Is Comptroller Stringer stirring gay-baiting fears in the rush to roll-out prekinder expansion in New York City ?

Is Comptroller Scott Stringer trying to sabotage Mayor Bill de Blasio's prekinder expansion by fear mongering that children will be unsafe at the hands of "child pornographers" ? As much as this blog has been critical of Mayor Bill de Blasio for having betrayed every constituency group that elected him, one can't help but be exasperated at the apparent homophobic fear-mongering by New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer in his scheme to derail Mayor de Blasio's ambitious expansion of prekinder throughout New York City. Even as the de Blasio administration hastily tries to accommodate a record influx of prekinder students, there's no reason for Comptroller Stringer to stoop so low as to stir up fears of "bad actors" and "child pornographers," who have probably already been screened out by existing facilities that the mayor is reaching out to, to house the prekinder classrooms. "We have to make sure the classrooms are safe. We have to make sure that there's integrity to this," Comptroller Stringer said, adding, "We have to make sure that the safety violations, the insurance information, and bad actors are all resolved before this gets ready," before he concluding by saying, "That's my job." Comptroller Stringer is whipping up concerns in the media that background checks of teachers have not yet been conducted before school starts. Why is he stoking unfounded fears about bad teachers ? Comptroller Stringer told WCBS 2 New York that his office wants to review all of the contracts that the de Blasio administration has signed with hosts of the city's prekinder classroom programs, describing the contracts as, "This is paperwork that identifies a child pornographer. This is paperwork that looks at open violations. This is paperwork that matters for parents with children." "Because of inadequate public school capacity, the de Blasio administration has been urging religious schools and community organizations to consider hosting the added programs," an early August report in The New York Times indicated, raising the possibility that Comptroller Stringer is stirring hateful gay-baiting concerns over religious groups hosting prekinder classroom programs as a result of a lack of secular public school classroom space. Before he was elected to the Comptroller's position in New York City government, Mr. Stringer served as Manhattan Borough President, where he had close ties to the ultra-liberal West Side establishment of Manhattan, where residents are highly reactionary of any effort to blur the church-state divide. Given the Catholic Church's child abuse history, could Comptroller Stringer be referring to religious teachers as "bad actors" and "child pornographers" as a way to protest the use of faith-based institutions as hosts of prekinder classroom programs ? If so, then Comptroller Stringer is trying to taint the mayor's use of religious schools as festering with child abusing teachers. However, nobody is exactly certain of Comptroller Stringer's mixed-motivations. As Mayor de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña seek to calm parents' nerves as the city rolls out its expanded prekinder program, they appear afraid to call out Comptroller Stringer's fear-mongering homophobia. Given their own history of sticking their heads in the sand, Mayor de Blasio and Chancellor Fariña are trying to minimize Comptroller Stringer's crazy talk by focusing on preparations for the first day of school, set for Sept. 4. However, civic leaders need to come forward and challenge Comptroller Stringer to account for his fear-mongering crusade.

RELATED Mayor Bill de Blasio Downplays Comptroller’s Prekindergarten Concerns, Says Sites Being Vetted (WCBS 2 New York) de Blasio’s Prekindergarten Expansion Collides With Church-State Divide (The New York Times)

Does race play a factor in New York City wrongful arrest lawsuit settlements ?

The "Central Park Five" still await the settlement of their wrongful conviction and incarceration lawsuit, but the city is moving mighty swiftly in respect of two other significant cases, where both men are white.

The five black men commonly referred to as the "Central Park Five" are still waiting for the legal settlement of their wrongful conviction and incarceration lawsuits stemming from the 1989 Central Park jogger case. They were convicted in trials conducted in 1990. Teenagers at the time, their convictions were overturned in 2002, and the five men have been waiting for over a decade for New York City to compensate them for having had their lives destroyed.

From left, Antron McCray, Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, and Kharey Wise, who served prison sentences after having been wrongly convicted in the Central Park jogger case, appeared together in this photograph at the New York premiere of Ken Burns’s racial tension-tinged documentary, “The Central Park Five,” in November 2012.

Law enforcement in New York City has a long history of discriminating against people of color. In the recent class action Floyd lawsuit that ruled that the New York Police Department's practice known as ''stop-and-frisk'' was unconstitutional, police were faulted for routinely targeting "blacks and Hispanics who would not have been stopped if they were white."

