On April 30, St. Vincent's Hospital closed. 15 days before, New York State Health Commissioner Richard Daines said St. Vincent's would not close.
Since the Berger Commission believed that St. Vincent's should remain open, New York State Health Commissioner Richard Daines should replace St. Vincent's with a full-service hospital.
In an act that The New York Post is calling, ''spiteful,'' City Council Speaker Christine Quinn has reetaliated against a fellow Democrat Councilmember.
Suzannah B. Troy has already blogged about how City Council Speaker Christine Quinn has abused her power to dole out slush funds to punish Liz Crowley, but here is the entire New York Post story, quoted in its entirety :
Spiteful Quinn $laps mouthy Qns. Dem
By SALLY GOLDENBERG and GINGER ADAMS OTIS
Last Updated: 10:56 AM, July 4, 2010
Posted: 3:00 AM, July 4, 2010"Freshman City Councilwoman Liz Crowley played with fire and got burned.
The Queens Democrat learned a hard lesson during recent negotiations for the 2011 city budget: Don't anger Council Speaker Christine Quinn.
Crowley got the least amount of member-item money in the 2011 budget -- approximately $358,000 -- as punishment for prematurely sending out a press release two weeks ago announcing 20 firehouses had been saved, and hogging all the credit, sources told the Post.
"It showed that [Crowley] doesn't understand the deference she needs to pay to the speaker of the council. She knows it now. Lesson learned," said a City Council source.
Tempers flared between Quinn and Crowley when Crowley's staff sent out a press release in the middle of a tense session of budget negotiations. It touted the Queens lawmaker as the central figure in helping "save" the firehouses.
It was a costly error for the rookie legislator, who has since gotten the "absurdly low" amount of pork-barrel spending, said a City Hall insider."
Queens Hospitals Overcrowded in Wake of Recent Closings
By JILLIAN SCHARR
Updated 5:30 PM EDT, Mon, May 24, 2010
After a series of hospital closures and reduced state support -- most recently the closure of St. Vincent’s Hospital in Manhattan -- many New York City hospitals are severely overcrowded, particularly in the borough of Queens.St. Vincent’s, the last Catholic general hospital in New York City, closed on Apr. 28.
Three other Queens hospitals, including Mary Immaculate Hospital, a Level 1 Trauma center, closed in the past two years, leaving Queens with the smallest bed-to-resident ratio in the city, Kenneth Raske, President of the Greater New York Hospital Association, told the Wall Street Journal.
According to the paper, in 2008 Queens had 1.7 beds per 1000 residents, as compared to 5.7 in Manhattan and 2.7 in the Bronx.Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, a not-for-profit whose Emergency Room was designed to handle 60,000 visits a year but saw 130,000 visits in 2009, a 30 percent increase from the previous year, a hospital spokesman told NBCNewYork. In the first three months of this year, ER visits increased by another 10 percent.
According to the spokesman, although there is no direct relationship between Jamaica Hospital’s patient surge and St. Vincent’s closing last month, “each reflects the reality of the demographics in New York City.”“There was no real meaningful communication, coordination, or planning on the part of the New York State Department of Health with the surrounding hospitals for the closing of Mary Immaculate so that the.. patient surge following the closing could be properly handled,” said the spokesman.
If another hospital were to close, Raske told the Washington Post, “it could precipitate a public health crisis."
First Published: May 24, 2010 2:12 PM EDT
Testimony by Michael D.D. White of Noticing New York delivered at the New York City Charter Revision Commission meeting on May 25, 2010
Michael D.D. White has posted the written remarks he delivered in testimony on May 25, 2010 at the New York City Charter Revision Commission’s hearing. Among his remarks, Mr. White also posted his own, independent commentary about the farce that has become what I've separately called the "charter revision barter commission:"
« John Keefe, a representative speaking on behalf of Assemblyman James Brennan’s office, went further: He said that because the commission had been convened to implement a pre-agreed-upon a 'cynical and opportunistic deal' between billionaires Michael Bloomberg and Ron Lauder (to repeal and then restore term limits after Bloomberg's election to a third term), that the commission should take no action at all as none could be considered legitimate. »
" When Mayor Bloomberg wants something, he has plenty of tools to help him get it - friends in high places, a bully pulpit, six-figure donations to political parties and money for influential city nonprofits. ¶ One of his most prestigious and mysterious perks, however, has two wings and three engines, " Adam Lisberg reported in Sunday's New York Daily News.
