Rousing 2011 #OWS speech reminds us of role of St. Vincent's Hospital on 9/11

Read your lipservice on 9/11, but we have no full-service hospital below 14th Street since St. Vincent's closed. #Rudin @Partnership4NYC

— Louis Flores (@maslowsneeds) September 11, 2014

Did de Blasio's endorsement, and lingering anger over LICH closure, cost Peter Sikora the election ?

Press won't even mention voter anger over closure of Long Island College Hospital as factor in rejection of de Blasio endorsement, Sikora loss

De Blasio Used LICH as a Political Prop, Angry Ex-Supporters Say via @Dnainfo http://t.co/W0h1A25A2k — Doug Biviano (@dougbiviano) September 6, 2014 Overlooked in the aftermath of yesterday’s Democratic Party primary elections across New York state is the loss of candidate Peter Sikora in the 52nd Assembly District in Brooklyn. Mr. Sikora, who benefitted from the endorsements of Mayor Bill de Blasio, the Working Families Party, and the New York State Nurses Association, lost the election to Jo Anne Simon. In trying to justify Mr. Sikora’s loss, the media has proposed all number of excuses, ranging from the fact that Mayor de Blasio’s endorsement didn’t amount to much, because he made so many, diluting any impact that they might have ordinarily had, to the fact that the machine candidate, Ms. Simon, had more institutional support. Unacknowledged is the lingering and growing voter anger over the closure of Long Island College Hospital. In the 52nd Assembly District in Brooklyn, which encompasses the catchment area formerly served by LICH, the voter anger against Mayor de Blasio’s betrayal of his central campaign promise to stop anymore hospital closings rubbed off on Mr. Sikora, even though he had the NYSNA endorsement, meaning that Brooklyn voters were able to see through the mayor’s politically-expedient machinations, as well as Mr. Sikora’s.

RELATED In Hotly Contested Races, the de Blasio Endorsement Only Goes So Far (The New York Observer) Peter Sikora running away from failed LICH promises, de Blasio exploitation cover-up (NYC : News & Analysis)

1199's Kevin Finnegan to NYC community hospital patients : Kiss Off !

Cuomo “first governor we haven’t gotten into a fight with in a long time,” said Kevin Finnegan. http://t.co/XsqYPbIMaw @1199SEIU #saveLICH

— Louis Flores (@maslowsneeds) September 2, 2014

The corrupt political mercenaries running unions lead rank and file astray. 1199's Finnegan is Cuomo's lackey. @HammerDaily

— Louis Flores (@maslowsneeds) September 2, 2014

Joan Rivers in critical condition after she stopped breathing during throat procedure in clinic : reports

The comedian and TV shopping channel personality Joan Rivers was reportedly rushed to Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan, after she stopped breathing and went into cardiac arrest during a procedure on her vocal cords at a clinic. Ms. Rivers' daughter, Melissa, is en route to New York, the gossip Web site TMZ reported.

#BREAKING: Joan Rivers stops breathing during surgery, taken to NYC hospital, sources say http://t.co/KgvHYlR3Aw pic.twitter.com/C7aE83WpcJ

— NBC New York (@NBCNewYork) August 28, 2014

Ms. Rivers' out-patient procedure at a clinic shows the risks involved in the anti-hospital movement by health insurance companies. The "reforms" to healthcare really amount to healthcare cuts, where money is saved by blocking patients from receiving complicated procedures in out-patient settings. Once Ms. Rivers, 81, went into cardiac arrest, she had to be rushed to a full-service hospital, where trained medical experts in complicated medical practices could attend to her emergency healthcare needs. Some healthcare activists said today that Ms. Rivers was fortunate that the out-patient clinic, where she stopped breathing, was near the many hospitals of New York's Upper East Side, where there is a concentration of full-service hospitals. If Ms. Rivers had been having her out-patient procedure in lower Manhattan, for example, then the ambulance ride to a full-service hospital would have taken longer. It remains to be seen whether the mainstream media or Hollywood gossip Web sites will take notice of the healthcare implications for other senior patients using out-patient clinics for surgeries.

Meanwhile, news watchers expect President Barack Obama to issue a statement, calling for prayers for Ms. Rivers' full recovery. Ms. Rivers' health emergency follows the tragic suicide of comedian Robin Williams, who passed away on Aug. 11. The White House issued a statement in Mr. Williams' memory on the same day as his passing.

When is Bill de Blasio going to own the problems of New York City ?

Overcrowded public schools, more public students in homeless shelters, hospital closures : the distraught de Blasio administration desperately trying to "spin" its way out of problems with rhetoric and deceptive mailers

RELATED 38 Percent of Applicants Did Not Get a "Universal" Pre-Kinder "Offer" (WNYC) Sources : de Blasio aide pushed rent increase (Crains New York Business) For de Blasio, Deals, Drama and (Maybe) Progress (The New York Times) SHAME : de Blasio mailer praises LICH closure (Bill de Blasio Sold Out) "Mayor's Fund to Advance NYC" is full of notorious developers (Queens Crap) Public Schools in New York City Are Poorer and More Crowded, Budget Agency Finds (The New York Times)

MORE AND MORE, the political bloggers in New York City are seeing through the smoke and mirrors of the de Blasio administration. As the media awaits Mayor Bill de Blasio to address school overcrowding, conditions made worse by his expansion of pre-kinder, political bloggers are asking tougher questions. Do the stumbles by the de Blasio administration on the politically-motivated early release of Bishop Orlando Findlayter from jail, the de Blasio deal to strong-arm the Working Families Party to endorse the reelection campaign of neoliberal Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and other missteps point to a one-term mayoralty ? These are the hush-hush questions being asked amongst activists and bloggers. Autonomous police reform activists see how Mayor de Blasio implicitly approves of the arrest of over 240 subway artists and performers so far this year under controversial "shock and awe" NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton. These same autonomous police reform activists also see how the mayor's puppet in the City Council, Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, allocated over $7 million in taxpayer dollars to community groups that guard the veal pen of nonprofit police reform activism from the inside. As the summer heat bears down on New Yorkers, their patience is going to wear thin with how the mayor is dragging his feet on long, outstanding reforms for which activists have waited over 15 years. For example, instead of saving Long Island College Hospital in Brooklyn, a move that could have been made revenue-neutral by just entering into a hospital licensing agreement between the city's Health and Hospitals Corporation and a new operator, the mayor did nothing to save LICH. The failed opportunity to save LICH keeps in place a decades-long, state plan to keep closing community hospitals to make radical cuts to the Medicaid program by denying expensive healthcare procedures to the poor and to people of color. Now, to cover his tracks, Mayor de Blasio has asked Berlin Rosen operative Dan Levitan to fabricate deceptive community mailers, trying to sell the spiel that the luxury condo conversion of LICH is actually a community "win." New Yorkers are a bright bunch of people. They know a scam when they see one. The sad story of what happened to LICH under Mayor de Blasio's watch, as are the on-going threat of NYPD's discriminatory "broken windows theory" of policing and the unaddressed problems with public education, point to a moment of truth for the de Blasio administration. Is he going to deflect blogger's rightful questions about his duplicitous political machinations into a problem for which his teams and teams of public relations operatives plan to blame the media, or is Mayor de Blasio going to own the problems of New York City -- including the very ones he creates himself ?