Based on the different treatment that black plaintiffs face in lawsuits against the city over wrongful convictions and incarcerations, it appears that racial profiling may now extend to the city's halls of justice. Complete statistics are not readily available, but for one 12-month span, New York City settled 35 civil rights cases against the NYPD for a total of over $22 million. New York City must be trying to contain the high cost of police brutality and discrimination against people of color by wearing them out in lengthy courthouse proceedings.

• RELATED : ''Central Park Five'' Push de Blasio to Keep Promise to Settle Their Lawsuit (NY1)
• RELATED : David Ranta, Framed by Detective, Will Get $6.4 Million From New York City After Serving 23 Years for Murder (The New York Times)
• RELATED : City Might Be Ready to Settle With Robert Pinter (Gay City News)
• RELATED : Brooklyn boy, 13, shot in head, triggers debate about NYPD focus on broken windows policing (NYC : News & Analysis)

David Ranta, a white male who spent 23 years in jail after having been wrongly convicted of a 1990 murder, will receive $6.4 million settlement negotiated by the Comptroller's Office. What makes Mr. Ranta's case unique is that his demand was settled before he ever filed a lawsuit. Last year, Scott Stringer was elected as the city's comptroller. It's unknown why Mr. Stringer would be motivated to preemptively settle Mr. Ranta's case without consulting the city's Law Department -- but not take any action to settle the Central Park Five wrongful incarceration case.

Meanwhile, New York City might be prepared to settle the case of the wrongful arrest of another white male, Robert Pinter. Mr. Pinter, a gay man, was arrested in 2008 as part of what has been described as dragnet sexual orientation profiling entrapment arrests in an NYPD crackdown against gay adult video stores. It's notable that Mr. Pinter's case is nearing settlement as a result of negotiations by the city's Law Department, even though he was never incarcerated for a term of years like the Central Park Five. After his arrest, Mr. Pinter "initially pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of disorderly conduct," Gay City News reported, but Mr. Pinter later "filed a motion to vacate his conviction, which was not opposed by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office," after Mr. Pinter became aware that the NYPD was engaged in sexual orientation profiling against gay men.

Because of the many instances of prejudice that people of color face at the hands of the NYPD, activists are expressing frustration with the lack of reforms at the police department by the new mayor, Bill de Blasio, and by his controversial pick for a new police commissioner, William Bratton. While the Central Park Five await settlement of their case, the NYPD launched a cheap social media marketing gimmick this week to help improve its impression with New Yorkers. After asking citizens to tweet friendly photos of police officers with the #myNYPD hashtag, the police department was overwhelmed by an avalanche of response tweets documenting the long history of police brutality, racial profiling, and other controversial police tactics. One tweet featured the tragic case of Deion Fludd, a black teenager who was beaten senseless by police, eventually leading to death from his injuries. Like other victims or the surviving relatives of victims, the late Mr. Fludd's mother has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the NYPD. With her young son now dead, let's hope Ms. Fludd sees justice in a time frame to make a difference in her life.

• RELATED : Constance Malcolm wrote an op-ed on the murder of her son, Ramarley Graham : "The lives of Amadou Diallo, Sean Bell, and so many other New Yorkers like Ramarley — primarily Black and Latino — have not been honored by our justice system." (Justice must be served by U.S. government — for Ramarley Graham's family and for countless others * The New York Daily News)
• RELATED : Before he died, Deion Fludd said he attempted to run away from the brutal cops, who had allegedly chased after the unarmed black teenager, battering him in the head with a flashlight, beating him senseless. (Deion Fludd's mother sues NYPD for using excessive force and causing son's death * DailyMail.uk)

Before 17-year old Deion Fludd died of his injuries, he said he was beaten into a quadriplegic by #myNYPD pic.twitter.com/cBGj68AY0C

— Copwatch (@Copwatch) April 22, 2014

If you want to be part of the conversation about how to bring more attention and focus on efforts to reform law enforcement in New York City, please join us for a special workshop at this year's Left Forum :

• RELATED : How can NYC police reform activists break free from the veal pen ? (The 2014 Left Forum)

The Central Park 5, framed by #mynypd pic.twitter.com/BfPCg3u8qM

— Layla Sola (@ljsola) April 23, 2014

Rudin Family paid politicians 200,000 roses in luxury condo conversion prostitution deal

Scott Stringer received almost $8,000 from members of the billionaire Rudin real estate empire, before he rendered his recommendation in support of the Rudin luxury condo conversion of St. Vincent's Hospital.

Democratic candidate for NYC comptroller Scott Rudin Stringer received sizable campaign contributions form members of the Rudin family before he made his recommendation in the ULURP application to approve the Rudin condo conversion plan in November 2011.