New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn has been identified as being among the politicians, who received undisclosed luxury trips on Mayor Bloomberg's private jet, a Dassault Falcon 900s. At least one of Quinn's trips on the Mayor's jet was not disclosed in official government records, according to Mr. Lisberg.
Meanwhile, in an advisory to city employees, the Conflicts of Interest Board offered guidance in respect of accepting gifts from one's supervisor : accepting "regular and extravagant" gifts may create an appearance that a supervisor is "attempting to buy" certain kinds of behaviours from the supervisor's subordinates, Mr. Lisberg added. And now that Mr. Lisberg has reported about these extravagant gifts, how can City Council Speak Quinn or the other government officials, who have received these regular, luxury gifts, explain that they can remain independent, impartial, and free from undue influence or corrupt interference from the Mayor's Office, after they have accepted free rides on his private jet ?
Perks, privileges, and a sense of entitlement.
In her latest video blog, Suzannah B. Troy has lost her patience with Mayor Bloomberg and City Council Speak Quinn. Ms. Troy has said, "Sub-zero trickle down when it comes to the people...huge trickle down for pals."
St. Vincent's Hospital - bankruptcy case update by Yetta Kurland
Community leader and activist, Yetta Kurland, gave a presentation to the Lower Manhattan community on May 13, 2010. Ms. Kurland described the legal process that has been taking place in the community's efforts to intervene, to prevent the full closing of St. Vincent's Hospital.
Ms. Kurland reported that Attorneys for St. Vincent's had opposed the community's attempt in NYS Supreme Court to make the hospital abide by NYS Health Department rules. After being challenged by Attorneys for St. Vincent's Hospital, the venue for the community's lawsuit was changed to bankruptcy court, where the bankruptcy judge claimed jurisdiction over the lawsuit over NYS Health Department rules, but the same judge denied that patients have the ability to sue to enforce NYS Health Department rules.
A classic Catch-22.
Senate hopeful Harold Ford hits a Stonewall in West Village on gay nups
BY David Saltonstall
NEWS SENIOR CORRESPONDENT
Thursday, February 25th 2010, 4:00 AM
Harold Ford took his "listening tour" to the mostly gay Stonewall Democratic Club in Manhattan's West Village on Wednesday night - and he sure got an earful.
Ford tried to explain how he went from voting to ban gay marriage with a constitutional amendment in 2006 as a Tennessee congressman to now supporting it as he mulls a primary bid against Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.
It wasn't an easy message to get out in a raucous 30 minutes at the W. 13th St. club. Ford was interrupted repeatedly by chants of "No more lies, no more lies" and "Snake-oil Harry, go away."
At one point, several audience members raised signs with slogans like, "It's the lies, stupid!" At the end of the session, someone even ignited a loud but harmless confetti bomb - sending a noticeable jolt through Ford and others.
Ford stood his ground, answering a dozen or so questions and trying - with little apparent success - to argue that his support of gay marriage was now for real.
"I don't know what more I can say, other than that I realize I was wrong," he said. "You may not embrace me, you may not vote for me, but I would only hope that you would at least accept the fact that the reason the numbers and support for marriage equality goes up is because people like me change their minds."
Ford has said he expects to make a decision about running against Gillibrand - whose work to repeal the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy has won her plaudits in the gay community - within the next week or so.
One of few hushed moments of the evening came when Lt. Dan Choi - a gay Army officer who came out last March - rose to press Ford on gay marriage, noting pointedly that he fought in Iraq to secure rights "for your family that mine is not afforded."
Ford said he, too, would fight to let gays serve openly, but Choi was not convinced.
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