Rudin Luxury Condos Anger Activists

The Rudin Family : The New Robber Barons ?

Jason Sheftell, a real estate promoter, published an editorial in The New York Daily News, in which he reported some facts and some half-truths about the controversial closing of St. Vincent's Hospital and the Rudin family's luxury condo conversion of the hospital's real estate properties.

"Local activists, who blame the pro-development city forces for the loss of the hospital, hold vigils outside the building," wrote Mr. Sheftell, in his real estate column about the dangers of the Rudin luxury condo conversion plan.

Mr. Sheftell noted that with the closing of St. Vincent's Hospital, the response and transport times by ambulance or EMS will put people's lives in jeopardy. "It’ll take 12 minutes longer to get to a hospital in an emergency. That could spell death for heart attack or stroke victims."

But Mr. Sheftell claims that activists are not targeting the Rudin family, which is false. Activists have been bird-dogging the figurehead of the Rudin family : Bill Rudin, and other activists have launched entire Facebook pages and events around the tarnished Rudin family name.

Not only that, but it was reported that the Manhattan District Attorney was investigating whether the Rudin family was criminally involved in St. Vincent's Hospital's demise, so that the Family could make hundreds of millions of dollars from the luxury condo conversion. At some point, if it hasn't yet already, the Rudin family name will become synonymous with the pejorative : "robber baron."

Rudin Asbestos Kills

Do Protesters Have To Leave A Coffin Outside St. Vincent's, To Demonstrate How Deadly The Rudin Luxury Condo Plan Really Is ?

The people, who live around the Rudin Luxury Condo Conversion Project at St. Vincent's Hospital, will live a life of a nightmare for years : they will be living next to a major construction project that will stir up asbestos, rodents, noise, and other construction-related pollution. And this is not even taking into consideration the fact that the luxury condominiums and townhouses are replacing a full-service hospital, meaning, that there is no no where to go if residents (including the luxury condo buyers) have asthma attacks, heart attacks, strokes, or trauma. All this courtesy of Seventh Avenue Socialite Amanda Burden and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.

Hounded to Death

"Soap actor commits suicide after pup's 'forced' euthanasia," reported The New York Post

Nick Santino overdosed on pills on the evening of Tuesday, January 24, hours after he was ''forced'' to euthanise his beloved dog, Rocco, on account of because of relentless pressure from residents and board members of his Upper West Side condo.

Already, animal rights activists are spreading information about an action alert against the condo board and management company for One Lincoln Plaza.

A Facebook event entitled "Hounded to Death in New York City - Anti-Breed Discrimination Protest" began to be circulated on the Internet tonight by a group called No Kill New York.

Watch a 2010 news segment about the crackdown against dogs and their caregivers by the crazy condo board members of One Lincoln Plaza, at West 64th Street.

Amanda Burden Approves Rudin Luxury Condo Conversion Plan For St. Vincent's Hospital

The controversial and scandalous Rudin Luxury Condo Conversion Plan for St. Vincent's Hospital was unanimously approved the New York City Planning Commission. The Planning Commission Director Amanda Burden said that she was pleased to see more and more luxury condominiums replacing social safety net underpinnings, such as community hospitals. Word on the street is that, after the luxury condo conversion hearing, Bill Rudin asked if Ms. Burden would like any campaign contributions the way that the Rudin family have made campaign donations to New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.

St. Vincent's Candlelight Vigil

Candlelight Vigil at St. Vincent's Hospital on Nov. 7, 2011

Activists, who are fighting a hospital to replace St. Vincent's, ask these questions : (i) where is the community supposed to go when they are having a medical emergency, and (ii) is the Rudin family really a "benevolent" family ?

Link to Fox 5 News Report : Long Emergency Room Wait Times In NYC.

This video was made on 07 Nov 2011 on West 12th Street, outside the Rudin Luxury Condo sales office on the former site of St. Vincent's Hospital.

St. Vincent's OWS Town Hall

Join us on Tuesday, Jan. 31, at 6 p.m. at the LGBT Community Center at 208 West 13th Street in the West Village.

With St. Vincent’s closed, the West Side still has no hospital beds below 57th Street. How can we bring a hospital back to our community ? How can we get true universal healthcare ? Come Join the Discussion ! RSVP at the Facebook page for the St. Vincent's Community Assembly.

This "town hall" is a consensus-based conversation facilitated by HEALTHCARE FOR THE 99%, an OCCUPY WALL STREET working group.

2012-01-31 St Vincents Community Assembly - Luxury Condos Cant Do CPR

After MegaUpload Crackdown By Government Authorities, Anonymous Responds To FBI With Internet Attacks

Today the Feds raided the website MegaUpload, which led to the arrests of seven people across the globe, according to some reports. Now the Hacktivist group, Anonymous, has come forth in retaliation to the crackdown and launched an attack on several websites including The Department of Justice, Universal Music Group, and the Recording Industry Association of America. The wave of attacks is just the beginning and Barrett Brown, founder of Project PM, joins us to discuss whats next for the groups.