Mr. Stringer, who was acting in official capacity as Manhattan Borough President, makes recommendations to the New York City Council in all zone-busting ULURP applications that come up for a vote. Mr. Stringer recommended that the City Council approve the Rudin luxury condo conversion plan, but the media made no mention of the inherent conflict of interest in the Rudin family's large campaign donations. These campaign donations were made during a time when the Rudin family were anticipating plans to develop the property underneath St. Vincent's, before the hospital was driven into bankruptcy, and Mr. Stringer cashed the checks way in advance of having to render his ULURP recommendation.

New York City Campaign Finance Board records indicate that Mr. Stringer accepted $500.00 from Madeleine Rudin Johnson, $3,850.00 from Beth Rudin DeWoody, $500.00 from Eric Rudin, $2,000.00 from Jack Rudin, and $1,000.00 from Bill Rudin. These reported donations bundle into a total of : $7,850.00. It's not known if there are other, unreported campaign donations, that might have been made on top of these amounts.

Did the $7,850.00 in campaign donations made by Rudin family members influence Scott Stringer's recommendation on the St. Vincent's luxury condo conversion ULRUP application ???

Because there is an appearance of "pay to play" or quid pro quo, was Mr. Stringer prostituting himself to the Rudin family ? We already know that campaign donations allegedly play a role in New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn determining her official acts in office. Does the same hold true for Mr. Stringer ?

In total, the members of the Rudin family contributed over $200,000 in campaign donations to various politicians, each of whom would have had some kind of influence over the fate of the Rudin luxury condo conversion plan for St. Vincent's Hospital.

The Rudin campaign donations made during the 2009, 2013 election cycles follow.

2013-07-08 Rudin-Rudin Advanced Search - New York City Campaign Finance Board

2013-07-08 Johnson-Rudin Advanced Search - New York City Campaign Finance Board

2013-07-08 DeWoody-Rudin Advanced Search - New York City Campaign Finance Board

Hurricane Sandy - Bellevue, NYU, and Coler Hospital Evacuations - Political Accountability

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 ?

Rudin $500,000 Lobbying Expenses

Bill Rudin and the Rudin Family have spent over $500,000 in lobbying expenses.

Rudin Management Company, Inc., has declared $576,921 in lobbying expenses to New York City under the "Pay-to-Play" campaign finance reform regulations. This staggering amount is just a drop in the bucket for them, because they stand to net (in profits) hundreds of millions of dollars from the luxury condo conversion plan for St. Vincent's Hospital.

St. Vincent's Activists Will Visit Scott Stringer

2011-11-14 St Vincent's Activists Will Visit Scott Stringer

Stringer Slush Fund Report

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer Blasts Mayor's Race Opponent Chris Quinn

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer took an apparent swipe at his mayor's race opponent, calling for an end to pork spending by local lawmakers.

JULY 20, 2011 4:09 PM

Our Reuven Blau reports:

Stringer criticized City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and the other 50 members for their $49 million in earmarks that neglects to reach the city's poorest neighborhoods.

"We have a system where some districts get a lot more than others and politics is the only reason," Stringer told reporters yesterday.

Quinn is an early frontrunner in the mayoral election with the largest war chest of more than $4 million. Yet one of her major challenges in her expected run is the so-called slush fund scandal that erupted in 2007.

-- Excerpted from the Daily Politics blog by Celeste Katz on The New York Daily News.

2011 07 Xx Christine Quinn Slush Fund Member Items Report

Christine Quinn's Achilles' Heel

Christine Quinn Is Playing With A Stacked Deck.

When you ask New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn a question, she likes to give you a non-answer.

She likes to be evasive, but she is definitive about giving you the run-around. She doesn’t have to give you either a proverbial bait-and-switch or back-pedal, provided she never has to first give you any policy position with which to lure you.

When City Hall bureau reporter Erin Einhorm from The New York Daily News asked Speaker Quinn what she thought about a bill that « would require mayors to disclose when they leave town and to designate a proxy, » Speaker Quinn said, « I haven’t seen the bill, yet. »

Councilman Peter Vallone, Jr., planned to introduce the whereabouts bill, The Daily News reported. Here is how Speaker Quinn expaneded on her non-answer :

« The councilmember has put in a request for the legislation to be drafted. I know that the staff is working on it. I’ve spoken with the staff. I've asked them to send me an initial read they can get me on whether it’s within the powers that we have as a council. I've not gotten that back and of course haven't seen the draft and as soon as I get that information and [have] seen the draft, I’ll be able to take a position. »

Mind you, under Speaker Quinn, the City Council found it within its powers to over-turn in 2008 two voter referenda approving term limits, thus allowing Mayor Michael Bloomberg to run for a previously forbidden third term, but as to whether the City Council could require the mayor to leave a forwarding address, she would have to, proverbially, get back to us on that.

