenth Hospital To Close Under Christine Quinn

Interfaith Medical Center Filed For Bankruptcy.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo empaneled a consulting group called the Medicaid Redesign Team headed by investment banker Stephen Berger. The last consulting group headed by Mr. Berger came to be known as the Berger Commission. The tasks of both groups was the same : to identify hospitals to close down, so that New York State could implement cuts to the state's healthcare budget.

In the latest development, Interfaith Medical Center in Brooklyn filed for bankruptcy. The Medicaid Redesign Team has identified three hospitals in Brooklyn, which serve uninsured and underinsured patients for closing ; one of these was Interfaith.

How the Cuomo administration plans to carry out the closings is to merge the financially unstable hospitals together in some combinations, so that that the hospitals can hemorrhage money faster, so that they can end up collapsing under the weight of their combined debts.

Interfaith officials told The New York Times that turning over operational control to Brooklyn Hospital without the state’s first promising the financing needed to keep Interfaith going would be tantamount to a covert plan to close Interfaith in a year and a half or so.

A similar money-losing arrangement was made between a string of hospitals lead by St. Vincent's, which lead to the financial collapse of each hospital : St. Vincent's, St. Johns Queens Hospital, and Mary Immaculate Hospital.

Because the Medicaid Redesign Team's sole purpose has been to make even deeper cuts to the state's healthcare budget, Gov. Cuomo's austerity plan is responsible for the bankruptcy filing. In letters to state officials, Nathan M. Barotz, the chairman of Interfaith's board of trustees, has said that a 2010 cut in Medicaid reïmbursement rates cost Interfaith 40 percent of its inpatient revenue and precipitated its current crisis.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, so many New York City hospitals endured damage. There is a shortage of functioning hospitals right now.

One hospital executive, Michael Dowling, is trying to profit from the disaster that Hurricane Sandy has caused to his competition. Mr. Dowling is head of the parent-holding company of Lenox Hill Hospital. Mr. Dowling opposes opening anymore hospitals, because Lenox Hill Hospital is now making record amounts of money from an influx of patients from the damaged hospitals with which he competes.

NYU Langone Hospital, Bellevue Hospital, and Coney Island Hospital were evaucated after each hospital suffered damage and power failures. None of these hospitals have been able to return to 100% functioning levels. How can it make sense for Gov. Cuomo to keep forcing hospitals to close ?

Related : With Some Hospitals Closed After Hurricane, E.R.’s at Others Overflow

If Interfaith does indeed close, it will become the tenth hospital to close since Christine Quinn became speaker of the New York City Council in 2006.

NYC Hurricane Sandy - Michael Dowling North Shore-LIJ Hospital Evacuations #EPICFAIL

Why is it acceptable for us to allow hospitals go through such desperate attempts to equally and adequately fund the healthcare needs of patients ? Look at the consequences of the blackouts of New York City hospitals in Lower Manhattan.

The issue before us is whether the rebuilding of our hospitals will continue to favour wealthy institutions, which primarily serve the well-insured, or will we use this opportunity to examine and fix the unequal distribution of healthcare in New York created by the Berger Commission ?

As it is, we are on a path that will continue to force us to accept less and less. Look at how nursing homes were instructed by health officials not to evacuate, and then they are criticised by the Department of Health for unacceptable conditions compounded precisely because they were instructed not to evacuate. Is this acceptable ?

If we believe in the dignity and equality of all people, then our healthcare system must be reformed to provide patient care-centered healthcare, to equally meet the needs of all patients. Please support a truly universal, single-payer healthcare system.

Bill Rudin, Marathon Organisers Hoarding 41 Generators Whilst NYC Still In Dark

Mayor Concedes To Critics : Cancels Marathon : What Took So Long ?

Race organisers, including the Rudin Family, the New York Road Runners Club, and ING, used Mayor Michael Bloomberg to be the fall guy for criticism about the city using valuable resources to hold the New York City Marathon. Yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg was forced to cancel the marathon after The New York Post reported that at least 41 generators were being hoarded by race officials. Meanwhile, large numbers of New York City residents were rendered homeless with little to no resources for food, shelter, heat, health, or safety in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.

Many storm victims were outraged at all the resources, not just power generators, that were being hoarded by marathon organisers for the sole benefit of runners.

"Runners were set to dine on a lavish Saturday-evening pre-race meal that included lemon-thyme chicken with shallot jus, and autumn vegetable bow-tie pasta primavera with extra virgin oil and fresh herbs — which most storm victims would have killed for," reported The New York Post.