Rudin Family Economic Injustice

Under the Rudin Family's logic, the have will have more, and the have nots will have even less. The Top 1% can close hospitals in order to convert them into luxury condos, or they can clear out maternity wards, so that they can give celebrity births. Either way, healthcare in the United States is becoming less and less equal.

St. Vincent's MLK Vigil Becomes A Medical Crisis

A man passed out on the sidewalk about 25 feet from a candlelight vigil outside of St. Vincent's Hospital tonight during a celebration of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In this video, the political commentator and artist Suzannah B. Troy describes to us the scene of the medical emergency.

St. Vincent's closed in 2010. On Jan. 23, the New York City Planning Commission, headed by Park Avenue socialite Amanda Burden, is expected to approve the luxury condo conversion of St. Vincent's Hospital, which will make billionaire real estate developer Bill Rudin over $1 billion in gross sales.

Earlier in the Day, activists for a single-payer healthcare system gathered at Union Square.

Activists advocating for a hospital to replace St. Vincent's, for example, joined in solidarity with the Physicians for a National Health Program, who held a speak-out on the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Day.

Vigil at St. Vincent's Hospital

Bill Rudin Martin Luther King, Jr., Day - St. Vincent's Hospital Protest

Stop Closing Hospitals !

In 1966, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., said, "Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and most inhuman." In this video, activists protested outside St. Vincent's Hospital to say that it is unacceptable that hospitals are being closed in New York City with no plan to meet emergency, trauma, or critical care healthcare services. The healthcare gap that is being created is leading to a major divide between emergency healthcare between the haves and the have-nots, something that Dr. King would not have wanted.

NYPD Arrest Jazz Hayden In Blatant Act Of Retaliation

NYPD Revenge - Police Arrest Jazz Hayden in retaliation for his Video Copwatch in Harlem

From AllThingsHarlem.com :

On December 2, 2011 - Joseph "Jazz" Hayden, Founder of allthingsharlem.com, was arrested by the NYPD in retaliation by 2 officers he filmed in an earlier Copwatch this summer.

Jazz and All Things Harlem are asking for your support with his case and to fight for the right to film and report on the police activity in our communities - which have turned into police states.

Jazz's next Court Date is January 19, 2012 at 100 Centre Street Criminal Court, Part F, 9:30 a.m.

Police Brutality: Mother knocked out with baby on the side-walk

San Francisco, California. Video shows a San Francisco police officer throwing a resisting suspect to the ground, apparently knocking her unconscious, while leaving the baby to cry on the side-walk.

Lenox Hill Hospital - Closing Its Maternity Wing for Beyoncé's Celebrity Birth

Updated with photo of Blue Ivy Carter : Beyoncé's Celebrity Birth : Lenox Hill will evict the 99% out of hospital beds, so that it can cater to the 1%.

With more and more hospitals closing in the New York City area, Manhattan's luxury Lenox Hill Hospital closed one of its wings to accommodate Beyoncé Knowles' celebrity birth.

According to The New York Daily News and TMZ.com, Beyoncé and Jay-Z paid $1.3 million to "seal off a private wing of the hospital" so that Beyonce could give birth to Blue Ivy Carter.

Critics of Lenox Hill Hospital claim that the hospital dually limited patients' access to healthcare and limited visitors' access to patients during the security "lockdown."

According to The New York Times, compliance staff from the New York State Department of Health were in contact with Lenox Hill Hospital, to determine whether Lenox Hill Hospital was in violation of regulations by the extreme "lockdown" conditions in its celebrity maternity ward.

According to TMZ.com, a breastfeeding mother support group is threatening to sue Lenox Hill Hospital as a result of the hospital giving priority healthcare to celebrities (the 1%) -- at the cost of throwing out average patients (the 99%).

No comment yet from North Shore-LIJ, the parent holding company for Lenox Hill Hospital, whether this is how they will treat average health care patients at the new Lenox Hill urgent care clinic at the O'Toole building.

With St. Vincent's closed, the West Side still has no hospital beds below 57th Street. How can we bring a hospital back to our community ?

How can we get true universal healthcare ? Come Join the Discussion ! RSVP at the Facebook page for the Luxury Condos Can't Do CPR ! St. Vincent's Community Assembly.

NPYD Stop Grand Central NDAA Mic Check

NYPD Silencing Protesters ; Cops Stop Mic Check Regarding NDAA

A protester went to Grand Central Terminal in New York City to inform the public that President Barack Obama and Congress passed the latest Pentagon budget, known as the National Defense Authorization Act (the ''NDAA''), which this year contained a dangerous provision allowing for the indefinite detention of American citizens. The two protesters, who initiated mic checks at Grand Central, have been identified as Lauren Digioia and Zach Kamel. The protesters were arrested by the New York Police Department. It is not yet known if the protesters are being indefinitely detained.