Turning their backs on LICH, de Blasio and Cuomo stir up community and activist anger

Mayor de Blasio has gone back on his campaign promise to support "hospitals, not condos." And the governor, well, Gov. Cuomo has been trying to close Brooklyn hospitals from Day One.

RELATED LICH closure causing growing political backlash in Brooklyn ; Mayor, Governor under pressure (The Brooklyn Daily Eagle) Healthcare As Bargaining Chips in New York City Politics // The Pelican Brief (NYC : News & Analysis)

Disappointment in Mayor Bill de Blasio is turning into community outrage as residents of Brooklyn come to grips with how the mayor's office waged a duplicitous campaign in regards to Long Island College Hospital, or LICH as it is better known. Publicly, Mayor de Blasio was giving lip service to saving LICH, but privately, some community activists are now saying that the mayor's staff was trying to bully healthcare activists into supporting the closure of the hospital so that a large real estate developer could convert the complex medical campus into luxury condos. The reality of the mayor's duplicitious nature, while shocking to grassroots activists, comes as no surprise to astute political observers of how the real corrupt nature of the broken political system works in New York City. Mayor de Blasio stormed into office during last year's mayoral election with the aid of a corrupt Super PAC undercuting his chief rival and with promises to provide a clean break from the Bloomberg-Quinn administration. The mayor's empty and meaningless campaign promises weren't made, because he believed in them, but because his campaign consultants knew that the electorate was desperate for change, and that this messaging would help him win the election -- a prediction that turned out to be correct, but that would not fix the broken political system, because that was never the de Blasio campaign's intention. The latest revelation of the mayor's duplicitous administration comes from an article about LICH in The Brooklyn Daily Eagle : Following SUNY’s announcement on Friday that it had reached an “agreement in principle” to sell the LICH campus in Cobble Hill to Fortis for development into condos, local officials representing the LICH catchment area issued a statement putting them on the opposite side of the fence with the Mayor, who pushed for the deal. While campaigning on the theme of "hospitals, not condos," De Blasio has apparently moderated his stance since becoming Mayor, saying that an urgent care center and "stand-alone ER" planned for the site will preserve health care for northwestern Brooklyn. Sources told the Brooklyn Eagle that in February the Mayor's staff put pressure on the community groups fighting for LICH to support Fortis. The growing political scandal over Mayor de Blasio's betrayal of his campaign promise to save LICH is just the latest example of how the economic realities will fracture Democratic unity : On the city level, nobody knows how the mayor will pay for expansion of pre-kinder, making good on union backpay demands, and fighting income inequality. On the state level, Gov. Andrew Cuomo will use pension IOU vouchers and hospital closings to pay for the $2 billion election year tax cut gimmicks needed to fluff his troubled re-election campaign. Caught in between are healthcare and other social needs reform activists, who are looking to the twin Democratic politicians of New York, asking, "Where's the liberal leadership we can count on ?" But this fracturing of Democratic unity is only coming about because of how Mayor de Blasio and Gov. Cuomo have deceived voters into believing that the Democratic political elite can deliver an overhaul of the broken political system that never answers the demands made by communitys. The elite Democratic politicians will never deliver social, economic, or legal reforms when they are as beholdened to real estate developers as are Mayor de Blasio and Gov. Cuomo. One of Gov. Cuomo's first acts in office was to empanel a controversial Medicaid Redesign Team that has instituted a scorched earth campaign of austerity cuts to the poorest New Yorkers, those who rely on Medicaid for their healthcare. Part of the governor's austerity cuts was to push for the closure of full service hospitals, where the poor and the uninsured seek life-saving, but expensive, healthcare services. His controversial push for more hospital closings came on the heels of the controversial closure of St. Vincent's Hospital in Manhattan, which is being now redeveloped into a $1 billion luxury condo and townhouse complex by the billionaire Rudin family. Because of income and wealth disparities, many of the state's poor people are concentrated in New York City, making it an easy target to close hospitals with a charity mission serving the poor and the uninsured. The governor's plan to cut healthcare costs to the poor was expanded under Obamacare, as more and more poor people qualified for Medicaid, a move that forced Gov. Cuomo to close even more charity hospitals. To augment hospital closings, the Obamacare expansion of the New York State Medicaid program makes it difficult for poor people to receive prescriptions for life-saving, but expensive, prescription medications, like cholesterol-fighting medications and other prescription medications for people with long-term diseases or disorders, like irritable bowel syndrome or other functional gastro-intestinal disorders. Against this backdrop of austerity cuts, the closure of LICH on Mayor de Blasio's and Gov. Cuomo's joint watch is opening the eyes of healthcare activists to the unseemly political reality that Demcoratic politicians, even those that self-annoint themselves as "progressives," are just as neoliberal in their need to make austerity cuts to the poor and to the sick as the former center-right administration of Michael Bloomberg and former New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. Furthermore, if Mayor Bill de Blasio was uncommitted to saving LICH from the start, in spite of his campaign demands for a moratorium on hospital closings, then this doesn't bode well for Interfaith Medical Center, also in Brooklyn, which has been targeted for closure, as well, by Medicaid Redesign Team hatchetman Stephen Berger and Gov. Cuomo. Even as the 1199 healthcare union protests the job losses and healthcare cuts by corporate-minded CEO's, note that 1199 strong-armed the Working Families Party to endorse the re-election campaign of Gov. Cuomo, whose very own Medicaid Redesign Team implimented large-scale healthcare cuts, including the outsourcing to Mr. Berger the effort to keep closing city hospitals that have resulted in still yet further healthcare union job losses, not including the negative impact to public health. How long will it take healthcare activists and other grassroots advocates fighting for unfinished healthcare reforms, such as the adoption of a single-payer healthcare system in New York state to replace Obamacare, before they wake up to see how the corrupt political operatives of some healthcare unions, drunk on the corrupt political Kool-Aid of "business as usual," keep neoliberal Democratic politicians in office, who have no intentions of ever delivering the healthcare reforms that the community demands ?

The New York Times wakes up to a harsh reality about de Blasio's piling examples of selling out

PUBLISHED : WED, 08 JUN 2014, 01:46 PM
UPDATED : THURS, 13 JUN 2014, 19:35 PM

The NYTimes' Ginia Bellafante on Mayor Bill de Blasio : The absence of any real template for governing from the vantage point of economic liberalism

RELATED For de Blasio, Deals, Drama and (Maybe) Progress (The New York Times)