"More than 2,000 cops are typically assigned to work the marathon. About five years ago, the city started privatizing medical coverage at the event, although scores of city paramedics and EMTs are still assigned to the race," reported The New York Daily News.

Bill Rudin Hospital Evacuations and NYC Marathon Reality Check

More World News from ABC

Even before Hurricane Sandy made landfall, weather experts were predicting massive flooding, which would have caused damage to the city's infrastructure. Two of the most critical infrastructure facilities that took a hit as a result of Hurricane Sandy were the subway system and the city's hospitals.

Bill Rudin said that it would be safe to close St. Vincent's Hospital, which was the only Level I Trauma Center and full-service hospital in all of Lower Manhattan. He and his billion-dollar real estate development company got easy building permits, zone-busting waivers, and approvals from New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. At the time, Mr. Rudin and Speaker Quinn said that if people in Lower Manhattan became sick, or if there was a mass civilian trauma event, patients could be transported to Bellevue Hospital, which was the next closest Level I Trauma Center.

But the aftermath of hospital evacuations at NYU Langone and Bellevue Hospitals following destruction by caused by Hurricane Sandy expose the risks of the Rudin Condo Conversion Plan approved for St. Vincent's Hospital.

Note that the NYC Marathon would have three giant electricity generators, which would be used for the media tent, meanwhile, NYU Langone and Bellevue Hospitals had to be evacuated due to backup generator failures.

Watch this NBC News report about the hurricane destruction. Note that Mr. Rudin is a sponsor of the NYC Marathon, and he wants the Marathon to still take place this week-end, even though first responders haven't yet finished recovering all the dead bodies on Staten Island, or, for that matter, ensuring public safety or providing emergency care to the people rendered homeless by the tsunami of the storm surge and flooding.

NYU Langone Is Evacuated As St. Vincent's Hospital Becomes Luxury Condos

From The New York Times :

To the Editor :

Looking at the images of ambulances in front of NYU Langone Medical Center evacuating the hospital, one remembers the cry for the preservation of St. Vincent’s Hospital Manhattan made by the community and its doctors.

Let us join together to come up with a solution so that the people of New York will have access to the critical emergency care they need.

ROBERT B. GOLDBERG
New York, Oct. 31, 2012

The writer, dean and professor at the Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine, is a former attending physician at St. Vincent’s Hospital Manhattan.

The St. Vincent's Effect On Hurricane Sandy Hospital Evacuations

Who is politically accountable for the failure of the emergency management plan in response to Hurricane Sandy that lead to infrastructure failure at New York City hospitals ?

Following the infrastructure failure of critical hospitals in New York City because of flooding and storm surge associated with Hurricane Sandy and related power failures, some healthcare activists began to demand answers for the failure of New York City's emergency management planning. The fault does not lie with the doctors and medical staff at the impacted hospitals ; rather, the politicians in charge of the city's emergency management plan must account for this irresponsible and dangerous situation. How could it be that New York City's resources would prioritise reopening business when critical hospitals could be left in the dark ? One activist has posted a new YouTube video requesting political accountability for the dangerous risks posed to public health by Mayor Michael Bloomberg's lack of real emergency planning.

Video Link : http://youtu.be/ggjOOjbTKZs

Background

In the community effort to demand a replacement hospital for St. Vincent's, politicians imposed on the community the burden of participating in a needs assessment to determine if a full-service hospital was required in the Lower West Side of Manhattan.

"The hospital evacuations following the destruction by Hurricane Sandy expose the risks of the Rudin Condo Conversion Plan approved for St. Vincent's Hospital," said Louis Flores, an activist who produced this YouTube video. "New York City needs a Level I Trauma Center and full-service hospital in the Lower West Side for disaster recovery efforts. And New York City needs real resources to improve the infrastructure of all of our hospitals, including Coler Hospital on Roosevelt Island and SUNY Downstate Hospital in Brooklyn."

Hurricane Irene

In 2011, St. Vincent's activists organized a mass civilian trauma event exercise to demonstrate what grassroots community activists described was a major risk to public health : where would sick and injured patients receive emergency and trauma care in the event of a major national disaster under conditions that had created an irresponsible geographic distribution of hospital beds in Manhattan.

See related link : http://thevillager.com/villager_443/traumadrama.html

Hurricane Sandy

In the time leading up to and following the landfall of the effects of Hurricane Sandy, the infrastructure of full-service hospitals on the East Side of Manhattan has failed. Hospital patients were forced to be evacuated from NYU Langone and Bellevue Hospitals.

To Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Speaker Christine Quinn, and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, to City Planner Amanda Burden, Brad Hoylman, Bill Rudin, and to the Partnership for New York, where are New Yorkers supposed to go now, in case of a medical emergency ?

Brad Hoylman Illegal Campaign Signs

The New York Post hounds Bill Thompson over suspiciously large fines being imposed by the Bloomberg administration in what has all the appearances of a politically-motivated effort to suck the funding out of any competitors that are challenging City Council Speaker Christine Quinn for the Democratic Party primary in the 2013 mayoral election. Meanwhile, here is evidence that political allies of Speaker Quinn break the law, too. But do the Bloomberg-Quinn administration likewise fine Brad Hoylman out the ass to the tune of $600,000, too ?

Save St. Vincent's Petition

Health Petition : Mayor Michael Bloomberg : Stop the Rudin Luxury Condo Conversion Plan

Sign Our Petition ! The Rudin Luxury Condo Conversion Plan will set a dangerous public health precedent. City politicians would be saying that a top 1% real estate developer can make hundreds of millions of dollars in private profit by converting the charitable public real estate buildings of the former St. Vincent's Hospital, whilst the 99% have no replacement Level One Trauma Center or Full-Service Hospital. If Rudin's Condo Plan is approved, Mayor Bloomberg would be saying that it is O.K. for an entire section of New York City to have no full-service hospital. How can this be a responsible public health care policy ? Mayor Bloomberg needs to stop the Rudin Condo Plan for St. Vincent's Hospital until a full-service hospital is created.

John Gilbert Rudin Phone Zap

Please join the masses and flood Rudin Management Company's phone and email this week so they are aware of the growing wave of public disgust with them stealing a hospital from the community !

CALL RIGHT NOW: John Gilbert, Rudin Management Group COO - 212-407-2400;

AND EMAIL: jgilbert@rudin.com

Rudin will LIE TO YOU and tell you the Urgent Care Center they plan on putting in one of the St. Vincent Hospital's buildings will replace what St. Vincent's provided. They will LIE TO YOU and tell you no hospital system will step up and reopen the campus to be a full service hospital.

North Shore-LIJ Bond Rating Outlook

Will Plans To Install An Unwanted Urgent Care Center In The O'Toole Building In The West Village Impact North-Shore LIJ's Bond Rating ?

North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System is making a multi-million dollar investment in an urgent care center that is proposed in the catchment area that used to be served by St. Vincent's Hospital.

The urgent care center is a risky and experimental investment by North Shore-LIJ, because this is the first time that the New York State Department of Health has approved an urban urgent care center to replace a Trauma Level 1, full service hospital in New York City.

Since the closing of St. Vincent's, community activists have organised and demanded that politicians help the community first save, then replace, St. Vincent's. A companion real estate development project that will turn the primary campus of St. Vincent's into luxury condos by Rudin Management Company also faces unified community opposition.

It is not yet known how much revenue North Shore-LIJ is projecting from its proposed urgent care center, which will face calls for a community boycott, and what such a boycott will mean to North Shore-LIJ's return on its investment and on its larger finances.

#OccupyWallStreet Marches to St. Vincent's

The activist group called Hands Off St. Vincent's endorses the #OccupyWallStreet march to St. Vincent's Hospital.

Could it be possible to march past Brad Hoylman's coöperative apartment building at 30 Fifth Avenue ?

Mock Swine Flu Death

Last night, residents from the Lower West Side held a "mass civilian trauma exercise," where participants recreated a "field hospital" on the sidewalks outside where St. Vincent's Hospital used to operate.

The "mass civilian trauma exercise" was organised by activists, who oppose Community Board 2's lockstep effort to approve a controversial plan to rezone St. Vincent's into luxury condominiums. Bill Rudin, the head of the Rudin real estate empire, stands to sell luxury condos worth over $1 billion, if CB2 approves his rezoning application.

Brad Hoylman #OccupyCB2 Flyer

2011 10 17 RE ACT OccupyCB2 Flyer
2011-10-17 Stop the Rezoning of St. Vincent's Hospital Flyer #OccupyCB2

Brad Hoylman #OccupyCB2

2011 10 10 OccupyCB2 Flyer

Jeffrey Kraut North Shore-LIJ

After William Rudin's giant scheme to take over St. Vincent's Hospital real estate properties has triggered an investigation by prosecutors, the Rudin Family went to great lengths to make sure that its luxury condominium conversion plan would be fast-tracked, pulling out all the stops.