What is more, before Speaker Quinn was for extending term limits, she didn’t want you to ask her about it. « The mayor knows my phone number, » Speaker Quinn said in early September 2008, after she was pressed about Mayor Bloomberg’s plans to extend term limits. « He knows where my office is, » Speaker Quinn added. « He knows where I live. If he has a piece of legislation he's interested in, he'll call me and we'll talk about it. Up until then, there's really nothing for me to say about term limits. »

If democracies are supposed to work efficiently only if voters know well each of the issues and the politicians who run for and hold office, then our experience with this pattern of deliberately evasive non-answers isn’t going to lead us to the path where voters know where we stand vis-à-vis Speaker Quinn. But that’s her real intention. She doesn’t want us to know where we stand. If we are like a « deaf speactator in the back row, » as Walter Lippmann has described disenfranchised voters, then that makes it easier for politicians like Speaker Quinn to avoid the messy work of having to live up to an ethic.

But to Speaker Quinn, who is climbing up the political ladder with her wagon hitched to Mayor Bloomberg’s coattails, taking on the powers that be is not likely going to happen. Taking a public policy position means you have to have something to fight for, and you have to be somebody, who fights for that in which you believe.

Using the spree of hospital closings in New York City, including that of St. Vincent’s Hospital, as a litmus test for Christine Quinn’s ethics.

At an emergency community meeting in the West Village on January 28, 2010, just weeks before St. Vincent’s Hospital was to close, Speaker Quinn gave what should have been, by all accounts, a touching and inspiring speech. She endorsed the idea that fighting for the hospital’s survival was critical to New York City.

« I fail to accept that in all of New York, » she began, « there is no other healthcare institution that wants to merge with the great St. Vincent’s. I simply do not believe it. The State Department of Health wants us to believe it, because they have created an equation where that is the only answer that we would get. We are not going to fall for that bait-and-switch. We’re not going to fall for this trick that Continuum is the only entity out there. We’re going to say tonight, and we’re going to say it over and over again : the only plan that should be considered or ever approved by the state is one that keeps our hospital and our emergency room. »

There are times, like in the preceeding Save St. Vincent’s video, when Speaker Quinn can tap into the truth that the common New Yorker senses : that our economy and our social safety nets are a giant rug that is being pulled out from under us, and that, inspite of the horror, she sells herself as courageous enough and willing enough to fight for a progressive agenda. But in the year since Speaker Quinn spoke with such leadership at the emergency community meeting at Our Lady of Pompeii Church in Greenwich Village, we need to make an assessment of where we now find her in the fight to restore a hospital to the Lower West Side of Manhattan.

How we got from « We are not going to fall for that bait-and-switch, » to « As the sale of St. Vincent’s properties makes its way through bankruptcy court » and « We are currenlty engaged in a healthcare needs assessment, » is that time-honoured tradition : the people’s advocate has sold out, where even a
cornerstone institution such as a hospital can be deemed acceptable collateral damage if it means that a politician can collect large campaign donations to finance an expensive run for mayor of the most important city in the nation. (Flackback : Rewind : Mayor Bloomberg spent over $108 million dollars in reported/disclosed spending the last mayoral campaign only to win by a puny margin of about 5 per cent.)

Should St. Vincent’s properties be sold and a new hospital never to be opened at its former site, lots of real estate companies stand to make a lot of money. A quick glance through the Councilpedia records published by the Citizens Union Foundation shows that many real estate companies have made substantial campaign donations to Speaker Quinn’s presumed 2013 mayoral campaign. Here is a quick sample :

Indeed, as at February 26, 2011, according to Councilpedia statistics, Speaker Quinn had received over $569,000 in 2013 election cycle donations from the real estate industry. You don’t need me to tell you that that is a lot of money.

What Speaker Quinn is gambling, the deal that she is making with the Devil, is that nobody is going to call her on her inability to make good on simple policy decisions, like « We are not going to fall for that bait-and-switch. » She is also counting on nobody getting outraged enough to say that the influence of real estate developers, as indicated by their large campaign contributions to Speaker Quinn's campaign treasury, is over-riding the needs the voting public. But with social media tools, such as Councilpedia, the old political boss ways of days gone by are numbered. What is more, in the political vacuum of Speaker Quinn’s definitive non-answers, she is creating opportunities for other politicians, to swoop in and offer voters a new sense of hope.