In today's Sunday edition of The New York Times, the columnist Ginia Bellafante examined new mayor Bill de Blasio's record of broken campaign promises and other compromises in his young administration. "For years since, you could get by calling yourself a liberal in New York State politics simply by loving pro-choice arguments and same-sex marriage as much as you loved Wall Street and real estate developers. That is no longer so, which leaves centrists moving toward compromises that look semi-noble, and liberals in the position of seeming to have settled for too little and sacrificed their souls too much." On the closure of Long Island College Hospital, Ms. Bellafante wrote that, "the sense that Mr. de Blasio exploited the issue, declared victory in the face of a loss and then moved on has clearly taken hold." Ms. Bellafante's observation is backed up by a column by Liza Featherstone in amNewYork : "Bill de Blasio betrayed his believers in Cobble Hill," in which the author of the column wrote : "There are signs de Blasio is willing to fight for ordinary New Yorkers. Additional paid sick leave and universal pre-K are nothing to dismiss. But when the interests of ordinary New Yorkers conflict with those of the real estate industry, which donated heavily to de Blasio's campaign, is Mayor 99 Percent setting aside his protest placards? Many in Cobble Hill think so." In respect of the de Blasio administration's plans to preserve affordable housing, Ms. Bellafante noted that there was a "mounting sense that he has reneged on promises to involve neighborhoods in decisions that intimately affect them." This is backed-up by the relentless postings on the Atlantic Yards Report blog, and you can begin by reading this post : "As de Blasio announces affordable housing plan, Atlantic Yards (delay, modular, lack of neighborhood planning) remains an awkward backdrop," in which the author of the blog noted of the mayor's affordable housing plan : "There was no mention of the planned affordable housing that he and others cited to justify their support for Atlantic Yards, likely because that housing has taken so long to be built--and perhaps because it recalls the absence of ground-up neighborhood planning." (emphasis added) With respect to Mayor de Blasio enabling Gov. Cuomo to lock up the Working Families Party nomination, Ms. Bellafante wrote : "When Mr. de Blasio recently facilitated a deal between the leftist Working Families Party and Mr. Cuomo to secure the organization’s endorsement of the governor for re-election, it pushed certain quarters of the left toward lamentation." This is backed up by one of numerous tweets in the aftermath of the WFP deal to endorse Gov. Cuomo, brokered by Mayor de Blasio, such as this one by Tom Watson : "Still some surprise/horror that progressive deBlasio cut a deal with Cuomo in the #WFP saga. Of course he did, it's politics." (emphasis added) Ms. Bellafante also provided a balance to her criticism, by noting some achievements in Mayor de Blasio's first five months in office. Taken as a whole, Ms. Bellafante's article is an indication that growing liberal disappointment with Mayor de Blasio is seeping into the pages of The New York Times, something that took 15 years to happen with former Council Speaker Christine Quinn's political career. This change is due to the impatience with which voters now express about political deals made between politicians that betray campaign promises, such as with the embarrassing Working Families Party endorsement, an observation that Ms. Bellafante herself made when she wrote, "What looked like a mayoral assertion of authority to some felt like abdication to others."

de Blasio's high poll numbers amongst minority electorate may sink, if the NYPD continue their racially-tinged, broken windows policing tactics

RELATED Mayor de Blasio’s Approval Rating Improves, Poll Finds (The New York Times)

A majority of Black and Latino voters said that they approved of the job Mayor de Blasio was doing, a new poll shows, The New York Times reported. But it is not clear that this new poll factored in the immense anger in the Harlem community in response to a shock and awe invasion by the New York Police Department to round up innocent young public housing tenants on trumpted up charges of conspiracy to commit gang activities. Already, the new poll shows that the new mayor has lost more than half of the support amonst whites. If the police continue their crackdown that targets people of color, it won't be too far long before the mayor loses support amongst his minority base.

Bill de Blasio - Hospital Closing Crisis Flyer

The wave of hospital closings continue into the de Blasio-Mark-Viverito administration from the Bloomberg-Quinn administration, because lying, cheating politicians, first promise to meet community demands to save our hospitals, but then turn out to fail to live up to their campaign promises.

2014-05-22 Bill de Blasio Hospital Closings Flyer by Connaissable

Too bad HHC didn't backstop LICH's restructuring plan

From the Demand a Hospital Listserv :

Begin forwarded message:

From: Demand A Hospital
Subject: Too bad HHC didn't backstop LICH's restructuring plan
Date: 7 mai 2014 11:42:47 UTC-04:00
To: Demand A Hospital
Bcc: lflores22@gmail.com
Reply-To: demandahospital@gmail.com

Dear All :

The latest in-depth news about the end of full-service hospital care at Long Island College Hospital comes from Capital New York :

Officials from the de Blasio administration, including Emma Wolfe, were concerned that the winning bid to buy LICH from SUNY was not commercially feasible. Brooklyn Health Partners was the sole bidder for LICH to submit a plan to continue full-service hospital care at LICH, said to be a major concern to the community and to Mayor Bill de Blasio, but Brooklyn Health Partners has lacked a state license to operate a hospital, an area where the city's network of hospitals, the Health and Hospitals Corporation, could have provided valuable, non-financial assistance by proposing an HHC affiliation with Brooklyn Health Partners. However, the city never proposed any such affiliation, in spite of it being in the best interest to public health. Meanwhile, time may have run out on Brooklyn Health Partners's bid for LICH, even as Brooklyn Health Partners continues its search for a partnering hospital system, which could, amongst other things, sponsor an operating license.

City and state officials expressed outrage after it was revealed that Brooklyn Health Partners had planned to use a secret plan for massive real estate development on LICH's footprint to subsidize full-service hospital care at LICH, somewhat reminiscent of Rudin Management Company's original plan for St. Vincent's Hospital. The community's painful experience with what Rudin's reckless plans did to St. Vincent's still weighs heavily on the minds of New Yorkers, and that experience may have influenced the city's sudden opposition to Brooklyn Health Partners' plans for LICH. But government officials never sought to provide a combination of restrictions and assistance to the winning bidder for LICH to prevent such drastic real estate speculation in the first place.

Recall how the city rejected the community's demand to "land-lock" the zoning on the property of St. Vincent's Hospital after its final bankruptcy filing. Community activists even organized a sit-in protest over this very issue.

Watch : 4 Community Activists arrested In HANDS OFF ST. VINCENT's protest (YouTube) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcToWCh5VhU

Read more : The end of the full-service hospital in Cobble Hill (Capital New York) : http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/city-hall/2014/05/8544898/end-full-service-hospital-cobble-hill

Adding hospital-only restrictions to the deed(s) of LICH's property, coupled with critical support, like extending HHC's operating license to Brooklyn Health Partners, would have been one way for the city to have responsibly supported its intention to continue full-service hospital care at LICH. Some hold out hope that SUNY will sell LICH to the second-place bidder, Peebles Corporation. But SUNY's governance board, which has been on a months-long scorched earth campaign to sabotage LICH, has no motivation to save the hospital it's been desperately trying to close in a move to appease hospital closing czar Stephen Berger and Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

If by small chance Peebles Corporation is awarded its second-place bid for LICH, it may mark another instance when North Shore-LIJ stands to make financial gains from the closure of another full-service hospital in New York. North Shore-LIJ is a partner in Peebles Corporation' plan to build an urgent care center complex at LICH. As part of the Berger Commission's drive to close St. John's Queens Hospital and Mary Immaculate Hospital, both in Queens, the state Department of Health made a $3.5 million grant to North Shore-LIJ to expand emergency room services at its Forest Hill and Franklin sites. A year later, North Shore-LIJ received another state grant of $5.3 million to open an urgent care center in Rego Park, Queens, following the closures of St. John's and Mary Immaculate. After the closing of St. Vincent's, North Shore-LIJ received yet another $9.4 million grant to open a failed urgent care center in Chelsea. North Shore-LIJ also received for free its use of the old O'Toole Building, which is being redeveloped into a glorified urgent care center in the West Village. Now, North Shore-LIJ may again stand to gain from its venture deal for LICH. The Peebles Corporation plan for LICH involves plans for the development of some luxury housing, providing a financial windfall to the next owners of LICH's valuable real estate. LICH's medical campus sits on land said to be worth as much as $500 million. North Shore-LIJ CEO Michael Dowling served on Gov. Cuomo's Medicaid Redesign Team, which has pushed for further hospital closings on top of the closures made under the previous Berger Commission. There is further appearance of cronyism in ties between Peebles and SUNY. Peebles Corporation is headed by Don Peebles, who has political ties to SUNY chairman H. Carl McCall, Crain's New York Business has reported.

