Friday, July 23, 2010

Hospital needed where St. Vincent's was by Yetta Kurland

Dear Neighbor,

Last night close to a hundred members of the Coalition for a New Village
Hospital along with other community members came out to the Community Board 2
Full Board Meeting to demand that a resolution to lock the land use at the site
of St. Vincent's be put on the agenda for the next meeting.

I am going to be honest, we weren't optimistic, but we were determined,
committed and we are on the right side.

In the sweltering heat of Elizabeth Irwin High School's auditorium, person after
person got up to repeat the message; we need a hospital back at the site of St.
Vincent's, we don't need another needs assessment, we need to lock the use of
the land so it can only be a hospital.

The Board listened, and I am delighted to report, no actually I am ecstatic to
report, that thanks to the courageous efforts of several Community Board Members
and the continued hard work of so many of you who have been fighting since the
hospital closed on April 30th... we didn't get it on the agenda... WE PASSED THE
RESOLUTION!

That's right, the Board passed a resolution that put a land lock on the property
to stop any changes to the zoning, certificate of occupancy or other part of the
land use that would eliminate the hospital use. It also called on the
Bankruptcy Court to be advised of this and to petition the Court to set up a
Community Council with the help of New York City Corporation Counsel to let the
Court know we want a hospital on the site of St. Vincent's and to be engaged in
the Bankruptcy Court's procedures.

I will send around a copy of the resolution as soon as it is available, but in
the meantime I wanted to share this news with you as soon as possible.

This is especially meaningful given the recent statement by Speaker Christine
Quinn in Chelsea Now that she "will continue our push for a full service
hospital here". The Community Board and the City Council will play the key role
in determining the future of St. Vincent's when it comes to the heavy real
estate interests surrounding the area. Now, with a commitment from both it is
substantially more hopeful that we can in fact ensure the site is only used for
a hospital.

Next, we have to make it happen now, with the infrastructure that already
exists. This is up to us and our statewide officials to put pressure on
Commissioner Daines to obey the law. New York Public Health Law requires that
the Department of Health affirmatively make a finding that there is no need
for a hospital before it takes away the services of a hospital. In the near
future we will be sending around a letter to Commissioner Daines and we hope you
will get your electeds, tenant associations, block associations and other
community groups to sign off.

I am very happy to share this victory with you and want to personally thank you
all.

In solidarity,
Yetta

Dear Readers: Yetta sent out this email blast and I posted it here on New York Focus. I want to commend Yetta Kurland for her on going activism that comes truly from the heart along with other dynamic New Yorkers fighting to get a hospital in what was St. Vincent's. She and other true hearts fought to keep St. Vincent's open.

Thanks to Yetta for her constant hard work and for sending out these emails keeping us all updated. I do not attend community board meetings because I found them less than satisfactory to be polite. We did not vote for these community board representatives and I have always said this is the least democratic part of city government that is until Mike Bloomberg and Christine Quinn collaborated to deny the people of New York a referendum.

I do not understand how our hospitals are closing yet banks need to be rescued?

Here is a YouTube interview with Jim Fouratt and I agree with him on everything but Christine Quinn ever finding her way back to putting the people before developers and king Mike Bloomberg's agenda.