When he was a councilmember, John Liu found the courage to give press conferences about the performance of, dissatisfaction with, and budget crisis overseen by Speaker Quinn.

Now that he is City Controller, Mr. Liu has found the courage to challenge Mayor Bloomberg to immediately review suspicious technology contract scandals, such as with the Emergency Communications Transformation Program (ECTP). In a letter written to Mayor Bloomberg by Comptroller Liu, the Comptroller's office rejected a $286 million contract request that would have nearly doubled the initial ECTP contract cost of $380 million. The new contract request would have raised the ECTP budget to $666 million. (Click on the link to read the news release issued today by the Comptroller's office about the latest New York City technology contract scandal.)

In the face of Speaker Quinn’s passivity, other leaders are stepping forward to demonstrate dynamism, charisma, and decisive leadership.

The Definitive Answer to End the Cycle of Cynicism is Alive and Well In a Surprising Group of Activists and Leaders, among them Mr. Liu, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, and the civil rights lawyer, Yetta Kurland.

If Mr. Liu continues to investigate questionable technology contracts, he is sure to win the praise of voters, who are tired of seeing tax money disappearing into blackholes of politically-awarded governemnt contracts, while, at the same time, the mayor runs his scorched earth campaign of school and firehouse closings with the tortured logic of the need to make budget cuts.

Shockingly, in the time that Speaker Quinn has presided over the New York City Council, at least eight city hospitals have closed. In 2010, North General Hospital in Harlem declared bankruptcy and St. Vincent's Hospital in the West Village shut down after shady backroom meetings. In 2009, two hospitals in Queens – St. John's Queens Hospital in Elmhurst and Mary Immaculate Hospital in Jamaica – went bankrupt. In 2008, Cabrini Medical Center in Manhattan, Parkway Hospital in Queens, and Victory Memorial Hospital in Bay Ridge closed. And in 2007, St. Vincent's Midtown in Manhattan was closed. Separately, one other hospital in Brooklyn, Long Island College Hospital, was recently saved : it had been on the brink of closing, and the only way the hospital was saved was by merging it with SUNY Downstate.

To some degree or another, each of the communities impacted by these hospital closings have objected, protested, or tried to litigate the decisions that lead to a hospital being closed in their community. But in no instance has a grass-roots community organisation powerfully come together as has happened following the closing of St. Vincent’s Hospital in Greenwich Village. There, a group called the Coälition For A New Village Hospital has been agitating, protesting, holding emergency community meetings, packing into Manhattan Community Board meetings, and litigating their cause to, first save St. Vincent’s Hospital, then, after the hospital closed, to restore a new hospital to the former site of St. Vincent’s. The group has shocked the normal course of cynical city politics, because, as we approach the one year anniversary of the closing of St. Vincent’s, this community group refuses to go away quietly. When the community heard « We are not going to fall for that bait-and-switch, » they believed it. Now, they’ve organised to make good on restoring a hospital to the Lower West Side of Manhattan. Recently, four community activists were even arrested after orchestrating a restro sit-in at the former main building of St. Vincent’s in a courageous act of civil disobedience ; the four activists spent one night in jail before they got processed out of the court system. The closing of St. Vincent's has even inspired the creation of a non-violent civil disobedience movement. The sense in the community is one of dire seriousness.

St. Vincent’s was more than a hospital, it was also a Level 1 trauma center, which, for Lower Manhattan, had served as a critical underpinning for New York City’s emergency preparedness in this post-9/11 world. Some see a parallel between the need to be ready for another terrorist attack in Lower Manhattan and the fight to keep essential municipal services and basic infrastructure. And given that Speaker Quinn takes so many campaign contributions from the real estate industry, some community activists are sensing that the fight for a new hospital transcends a mere fight to preserve basic infrastructure, but it also taps into the historical tradition in Greenwich Village to fight urban renewal imposed by political figures, who force through neighborhood-destroying mega-development projects.

In the face of over-development, there is a chance that New York City communities will link up in a city-wide grass-root effort to block urban renewal projects that would destroy the character of our neighborhoods.