SUNY's disposition of LICH is expected to be made final on May 22.

Read more : SUNY Nixes Deal With Winning Bidder to Run Long Island College Hospital (DNAinfo) : http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20140505/cobble-hill/suny-ends-lich-talks-with-brooklyn-health-partners

Read more : Top LICH pitch implodes, leaving luxury developer up next (The Brooklyn Paper) : http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/37/19/dtg-lich-plan-implosion-2014-05-09-bk_37_19.html

Read more : LICH bidder Peebles has ties to SUNY board chair McCall (Crain's New York Business) : http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20140402/REAL_ESTATE/140409967/lich-bidder-has-ties-to-suny-board-chair

Thank you for all that you do.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Demand A Hospital
Date: Mon, Dec 23, 2013 at 8:42 PM
Subject: Can / Should HHC Save LICH and Interfaith ?
To: Demand A Hospital

Dear All :

Last week, SUNY Board of Trustees chairman Carl McCall offered to hand over Long Island College Hospital (LICH) to New York City once mayor-elect Bill de Blasio takes office, telling The New York Times that “I would love to meet with him and give him the keys to the hospital.” Mr. McCall said of his offer to transfer LICH to the next mayor.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/18/nyregion/suny-withdraws-development-plan-for-troubled-brooklyn-hospital.html

In a separate report last week, another SUNY board member was quoted as saying that talks should be explored about possibly transferring LICH to the city's Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC).

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303949504579264803802600962

Given recent reports that Mayor Michael Bloomberg is leaving the city with a municipal budget surplus of approximately $2.4 billion, should consideration be given to transferring both LICH and Interfaith Medical Center, both located in Brooklyn, to HHC ?

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/de-blasio-inherits-2-4b-surplus-challenges-article-1.1553616

Just today, Interfaith won a reprieve of a few more months.

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2013/12/23/state-steps-in-to-keep-brooklyns-interfaith-medical-center-open/

Perhaps now is the time for the city to consider this stop-gap measure in order to guarantee full-service hospital care for Brooklyn, an option that was never made available for St. Vincent's Hospital by the Bloomberg-Quinn administration ?

If Gov. Andrew Cuomo won't fully fund healthcare in New York State, should we look to municipal resources ? For now, the resources exist at the city level. Since Albany seems intent on abdicating leadership on healthcare, should City Hall take action to finally stabilize city hospitals, so that our hospitals can adequately meet the expanded needs anticipated by new waves of insured patients under Obamacare ? Share your opinions with the mayor-elect at : info@billdeblasio.com

Thank you for all that you do.

P.S. Update on mysterious medical facility. The Lenox Hill urgent care center, which took millions in state money and then closed, was not the medical facility implicated by the Moreland Commission. The questionable facility, which took millions in state funding but failed to provide healthcare, was reportedly revealed to be Relief Resources Inc., and this facility is said to be tied to powerful Albany lobbyists.

http://nypost.com/2013/12/08/brooklyn-agency-fits-description-of-mystery-nonprofit/

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Tell Gov. Andrew Cuomo to stop closing our hospitals : 1 (518) 474-8390

You can also tweet your concerns to Gov. Cuomo at : @NYGovCuomo

North Shore-LIJ : Making Money Through State Grants From Hospital Closings

PUBLISHED : MON, 14 APR 2014, 08:59 PM
UPDATED : TUES, 15 APR 2014, 11:15 AM

Before and after some New York hospital closings, North Shore-LIJ successfully lobbied for state grants to fund its expansion plans.

Here's some intrigue, which the corrupt Moreland Commission should have investigated, about the granting of state money and an anti-trust loophole to a politically-connected ally of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's.

After three hospitals closed in New York City, North Shore-LIJ scored almost $20 million in state grants to help it make further inroads into the Manhattan and Queens hospital markets. The grants were backdoor funding that the state Department of Health provided existing healthcare facilities to temporarily expand their capacity in order for the state to facilitate wholesale hospital closures sought first by the Berger Commission and later by the Medicaid Redesign Team.

North Shore-LIJ received another $10 million grant after Hurricane Sandy, further demonstrating how politically astute the Long Island hospital chain has become in raking in grant money from hospital closings and natural disasters.

• RELATED : As part of the Berger Commission drive to close St. John's Queens Hospital and Mary Immaculate Hospital, the state Department of Health made a $3.5 million grant to North Shore-LIJ to "expand inpatient capacity and emergency room services at its Forest Hills and Franklin sites." (NYS Department of Health)
• RELATED : North Shore-LIJ opened an urgent care center in Rego Park, Queens, in 2010, following the 2009 Berger Commission bankruptcy and closures of St. John’s Queens Hospital and Mary Immaculate Hospital. The expansion of North Shore-LIJ into New York City was paid for by a $5.3 million grant from the state Department of Health. (The New York Post)
• RELATED : The state awarded a $9.4 million grant last spring to Lenox Hill Hospital/North Shore-LIJ to operate an urgent care center in Greenwich Village. (North Shore-LIJ will open an urgent care-center on West 20th Street * The Wall Street Journal)
• RELATED : Sixteen months after the North Shore-LIJ opened an urgent care center in Manhattan after St. Vincent’s Hospital closed, the system has closed the urgent center due to a lack of use, pocketing the $9.4 million grant. (North Shore-LIJ closes NYC urgent care center near St. Vincent's Hospital * Long Island Business News)
• RELATED : State officials are sparring over a bill that would allow Nassau Health Care Corp. join with North Shore-LIJ with blanket immunity from antitrust laws. (Schneiderman raises antitrust concerns over NuHealth/North Shore-LIJ partnership * Newsday)
• RELATED : Despite antitrust objections by State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo signed into law a bill that allows Nassau Health Care Corp. to collaborate with North Shore-LIJ with blanket antitrust immunity. (Despite antitrust objections, Cuomo approves NuHealth/North Shore-LIJ partnership * Newsday)

Whether it wants to either receive grant money to help fuel its expansion plans, lobby for blanket antitrust immunity to provide cover for its expansion plans, or to get a cut from grant money related to Hurricane Sandy as new funding streams, North Shore-LIJ gets exactly what it wants.

Helping North Shore-LIJ navigate through the sleazy swamp of corrupt Albany grant-making politics is North Shore-LIJ CEO Michael Dowling, who served as a co-chair on Gov. Andrew Cuomo's Medicaid Redesign Team effort to close hospitals and make scorched earth austerity cuts to healthcare. In 2010, North Shore-LIJ CEO Dowling was paid an astronomical $2.9 million in compensation, even though the hospital system is set up as a non-profit, yeah right.

In the above YouTube video recorded in 2011, Mr. Dowling described to community activist Jim Fouratt how the bankruptcy estate of St. Vincent's Hospital donated for free valuable property that North Shore-LIJ plans to use for an urgent care center on Seventh Avenue South. No word yet on how many millions in state grants were received by North Shore-LIJ in respect of this new iteration of an urgent care center, which is set to open this year.

