The Rudin Family : The New Robber Barons ?
Jason Sheftell, a real estate promoter, published an editorial in The New York Daily News, in which he reported some facts and some half-truths about the controversial closing of St. Vincent's Hospital and the Rudin family's luxury condo conversion of the hospital's real estate properties.
"Local activists, who blame the pro-development city forces for the loss of the hospital, hold vigils outside the building," wrote Mr. Sheftell, in his real estate column about the dangers of the Rudin luxury condo conversion plan.
Mr. Sheftell noted that with the closing of St. Vincent's Hospital, the response and transport times by ambulance or EMS will put people's lives in jeopardy. "It’ll take 12 minutes longer to get to a hospital in an emergency. That could spell death for heart attack or stroke victims."
But Mr. Sheftell claims that activists are not targeting the Rudin family, which is false. Activists have been bird-dogging the figurehead of the Rudin family : Bill Rudin, and other activists have launched entire Facebook pages and events around the tarnished Rudin family name.
Not only that, but it was reported that the Manhattan District Attorney was investigating whether the Rudin family was criminally involved in St. Vincent's Hospital's demise, so that the Family could make hundreds of millions of dollars from the luxury condo conversion. At some point, if it hasn't yet already, the Rudin family name will become synonymous with the pejorative : "robber baron."