In August 2010, Speaker Quinn advocated and won approval from the City Council for a 67-floor skyscraper just two blocks away from the Empire State Building. The new building is to be built in Speaker Quinn’s district. When The Gotham Gazette reported about the skyscraper’s approval, the newspaper quoted the City Council Speaker thusly : « We want new Rockefeller Centers. … New York City is about growth -- about growing bigger and higher all the time. » Whereas, all New Yorkers take pride in living in a vibrant city, we think that all the zone-busting development projects are just a revival of Robert Moses’ twisted idea that New York City should be one giant crosstown expressway, only this time the city planning idea being pushed is more skyscrapers and more and more glass and steel luxury condominiums.

And as in that time then, when Mr. Moses’s overdevelopment plans shocked the conscious of New Yorkers, unintentionally launching the careers of a whole wave of civic activists lead by Jane Jacobs, now in this time here, we have the creation of similar conditions under which Speaker Quinn’s development plans are triggering a new wave of civic activists, who are pushing back, who are saying, « Enough is enough ! » Whereas the popular perception then was that Mr. Moses was motivated by a power trip that made him feel like he needed to be in control over all major development projects in such a mania that bordered on demolishing as much of old New York as he could, we don’t know if Speaker Quinn is motivated by the same ambition. But we do know that she is in a race to raise substantial amounts of money to mount an expensive political campaign to become mayor of New York City in the elections of 2013.

The Coälition For A New Village Hospital is based squarely within Speaker Quinn’s City Council district. The Coälition has been networking with various city and state politicians, to find a champion on the inside, who could launch an investigation into the finances and the mysterious closed-door meetings that lead to the closing of St. Vincent’s. The Coälition has also been working to feverishly prevent any change in zoning for the main buildings that served as home to St. Vincent’s, to preserve the existing infrastructure for any new hospital that would be interested in replacing St. Vincent’s. Remember that in about the course of one year, we heard Speaker Quinn change her tune from : « We are not going to fall for that bait-and-switch, » to : « As the sale of St. Vincent’s properties makes its way through bankruptcy court. » The community sees the writing on the wall. And right now, there is no full-service hospital in the entire West Side of Manhattan from Columbus Circle all the way down to Battery Park. And with the loss of St. Vincent’s Level 1 trauma center, all of Lower Manhattan is at risk should another terrorist attack again happen below 14th Street. Even if Speaker Quinn really, deep-down, believed that the Lower West Side needed a hospital, nobody but her and her political campaign know for sure if she is really fighting for one, or if she is just going through the motions, a political bluff known as astroturfing.

In numerous conversations with the residents of the Lower West Side of Manhattan, many people are beginning to hedge their bets. Others are saying that we need all hands on deck. They are looking to City Controller John Liu to launch an investigation into St. Vincent’s finances, in any jurisdictional capacity at his disposal. Residents are also looking to several Manhattan Community Boards, to help preserve the zoning on the former campus of St. Vincent’s. And in the last few weeks, one new ally has showed up on their radar, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer. In his authority, President Stringer has broad zoning powers. According to the city’s website :

« The Borough President reviews all public and private land-use projects in Manhattan and can recommend approval or rejection of those projects. With an appointment to the City Planning Commission, the Borough President can also play a proactive role in shaping the future of development in Manhattan. Also, the Borough President appoints most members of Manhattan's Community Boards and then provides support and oversight to those boards as they make crucial decisions affecting zoning and permits. »

Do the liberal and progressive politics of Manhattan Borough President Stringer include a real sensibility for the spirit of Jane Jacobs' ethics about responsible urban planning to prevent community decay ?

At a February 16, 2011, meeting sponsored by the Coälition, Presdient Stringer spoke about the need for a full-service hospital in the area. By publicly throwing his hat into the ring of the fight for a new hospital, Mr. Stringer may have found a way to transform his political career. None of the often-touted, presumed 2013 mayoral candidates have yet to inspire a groundswell of grass-roots organisers to identify a clear early leader among the crowded field of Democratic candidates. As President Stringer prepares to launch his own mayoral bid, he could count on the support of a few hundred thousand New Yorkers, who live in the former St. Vincent's catchment area. He could also reasonably expect to count on the support of the teams of community organisers that are being developed by their participation in the Coälition. If President Stringer did find a way to enforceably preserve the zoning of the former St. Vincent’ campus, he would zone-block the biggest fear running through the community and the Coälition : the sale of St. Vincent’s properties currently making its way through bankruptcy court. The area that would most benefit from an enforceable zone-block would be a critical area of voters in Manhattan, which also happens to coïncide with what would be considered Speaker Quinn's strongest base of support, as she organises herself to run for mayor of New York in 2013. Not only would President Stringer win over a valuable new grass-roots organisation in Manhattan, but he would be undercutting Speaker Quinn’s base of support right in her very own City Council District. (One way for President Stringer to measure the likelihood that hospital closings will become a major mayoral campaign issue is if new threats arise that would affect hospital finances, or if neighborhoods outside of Manhattan begin to organise around this issue.)