Bill de Blasio and Bill Rudin Community Betrayal ?

Has Mayor de Blasio turned his back on the community demand for a full-service hospital to replace St. Vincent's ?

Bill Rudin is one of the most corrupt real estate developers in New York City. He is the one, who basically foreclosed on St. Vincent's Hospital. He and his family paid off former Council Speaker Christine Quinn with $30,000 in campaign donations to look the other way. Has Bill Rudin found a way to pay off Mayor Bill de Blasio, too ?

• RELATED : Bill de Blasio may not like the condos Rudin Management is building in place of the old St. Vincent's Hospital, but that hasn't impacted his relationship with the developer's former lobbyist, James Capalino. (A former Rudin lobbyist volunteers for Bill de Blasio * Capital New York)
• RELATED : Last week, Mayor Bill de Blasio stopped by an Association for a Better New York power breakfast to pay respect to one his key real estate development supporters, Bill Rudin. (Mayor de Blasio Makes Surprise Stop at Bill Rudin's ABNY Power Breakfast * The New York Observer)

From the Demand A Hospital listserv :

Dear All :

Last year, Bill de Blasio demonstrated outside the construction site for the $1 billion Rudin luxury condo complex in order to burnish his appeal amongst the communities impacted by hospital closings. The theme of that protest was "Hospitals, Not Condos."

• LINK : Bill de Blasio to lead ‘Hospitals Not Condos’ rally at former St. Vincent’s site, with Belafonte, Sarandon, Cynthia Nixon, others (East Villager)

Furthermore, one of the NYC Is Not For Sale commercials that helped to elect Mayor de Blasio focused on the corrupt role of Bill Rudin's campaign donations to former Council Speaker Christine Quinn.

• LINK : New Super PAC ad blasts Christine Quinn for role in closing of St. Vincent’s Hospital (The New York Daily New)

But now that he's been elected, Mayor de Blasio is socializing with the very same corrupt real estate developer whose luxury condo conversion deal he once criticized.

• LINK : Bill Bratton, Bill de Blasio and Bill Rudin at an April 3 gala. (Crains).

Does this mean that Mayor de Blasio has turned his back on the community's demand for a full service hospital to replace St. Vincent's ?

Thanks for all that you do.

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Tell Gov. Andrew Cuomo to stop closing our hospitals : 1 (518) 474-8390

You can also tweet your concerns to Gov. Cuomo at : @NYGovCuomo

Putting New Yorkers in jail because of healthcare cuts, lack of housing, and racist policing, but blaming mental illness

The Editorial Board of The New York Times thinks that enrolling all jail inmates into Medicaid will solve the "mental health" crisis of jail inmates. What a joke !

How many people with mental health needs end up in jail, because of each of a lack of a specialized municipal healthcare system that should first provide people with the full-service mental healthcare treatments that they may need and the NYPD's continued use of its "broken windows" theory of policing that deliberately targets people with the least and people with hardships for incarceration ?

• RELATED : The Mentally Ill, Behind Bars (The New York Times)

The Editorial Board worries about discharged inmates receiving post-detention care, but what about providing healthcare and support so that people don't become jail inmates in the first place ? Why doesn't The New York Times oppose policing tactics that lead to the arrest of people solely because they may be homeless, may be poor, or may have unmet healthcare needs ? The systematic closing of so many of New York City's full-service hospitals, including specialize mental health hospitals like Holliswood Hospital of Queens, added to a broken municipal shelter system and the lack of affordable housing, leave people with special needs with fewer and fewer places to go. Mix in Police Commissioner William Bratton's crackdown on the poor, and you have a perfect storm that puts people into jail for all the wrong reasons. How do we even know that jail inmates are truly even "mentally ill" ? Maybe some inmates are just plain discouraged as a direct result of either their dire economic circumstances or being targeted for arrest by police for being poor or being of color ?

Furthermore, the Editorial Board's Medicaid advocacy falls short of the realities of the broken healthcare system. So many experienced healthcare providers don't accept, and many specialized medications aren't covered by, Medicaid. By railroading inmates into a Medicaid healthcare plan that doesn't allow access to a full-range of healthcare treatment, I don't know what good the Editorial Board really expects will happen. Have members of The New York Times' Editorial Board ever tried getting an appointment with a good doctor, or filling a prescription, on Medicaid ? How do we know whether people on Medicaid with mental healthcare needs aren't being driven into incarceration by their failed healthcare coverage, the hospital closing crisis, and Commissioner Bratton's crackdown on poor people of color ? Where's the safety net ?

MRT Hospital Closings, Healthcare Cuts' Impact on Mental Health, Safety Net Care

From the Demand A Hospital listserv :

Dear All :

Some recent and past article links on the impact of hospital closings and other healthcare cuts to New York City's mental health, homeless, and safety net care :

• The death of a mentally ill veteran in an overheated cell at Rikers Island exposed fundamental flaws in New York’s homeless and healthcare systems, members of the City Council said on Thursday. (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/28/nyregion/new-york-council-sees-flawed-mental-health-system.html)
• The president of The Doe Fund is outraged that a homeless man was arrested, and later died in Rikers Island, instead of being taken to a shelter. (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/27/opinion/arresting-the-homeless.html)
• Last year, the New York State Office of Mental Health unveiled a sweeping plan to consolidate and reduce the number of state-run psychiatric hospitals from 24 to 15. (http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Nine-state-psychiatric-centers-to-close-in-plan-4657459.php)
Holliswood Hospital, a 127-bed private psychiatric hospital in Queens, closed in 2013. (http://www.wnyc.org/story/312359-holliswood-hospital-queens-closing-its-doors/)
• Many of the poor people who rely on safety-net hospitals will have to look for healthcare elsewhere after a government subsidy critical to hospitals’ survival is being sharply reduced under the new health law. (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/09/health/cuts-in-hospital-subsidies-threaten-safety-net-care.html)

After the closing of St. Vincent's, it looks like we lost more than just critical hospital facilities. Have New York City elected officials also lost their charitable concern for those with the least ?

Thanks for all that you do.

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Tell Gov. Andrew Cuomo to stop closing our hospitals : 1 (518) 474-8390

You can also tweet your concerns to Gov. Cuomo at : @NYGovCuomo

Crumbling Infrastructure, Gas Explosions, Hospital Closings, and No Permanent NYC Buildings Department Head

At press conference, Consolidated Edison said that a report about a gas leak was made at 9:13 a.m. this morning, but others have been warning about city's crumbling infrastructure for far longer than that.

The explosion and collapse of two adjacent apartment buildings in Spanish Harlem raised fresh concerns that New York City government is not adequately dealing with the city's infrastructure problems.

Carmen Vargas-Rosa, a member of the Spanish Christian Church, which was destroyed by a gas explosion, spoke with CBS 2 New York news, saying that there had been a gas leak several months ago in one of the buildings that collapsed earlier today. It's not known why ConEdison did not detect other problems with the buildings after it inspected the previous repairs. A tenant in one of the collapsed buildings, Ruben Borrero told The New York Daily News that for a period of several months dating back to last fall, several tenants had sought help for reports about gas problems by calling the city's 311 help service, adding that once, just before last Christmas, firefighters responded to complaints. The report by The New York Daily News indicated that, "The tenants’ claims contradict Mayor de Blasio’s statement Wednesday that the 'only indication of danger' came 17 minutes before the explosion when a tenant next door called Con Ed about a gas smell." One of the buildings also had indications of structural cracks dating back to 2008, The New York Times reported, which raises questions about lax code enforcement by the city's Department of Buildings. Complicating the rescue and recovery efforts, a large sinkhole opened up in front of the collapsed buildings. Officials are trying to determine if a a water main break may have caused the sinkhole, The New York Times reported.