But new information came to light this week : one top official of North Shore-LIJ hospital system, Jeffrey Kraut, is chair of the committee, which will recommend or deny North Shore-LIJ's application for a Department of Health license to operate a controversial stand-alone Emergency Department.

The Emergency Department is a consolation prize for the loss of a full-service hospital and Level 1 trauma center after St. Vincent's Hospital closed on April 30, 2010. Thus far, Mr. Kraut's actions has not been referred to the Attorney General's office, which oversees the ethics of the State's executive agencies, such as the Department of Health.

Mr. Kraut's conflict of interest in having influence over his own company's financial contracts and government licenses provide fresh evidence about the lack of integrity in the Rudin condo version plan.

In order to build its luxury condos, the Rudin Family encouraged North Shore-LIJ's application for the stand-alone Emergency Department. Because the Rudin condo conversion plan depends on the approval of North Shore-LIJ's application before the Department of Health, community members question Mr. Kraut's influence on other members of the Committee on Establishment and Project Review Meeting and Public Hearing, which will determine the outcome of North Shore-LIJ's permit application.

The information about Mr. Kraut's conflict of interest is another negative blight on the Rudin Family, who have also tried astroturfing, lobbying, and distribution of propaganda by mail. The Rudin Family has also been criticised for opposing freedom of information requests that might be useful in investigations.

Separately, the Department of Health has been criticised for its inaction in saving other hospitals from closure, and for the absence of any investigation or prosecution of individuals, who were involved in the hospital closure crisis.

Rudin Plan Geographical Nightmare

Chief Abdo Nahmod calls Rudin Plan for St. Vincents a ''Geographical Nightmare''

Watch as the community of the Lower West Side of Manhattan confront New York City EMS Chief Abdo Nahmod over the intentional confusion being propounded by Brad Hoylman, the chair of Manhattan Community Board 2, over ambulance "Response Time" and "Transport Time" in the wake of the closing of St. Vincent's Hospital.

Chief Nahmod said that Manhattan CB2 would be providing statistics about ''response time'' versus ''transport time,'' but no such disclosure has been made.

Residents of the Lower West Side believe that Mr. Hoylman is working against replacing St. Vincent's with a full-service hospital with a Level 1 Trauma Center and is, instead, trying to help the billionaire Rudin Family turn St. Vincent's into more and more luxury condominiums for Greenwich Village.

9/11 Tenth Anniversary

September 11 Tenth Anniversary - St. Vincent's Fallen Hero Tribute

On September 11, 2001, the only Level 1 Trauma Center below 14th Street in Manhattan was St. Vincent's Hospital -- it was the hospital that would have treated thousands of people, had there been more survivors. Sadly, many people perished on that awful day. Less than 9 years later, St. Vincent's Hospital was closed, as part of a luxury condo conversion plan by the billioniare Rudin Family.

Peninsula Hospital Closing Protest

Peninsula Hospital Center - Protesters Take Over Lobby - Hospital Closings in NYC

Approximately 200 union employees, residents of Far Rockaway, in Queens, and local officials, gathered in the rain outside Peninsula Hospital Center, across the bay from JFK Airport. Peninsula Hospital Center has filed a plan to shut its doors. The hospital’s owner is embroiled in a political and financial scandal, but employees and residents are worried about the threat to public health, should the hospital’s closure plan be approved.

Attendees of the rally braved the rain, then, once the rally had ended, stormed into one of the lobbies of the hospital, until hospital officials called the police, to clear the lobby of its own employees.

In the time that Christine Quinn had been speaker of the City Council, eight hospitals (not counting Peninsula) have closed. If Peninsula closes, it would mark the ninth hospital to close under Speaker Quinn's watch.

This week, President Obama agreed to severe budget cuts to social safety net programs, that underpin the social contract we make with our government and amongst ourselves. More budget cuts to Medicaid and Medicare will lead to a further collapse of our healthcare system. Is Christine Quinn in Bermuda with Mayor Michael Bloomberg each time a hospital closes in New York City ? Is President Obama surfing in Hawaii each time a hospital closes in America ?

If we obediently listen to people, who are in power (the same people who work for us, the very same people who are closing our hospitals), telling us to leave the lobby of a closing hospital, then it just makes it that much easier for the New York State Department of Health/Christine Quinn to keep closing hospitals.

Another NYC Hospital Closing

Is the Rudin Family eyeing their next real estate harvesting operation on the dead carcass of the Peninsula Hospital Center in Queens ?

After he's done with St. Vincent's Hospital, it has been heard on the street that William Rudin is considering another real estate harvesting operation, this time at the Peninsula Hospital Center in Queens.