President Stringer is an accomplished politician. His entry into politics was initially shaped by having served as a legislative assistant to Congressman Jerrold Nadler, back when the Congressman was an Assemblyman. Before he was elected to preside over the Borough of Manhattan, President Stringer served as an Assemblyman himself, representing the very seat once occupied by Congressman Nadler. A true Democrat, President Stringer has the support of progressive Democratic political clubs in New York City, among them the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club, named for the legendary gay activist Jim Owles. Like any elected politician, President Stinger has not been able to please all of his critics. But residents of the Lower West Side -- and beyond -- are turning to him for the opportunity that both see in each other : a way to legally preserve the zoning of the former St. Vincent’s buildings, as well as a way to elect a mayor, who could hear the calls from the community to reverse the spree of hospital closings and to put a stop to the irresponsible and systematic demolition of old New York. Already, the movement for a new Lower West Side hospital has attracted members or former members of major LGBT organizations such as ACT-UP and Queer Rising, among others, plus the conribution of activists outside of Manhattan. And the movement has also guaranteed the ascendancy of civil rights attorney Yetta Kurland as a respected community leader. Therefore, President Stringer is looking at the formation of an almost instant coälition of support for his mayoral candidacy, provided he delivered quickly on an enforceable zone-block to preserve the integrity of the St. Vincent’s properties, before the buildings are sold in bankruptcy court.

If President Stringer played by the normal cynical rules of New York City politics, he would be all talk and no action. But if he was ready for a game-changer, one that would transform him into an instant populist hero, he would call Speaker Quinn on what everybody sees as one of her two Achilles’ Heels : her St. Vincent’s astroturfing bluff. (Speaker Quinn's other Achilles' Heels are term limits and the slush fund scandal.) She says that she supports a new hospital, while, at the same time, she is taking tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from the very real estate industry that stand to make tens of millions, and possibly hundreds of millions in profits, from the demolition of the St. Vincent’s properties and the development of more glass and steel high-rise luxury condominiums in the heart of community where Jane Jacobs used to call home. And Speaker Quinn’s gamble is that she can get away with giving definitive non-answers when everybody in her very City Council District is longing for decisive leadership to restore a hospital at the former site of St. Vincent's.

Bloomberg-Quinn Budget Cuts

Stringer Snipes at Quinn Over Budget Cuts

In the wake of the announcements that Mayor Michael Bloomberg plans to layoff 6,000 teachers, cut daycare and senior citizen centers, and cut the budgets of independently elected officials, like the offices of the public advocate and the borough presidents, politicians and community leaders are decrying the mayor's cuts as politically-motivated.

For example, The New York Post questions why Mayor Bloomberg is blaming Gov. Andrew Cuomo over the loss of $600 million in state funding. In an NY1 broadcast, the mayor even called Gov. Cuomo ignorant about the city's budget.

Meanwhile, in respect of the proposed budget cuts to the offices of the public advocate and borough presidents has outraged Scott Stringer, the Manhattan borough president.

“It is outrageous that we are part of this political budget dance that impacts our ability to do our job effectively,” Stringer said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. “And both the mayor and the council leadership have been complicit in this attempt to silence independent elected officeholders by going after our budget.”

Mr. Stringer told The Journal that under the twin administrations of Mayor Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, the annual process for setting the budgets for the borough presidents and the public advocate has become the “most politicized” in a generation.

Moreover, that the mayor seems obsessed with laying off public school teachers has worried others whether the mayor is, indeed, making biased budget cuts.

"His complete insistence on teacher layoffs seems bizarre to us at this point. We think it's more of a political game and scaring people," Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers, told NY1 television, according to Yahoo! News.

Separately, proposed budget cuts to public libraries have triggered a backlash : is Mayor Bloomberg attacking freedom of expression, education, and access to information ?

Scott Stringer Supports a New Hospital To Replace St. Vincent's

Scott Stringer Says We Need a Full-Service Hospital in the Lower West Side of Manhattan.

At a community forum to discuss the fight for a new hospital, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer said the community needed a full-service hospital to replace St. Vincent's.