They mayor may not want to accept responsibility for the city's negligence in not fully inspecting the infrastructure and utilities around the collapsed buildings, but New Yorkers deserve that he do something about it. The history of previous gas problems at these buildings are examples of other problems with New York City's aging and deteriorating infrastructure. The bursting of water mains are a common occurrence in New York City, and who can forget the spectacular 2007 explosion of the steam pipe in Midtown.

• RELATED : Report : Cuomo and de Blasio need to focus more on city infrastructure (Capital New York)
• RELATED : Deadly building explosions in Harlem puts focus on NYC's aging infrastructure (The Christian Science Monitor)
• RELATED : Mayor de Blasio Has No Regrets About Lack Of Permanent Buildings Dept. Head After East Harlem Explosion (Politicker)
• RELATED : Harlem Blast Focuses Attention On Lack Of Permanent Buildings Commissioner (The New York Daily News)
• RELATED : Citing Urgent Need, U.S. Calls on Hospitals to Hone Disaster Plans (The New York Times)
• RELATED : Long Island College Hospital Will Downsize, Become Luxury Condominiums (Capital New York)

As the city makes excuses for why it was O.K. for fire rescue and other first responders to arrive after the gas explosion in Spanish Harlem when there indications of impending danger, let's consider how the warning signs about the city's crumbling infrastructure have always existed. Thousands of miles of main gas lines in New York City are decades old, The Christian Science Monitor reported. WNYC reported that the gas main that runs near the buildings, which exploded and collapsed, is 127 years old. Last year, it was reported that a building was damaged by a partial collapse in Chinatown. The aging and collapse of city buildings comes on top of a report published today by Politicker, where the mayor was unapologetic for not having yet appointed a permanent head for a major city infrastructure agency.

• RELATED : Could Spectra Natural Gas Pipeline Really Blow Up The West Village ? (Gothamist)

Isn't it about time that the mayor got around to finally appointing a permanent commissioner to head the city's Department of Buildings ? After that, the de Blasio administration should complete an assessment of the city's crumbling infrastructure, map it against prior complaints, and prioritize the renewal of the city's basic physical and organizational structures, facilities, and utilities. And he should use this opportunity to make the city go green. Get rid of that dangerous Spectra natural gas pipeline running under the West Village.

Three Brooklyn Hospitals Face Down-sizing, Despite Billions in State and City Resources

No Political Commitment to Save Hospitals

Brookdale Hospital, Interfaith Medical Center, and Wyckoff Heights Medical Center will now have to down-size in order to survive, aides to Gov. Andrew Cuomo said today. No mention was made if Long Island College Hospital, a fourth Brooklyn hospital that has been targeted for closure by Gov. Cuomo, would survive the chopping block.

As part of a controversial Medicaid waiver, New York state must reduce inpatient hospital beds across the board in accordance with the wishes of Stephen Berger, a New York investment banker and member of a working group of Gov. Cuomo's Medicaid Redesign Team. Since 2006, Mr. Berger has overseen the closure or down-sizing of 11 hospitals in New York City alone.

• RELATED : Healthcare As Bargaining Chips in New York City Politics // The Pelican Brief (Updated)
• RELATED : Bill de Blasio, New York Liberals, and the Veal Pen (Updated)

Gov. Cuomo wants to use some of the money from the Medicaid waiver to down-size hospitals into urgent care centers, emergency units, and specialized treatment facilities. “We will be able to fund the structural and rebuilding needed to transform hospitals so they can be profitable and thrive and remain open,” one aide to Gov. Cuomo said.

Because the Medicaid waiver was negotiated in secret, it is not known if any of the down-sized facilities in Brooklyn will "transform" into spin-offs as for-profit healthcare corporations.

No response, yet, from New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who campaigned outside the former St. Vincent's Hospital with a promise to stop hospital closings.

Billion in Surplus State and City Budgets

Gov. Cuomo says that New York state has no money to save our hospitals, yet he is spending "surplus" state tax money that was "made" by closing entire hospitals. From this "pot of gold," the governor is offering tax breaks to the wealthy and to corporations, so much so that the Moral Monday movement is now coming to Albany, to fight the irresponsible way in which Gov. Cuomo has politicized state tax dollars. Many observers note that Gov. Cuomo is diverting "surplus" money from healthcare cuts to cozy up to corporate supporters in order to increase his margin of victory in his re-election bid later this year as a way to launch a campaign for the 2016 presidential race.

• RELATED : In election year, governor is in a giving mood, except for healthcare
• RELATED : Moral Mondays Come to Albany : Morality Meet Cuomo's Budget
• RELATED : Gov. Andrew Cuomo's 2016 Presidential Machinations

Mayor de Blasio has also attracted some scrutiny in how he's using tax money. The new mayor enjoys a $3 billion budget surplus, and the city stands to make an additional $1 billion from the sale of new air rights around Grand Central Terminal as part of the mayor's plan to rezone the east side of Midtown Manhattan. But so far, Mayor de Blasio has not proposed to use any of these resources to save two hospitals on the verge of closure, Long Island College Hospital or Interfaith Medical Center, both in Brooklyn.

• RELATED : Budget Puzzle for Mayor : What to Do With a Surplus That May Top $3 Billion
• RELATED : City Council Postpones Decision on $1 Billion Midtown Air Rights Sale

As each of Gov. Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio plan their next budgets, now is the time to hold them to account to save our community hospitals.

Despite Dangers, New York City Public Hospitals Set to Outsource Dialysis Care to Private Chain

Four of the city’s public hospitals are expected to turn over dialysis care to a for-profit franchise called Big Apple Dialysis despite government data showing the company’s chains did not perform as well as the hospitals themselves.

The motive to make money from dialysis patients at for-profit chains has resulted in what researchers describe as starkly higher mortality rates than at patient-care centered clinics that are operated as non-profits.

The four New York City hospitals, where dialysis patients may face worse healthcare outcomes, including a risk of higher mortality, are : Kings County Hospital, Lincoln Hospital Center, Metropolitan Hospital, and Harlem Hospital.

The nurses union New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) and other healthcare advocates are critical of the effort to outsource dialysis care.

Please contact Councilmember Corey Johnson, the chair of the Council Health Committee, to express your opinions about this controversial outsourcing contract : 1 (212) 564-7757.

Bronx Man Dies After Waiting Hours For E.R. To Treat His Rash

Berger Commission and Medicaid Redesign Team hospital closings created failures that have led to long E.R. wait times in New York

• From The Gothamist : Man Dies After Waiting Hours For ER To Treat His Rash

A Bronx man who went to Saint Barnabas Hospital to get his rash checked out was found dead in the emergency room waiting room after an eight hour wait. John Verrier, 30, went to St. Barnabas at 10 p.m. last Sunday night; he was found dead by a security guard around 6:40 a.m. the next day. "He was found stiff, blue and cold," a hospital employee told ABC News. "He died because [there's] not enough staff to take care of the number of patients we see each day. We need more staff at Saint Barnabas."

Verrier had his vitals taken when he first got to the hospital, then told to wait for a doctor to see him. Hospital spokesman Steve Clark told the Post that Verrier's name was called "two or three times" between his arrival and 2 a.m. A security guard passed through the waiting room around 2 a.m. to wake up the many homeless people who sleep there, and Verrier was "moving, he was alive." Then when the security guard passed again around 6 a.m., he was dead.

Clark added that an in-house review found “all guidelines were met.” But the hospital worker who spoke to ABC said nobody was really checking on him: "There's no policy in place to check the waiting room to see if people waiting to be seen are still there or still alive." That worker says Verrier's name was called over the PA three times, but "based on number of people in the waiting room it is impossible to check on each person physically."

New York State is ranked 46th in the country in overall emergency room waiting time. St. Barnabas is the worst in the city when it comes to the average time patients spent in the emergency room before being sent home: it's 306 minutes there, compared to a 155 minute wait statewide and the average 137 minute wait nationally.

• RELATED : Industry sources said recent hospital closures have contributed to longer wait times. You could die waiting in New York hospitals * The New York Post
• RELATED : Former New York Lt. Gov. Richard Ravitch asks how Gov. Andrew Cuomo can propose $2 billion in tax cuts in the face of great social needs. Richard Ravitch’s Reaction to the Budget Plan * Capital Tonight (Registration Required)

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Tell Gov. Andrew Cuomo to stop closing our hospitals : 1 (518) 474-8390

You can also tweet your concerns to Gov. Cuomo at : @NYGovCuomo

Healthcare As Bargaining Chips in New York City Politics // The Pelican Brief (Updated)

Getting Your Piece Of The Pie After It Gets Taken Away From Somebody Else

Housing Works CEO Charles King, left, agreed to going along with making $17 billion in healthcare cuts. Stephen Berger is a budget hatchet man, who leads a special subcommittee of neoliberal Gov. Andrew Cuomo's controversial Medicaid Redesign Team trying to close hospitals in Brooklyn. Thomas Farley, right, is the do-nothing city health commissioner responsible for continuing years of municipal policy that failed to keep community hospitals open or to finally develop a comprehensive, city-wide AIDS agenda.

• RELATED : Watching the Political Chess Pieces Move on the $10 billion New York State Medicaid Waiver
• RELATED : You Could Die Waiting In A New York City Emergency Room

Word on the Street : Whereas Mayor Bill de Blasio doesn't have enough money to make good on unions' demands for retroactive backpay and raises, he's in a quandary about how to bring down the unions' demands, but still make them feel like he "appreciates" them.

Whereas Mayor de Blasio keeps being all talk about his "progressive reform agenda," he's rightly raising expectations amongst reform activists that he's actually going to deliver changes on major social, legal, and economic issues that went neglected for the last 20 years of Republican City Hall rule.

Now, therefore, the intersection of these two circumstances is creating a troubling development : There's talk amongst some political insiders that Mayor de Blasio may offer one union largely responsible for his electoral win with a lower contract in exchange for being given backroom access to selecting one of the city commissioners that would have some oversight of that union.

Isn't this how Wall Street games the system ? We already have Scott Stringer, a slimy career weasel, in charge of the Comptroller's Office. Knowing Stringer's situational ethics, he's no doubt ready to sell access and influence in exchange for campaign donations to make another campaign run for higher office the next time the situation presents itself. We say that this is wrong when it is done by the political right, or by the 1%. But what happens when it's done by the left ?

A sordid theory about how corruption spreads : dividing the community for expedient political gain, leaving everybody triangulated from criticising the corruption.

1199, formerly headed by Obama administration political operative Patrick Gaspard, is a close advisor to Mayor de Blasio. Judging by how Mr. Gaspard sold out on his union's dedication to healthcare advocacy by agreeing to the wave of Berger Commission hospital closings ordered by former Republican Gov. George Pataki and by Gov. Pataki's own political operative, Wall Street investment banker Stephen Berger, Mr. de Blasio is hoping to resurrect the evil playbook of corruption in the contract negotiations between City Hall and 1199.

Here's how.

Trading A Lower Labor Compensation Contract In Exchange For Naming The Next Health Commish

Corruption doesn't have to always be about breaking the law, it could be about corrupting the democratic process that should be at the start be advocating transparency and a fully public participation in all decisions in matters of the public's own governance, especially major decisions, like picking the next city health commissioner. This role is vital, and the fact that we've had Thomas Farley for the last four years, only shows the kind of damage that having an impotent health commission can cause : Mr. Farley has not done one thing to stop the lingering Berger Commission hospital closings, nor the next wave of hospital closings called for by neoliberal Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo under his own Berger-like apparatus, the Medicaid Redesign Team.

How bad would it really be if 1199 gets given the right to pick the next health commissioner in exchange for accepting a lower labor compensation contract from Mayor de Blasio ?

For one thing, how do we know that the political direction of 1199 will act independently in the best interests of the patients it cares for ? Or how about making sure that the political leadership of 1199 will make decisions independently in the best interests of its membership ? Under Mr. Gaspard, the union never challenged the Berger Commission hospital closings, and it even took a seat at the table for the Medicaid Redesign Team. George Gresham, the President of 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, sits on the MRT panel.

As much as I am pro-labor and pro-letting labor get an inside track to making major political decisions, what troubles me is that 1199 is not independent. It was a major political supporter of the mayor, back when he was a no-hope candidate, so far distant from the front-runners that nobody took him seriously. In getting the chance to pick or vet the next health commissioner, can 1199, based on its track record, really and truly be counted on doing the right thing for the emergency room-full service hospital needing public ? Or is it going to make a deal that will catapult its current top crop of political directors into their next jobs, like, say, the next presidential campaign political consultant, White House political director, or ambassador to South Africa ?

Why is nobody asking why is Mayor de Blasio linking labor compensation contract negotiations with picking the next healthcare commissioner ? It's because Mayor de Blasio plans on being disingenuous in his union contract talks, and it matters naught to the mayor that he's going to divide the community by confusing discussions that should only be about backpay and raises with picking the next health commissioner. If the mayor cared about public input, he would automatically -- and without needing to subvert important agency picks as bargaining chips -- involve all stakeholders in his decision-making for the next health commissioner. That is to say, the public AND 1199 AND critical healthcare community groups should have a say in the next healthcare commissioner at the same time when the mayor should be having rigorous union contract talks with 1199. One has nothing to do with the other. But this kind of mentality, of offering two birds in the bush for one in the hand is what dishonest negotiations are all about. Rather than have 1199 say, "Yes, and …," you had the mayor saying, "No, but…."