Lawmakers and other government officials were invited to the forum at Hudson Guild in Chelsea, and, in their stead, they sent representatives. Mr. Stringer was the only major politician to show up in person, and he made a crowd-pleasing speech.

The community meeting took place Wednesday evening, Feb. 16, from 6 - 8 p.m. at Hudson Guild and was sponsored by the Coälition for a New Village Hospital and the WestView News newspaper.

It is almost one year since St. Vincent's Hospital was closed under shady conditions, and, in that time, the Coälition for a New Village Hospital has been leading the fight to bring back a new hospital for the Lower West Side of Manhattan.

In the time that Christine Quinn has been Speaker of the New York City Council, at least eight city hospitals have closed. In 2010, North General Hospital in Harlem declared bankruptcy and St. Vincent's Hospital in the West Village shut down after shady backroom meetings. In 2009, two hospitals in Queens -- St. John's Queens Hospital in Elmhurst and Mary Immaculate Hospital in Jamaica -- went bankrupt. In 2008, Cabrini Medical Center in Manhattan and Victory Memorial Hospital in Bay Ridge closed. And in 2007, St. Vincent's Midtown in Manhattan was closed. Separately, one other hospital in Brooklyn, Long Island College Hospital, is on the brink of closing, and the only hope of saving the hospital is if it mergers with SUNY Downstate.

Forum Seeks To Restore a Hospital at the Former Site of St. Vincent's

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, left, and New York City Controller John Liu, below, Are Expected to Join Forum Wednesday Night to Discuss the Next Steps in the Community's Fight to Restore a Hospital at the St. Vincent’s Site

The community of the Lower West Side of Manhattan are invited to join a panel discussion and update on the fight for health care and a full-service hospital. Lawmakers and other government officials were invited to the forum.

The forum, which is expected to attract the participation of Mr. Stringer and Mr. Liu, will take place Wednesday evening, Feb. 16, from 6 - 8 p.m. at Hudson Guild, which is located on Ninth Avenue, between 17th and 18th Streets. The forum is being sponsored by the Coälition for a New Village Hospital and WestView News.

In the time that Christine Quinn has been Speaker of the New York City Council, at least eight city hospitals have closed. In 2010, North General Hospital in Harlem declared bankruptcy and St. Vincent's Hospital in the West Village shut down after shady backroom meetings. In 2009, two hospitals in Queens – St. John's Queens Hospital in Elmhurst and Mary Immaculate Hospital in Jamaica – went bankrupt. In 2008, Cabrini Medical Center in Manhattan and Victory Memorial Hospital in Bay Ridge closed. And in 2007, St. Vincent's Midtown in Manhattan was closed. Separately, one other hospital in Brooklyn, Long Island College Hospital, is on the brink of closing, and the only hope of saving the hospital is if it mergers with SUNY Downstate.

Meanwhile, this is from The New York Post, by way of DNAinfo :

MANHATTAN — New York State hospitals rank 46th in the nation for emergency room visit wait times, with patients waiting an average of five hours to receive treatment, The New York Post reported.

Emergency room wait times increased by 18 minutes between 2008 and 2009 to 296 minutes, Press Ganey, an organization that monitors hospitals, told the Post.

The longer wait times may be due to recent closures of health facilities, such as St. Vincent's Hospital in Greenwich Village, around Manhattan, the paper reported.

As a result of closures, patients have crowded into other hospitals, increasing waiting times, the Post reported.

Stringer Raising Millions For Potential Mayoral Campaign In 2013

Potential New York City 2013 Mayoral Candidates Raising Money ; Sitting On Millions Of Campaign Cash.

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer raised approximately $1 million dollars in 2010 in what is being called a preparation to run for Mayor of New York City in 2013, reported The Wall Street Journal.

The Journal reported that in the final 6 months of 2010, Mr. Stringer raised nearly $400,000, while City Council Speaker Christine Quinn raised $121,000. During the same period, each of Rep. Anthony Weiner and 2009 Mayoral candidate William Thompson did not raise any money.

While Mr. Stringer had a definite fundraising advantage in 2010, his rumoured competition for the Demorcratic nomination have piles of campaign cash that can be funneled into a mayoral campaign. Together with his 2010 fundraising, Mr. Stringer has a combined balance of approximately $2 million, Ms. Quinn has approximately $2.8 million available to her, and Mr. Weiner has almost $4 million on hand.

New York City Comptroller John Liu and Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, each of whom are also considered potential mayoral candidates, have not released their fundraising activities for the latter part of 2010, The Journal reported.