Other Examples of How Critical Healthcare and Social Services Decisions Get Made Half-Assed By "Community Leaders," With No Full Public Involvement or Accountability // The Hunger Games

This kind of offering one group a piece of pie only after having first withdrawn that same piece from somebody else is what happened when some large New York City community and non-profit organizations went along with the Medicaid Redesign Team's cuts to healthcare for the poor in exchange for a few coins for homeless housing programs. Again, you had community groups agree to Gov. Cuomo's draconian austerity plans of closing more hospitals in New York City and making other healthcare cuts valued at upwards of $17 billion, over time, and for giving the sleazy neoliberal governor political cover to make these cuts, groups like Housing Works and GMHC were made promises that Gov. Cuomo would make a few million dollars available to homeless housing programs. Groups like Housing Works and GMHC have the provision of healthcare for the poor and the disenfranchised as part of their mission, but look at how they agreed to actions that were in contravention to other healthcare groups, with similar missions. Indeed, one need not look any further than how St. Vincent's Hospital, a former comprehensive AIDS center, Level I Trauma Center, and full-service hospital with a large HIV/AIDS patient load, was shut down under the calls for hospital closings. Don't these groups see that we are shooting ourselves in the foot ? Why does having to close hospitals be linked with making money available for homeless care programs ? What does one have to do with another ? We should be fighting for a healthcare system that covers everybody at the same time when we are fighting for the full resources to provide shelter to people, who are homeless. But only politicians, who are interested in expedient political gains would try to subvert one important community issue to another, and community group leaders should not be going along with this kind of corruption.

Another example comes to mind when the head of one homeless LGBT youth program turned on the head of another, all because politicians divide us, make us fight, for the crumbs that they throw at us.

But there is hope. Some groups, like the Legal Aid Society, and bloggers can reframe the conversation about budget cuts, failed government responses to the major social, legal, and economic issues of our time. The Legal Aid Society recently sued the city over its abdication of responsibility for providing shelter to homeless youth. Rather than being a victim to the rigged budget negotiations, the Legal Aid Society decided to make a demand for the FULL resources to address the problem at the same time when all we get is lip service that we can count on a truly progressive reform agenda from the de Blasio administration. If the public were truly able to see that backroom political machinations of insiders, operatives, and lobbyists don't fully answer the social, legal, and economic problems of our time, then the public would know that one of the first reforms we need is to demand a fully transparent and accessible process on every major de Blasio administration pick, especially with regard to the selection of the next health commissioner.

What's going to happen when the full membership of 1199 learns that their leadership may already be agreeing to undercut their labor contract negotiations ?

And what other healthcare advocacy groups, let alone the public itself, should have a seat at the table of talks if the mayor is convening such an apparatus for picking the next health commissioner ? ACT UP comes readily to mind. Who else ?

Making Matters Worse Than Patrick Gaspard Is Stanley Brezenoff

James Capalino, the real estate lobbyist, left, with Continuum CEO Stanley Brezenoff. Capalino was a paid lobbyist for the Rudin Family in their controversial $1 billion luxury conversion of St. Vincent's Hospital into an exclusive condo complex. Brezenoff raided the trust fund of Long Island College Hospital in an effort to suck it dry of resources.

Mr. Brezenoff, the head of Beth Israel Medical Center, may be on the outs with Continuum, Beth Israel's parent holding company, following the takeover by Mt. Sinai Medical Center of Continuum's hospitals. Likely trying to make a transition back to head the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, a position he once head in the early 1980's, or possibly as the next health commissioner, Mr. Brezenoff has already wormed his way into an unpaid advisory capacity to the de Blasio administration's new First Deputy Mayor, Anthony Shorris. When he was head of HHC during the early years of the AIDS crisis in New York City, Mr. Brezenoff failed to get in front of the outbreak, treatment, and prevention of AIDS. He has a record of failure in respect of public health. Why would Mayor de Blasio pick him ? Let's examine the kind of political machinations that would go into a decision like this….

Maybe Mr. Brezenoff's new administration position is meant as a stick to 1199 that any role that the union may be offered to have in picking the next health commissioner may be the union's effort to block Mr. Brezenoff from a higher healthcare capacity with the de Blasio administration ? Mr. Brezenoff's controversial role in trying to raid LICH, for example, of its assets would scare -- and distract -- any reasonable union to want to block his return to any supervisory role in formulation government healthcare policy.

What a wicked web we weave …. Let's hope the union membership are smart enough to demand transparency from their political operatives, the same way the public and community groups should demand transparency from the de Blasio administration, the same way that the Legal Aid Society didn't accept a bullshit government response to the homeless youth issue of today. There is a way to get to the root of the social, legal, and economic problems we face : we just have to have the courage to not let our demands for a full solution be subverted by either slimy politicians in exchange for "insider access," like the current 1199-health commish trade off that is being discussed around town, or by failed community group leaders in exchange for political protection, like the "What's in it for me" Patrick Gaspard model that other non-profit organization leaders are adopting with greater frequency.

If everybody would just focus on the fact that we are all in this together -- that we are all involved in one struggle to make the city/world a better place -- we wouldn't let slimy politicians and their political enablers subvert our needs. The "Yes, and" model is one of faith : there are enough resources for everybody. If we accept the "No, but" model from politicians, we'll never find the answers we seek, and, worse, we'll sabotage other activists and groups trying to seek the answers for their own issues. We have to be in this together, for one another, if we want to make a difference.

The New York Times still has its head stuck in the sand on Christine Quinn

85% of Democratic primary voters rejected Christine Quinn in the mayoral election, but The New York Times still defends its baseless endorsement of a corrupt political hack.

In it's hasty review of political lowlights of 2013, The New York Times reporters Andy Newman and Annie Correal included a brief reference to Christine Quinn's loss in the Democratic mayoral primary.

The newspaper's reporters prefaced the mention of Ms. Quinn's campaign loss by framing her political career as showing "No major ethical lapses here."

The reporters seem to ignore Ms. Quinn's backroom machinations, her term limits betrayals, her enabling of 10 hospital closings in New York City during her speakership, and her slush fund scandal, amongst other ethical lapses, as documented in "Roots of Betrayal : The Ethics of Christine Quinn."

In its round-up of political lowlights, The New York Times seems to rationalize that the corruptive influence of money in politics that marred John Liu's Democratic mayoral campaign didn't also play out during Ms. Quinn's political career when, for example, by January 2013, executives from developers and landlords had donated over $800,000.00 to Ms. Quinn's political campaign for the 2013 election cycle, representing by one estimate to be 14% of the $6 million that Ms. Quinn had raised as of that point for her next political campaign. By this time, Ms. Quinn estimated that New York City had lost a total of 300,000 affordable housing units, and she blamed politicians up in Albany, even though as the City Council speaker, she was in a position to make a difference. But Ms. Quinn failed to deliver greater protections for Mitchell-Lama residents, and she herself accepted lower affordable housing requirements at the Hudson Yards project. Near the end of Mike Bloomberg’s mayoralty, it was reported that the billionaire mayor had managed to rezone 37% of the land in New York City. Under Ms. Quinn's leadership, the City Council failed to seize on this opportunity to make affordable housing a priority. As speaker of the City Council, Ms. Quinn had the most influence over land use issues, and the large role that real estate developers had in her campaign finance war chest suggests that Speaker Quinn wasn't about to stand up to developers when they were such a large source of campaign contributions.

So, when The New York Times talks about the corruptive influence of money in politics, it will condemn Mr. Liu for it, but it will stick its head in the sand when it comes to Ms. Quinn. Many believe that the editorial bias that favors Ms. Quinn stems from the former metropolitan editor, Carolyn Ryan, who has since been promoted to the politics editor and has been moved out of town to Washington. Activists have staged protests in the past to denounce Ms. Ryan's editorial bias that seemed to favor Ms. Quinn (VIDEO 1) (VIDEO 2) (VIDEO 3) (VIDEO 4).