VID Zephyr Teachout returns to Village Independent Democrats talks iss...

Zephyr Teachout returns ti Village Independent Democrats and talks politics, her new book and answers questions. VID was the first Club to endorse her in her race against Andrew Cuomo  (John Braden and I nominated her)  She talks about andrew cuomo, campaign finance, her fracking tour with Josh Fox, net neutality energy and answers questions .. .

LOCAL POLITICAL ISSUE: AFFORDABLE HOUSING .or things that go bump in the late night of the last session of the current fiscal year

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LOCAL POLITICAL ISSUE: AFFORDABLE HOUSING ...or things that go bump in the late night of the last session of the current fiscal year

The rate of gentrification and the loss of rent regulated apartments in what was one called Greenwich Village and in Chelsea is frightening. Many a day I have stood in front of PENN SOUTH and tried to conjure up an affordable apt (living in a 6 floor walk up in the Village is nice ..but the knees are sending me a message) So this is GOOD NEWS, So Thank you Brad Hoylman ,,, 50 more years of affordable housing is a blessing indeed.

Letter to Corey Johnson re Lets Talk series

Dear Corey:

Please confirm that the audience  at your Let’s Talk series will be able to directly ask questions. At the first Let's Talk your constituents were forced to write out questions and then have them filtered by your staff.

I sat with six seniors who I  had alerted to this public meeting ...each of us wrote out questions  none of them were addressed by the speakers.  

Before the meeting closed I did stand up and ask of all the elected officials and/or their representatives just what procedures  the State Department of Health had licensed the new Urgent Care center to be able to perform and what had to be referred to a real emergency room .

Can you please answer this question now? What has the State Department of Health licensed this "healthplex" to actually be able to do...and what procedures must be referred to real emergency rooms.

Seniors are concerned about life threatening health crisis and the ability of this new facility to help save lies in a life threatening health crisis,

I note that the signage at on the building says EMERGENCY.  It is not a full service emergency room.

I also will advise you that none of the people who were active in the Coalition for a New Village hospital that I know were invited by Marilyn Darado ( Block association head hired to coordinate community tours of the facility have been in fact been invited. I do know that two different people reached out to Marilyn and were given the run around.

We hospital activists are very aware  with the PR spin ability and astro-turffing machinations  of the Ruden-LIJ team.

Can you help me and others hospital activists to be able to tour the building?

CB2 arranged a meeting with the LIJ team at PS 41, no community members showed up because none of us were told of the meeting. Shame on David Gruber.

Please confirm receipt to my RSVP for tonight at the New School 55 West 13th Street  student center.  Please answer my questions about tonight and the licensing of the hospital

Thank you and with respect

jim fouratt

TOWN HALL: AIR RIGHTS AND PUBLIC LAND : THE HUDSON RIVER PARK TRUST and the lack of transparency by elected officials as they push a stealth bill through State Legislature that is a give away to real estate developers

Watch this full TOWN HALL ON AIR RIGHTS AND THE HUDSON PARK TRUST called by ANDREW BERMAN of the GREENWICH VILLAGE HISTORICAL SOCIETY and hear the voices of the smart people who live in Greenwich Village and Chelsea who spoke up with serious questions. These residents felt left out of any discussion before the stealth bill intro'd by Assemblymembers Deborah Glick and Richard Gottfried and passed in a rush at 3 AM at the end of  last session  of the NYS legislature. No public hearing was held prior to Glick and Gottfried's action. Both attended with Glick bolting soon after the announcement was made that Cuomo had signed the legislation into law at the end of the day. Gottfried tried to spin community involvement but local Greenwich St resident Sandy Russo was having none of his spin. Newly elected District Leader, Arthur Schwartz had his nice face on (he has called for Glick resignation) reminding  people that with the new Mayor and Borough President there would be changes in the HRP but was silent on the ramification to the local area if the air rights auction does take place. Here is video recording of the TOWN HALL meeting

Please CLICK AND WATCH the link below 

http://youtu.be/18_VDji_DBQ

lOUIS fLORES READS FROM HIS BOOK : ROOTS OF BETRAYAL THE ETHICS OP CHRISTINE QUINN AT BLUESTOCKINGS BOOKSTORE

Local activist Louis Flores reads from his new serialized book ROOTS OF BETRAYAL THE ETHICS OF CHRISTINE QUINN at BLUESTOCKINGS bookstore. Or who is this woman really????????

Background on MURDER OF GAY MAN FRIDAY NIGHT IN GREENWICH VILLAGE .He dies on route to Hospital on other side of City because St Vincent's was closed to build luxery "blood" Condos

A Young Man Dies Before
He Makes It To Beth Israel Hospital ;
Politicians Decry Bias Killing,
But Ignore Closing of St. Vincent's

Since St. Vincent's Hospital Closed,
NYC Refuses To Disclose EMS Transport Times


Early this morning, Marc Carson, 32, was shot two blocks from the former site of St. Vincent's Hospital. Mr. Carson was transported to Beth Israel Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival, according to The New York Times.

New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn issued a statement in which she said, in part, "I stand with all New Yorkers in condemning this attack."

But Speaker Quinn failed to mention whether the man's life could have been saved if St. Vincent's was still open. Ever since Speaker Quinn refused to protect the zoning of the former site of St. Vincent's to allow for only a replacement hospital, the community has been left in the dark about the impact of the closing of the only Level I Trauma Center and full-service hospital in Lower Manhattan.

Many activists have made requests for the impact on EMS transport times following the closing of St. Vincent's, but thus far neither the Speaker's office nor New York City EMS have provided information about the impact on EMS transport times caused by the closings of ten full-service hospitals in New York City since 2006, St. Vincent's included.

On 20 July 2011, community activist Yetta Kurland asked EMS Chief Abdo Nahmod for disclosure of "transport times" in the following video (at 2:30).

See : Chief Abdo Nahmod calls Rudin Plan for St. Vincents a ''Geographical Nightmare''

Chief Nahmod told an untruth (beginning at about 2:00) during this special Community Board 2 subcommittee meeting when he said that both EMS response and EMS transport times were available online.

Watch video taken on 29 January 2013 of a Beth Israel Hospital ambulance stuck in traffic -- right in front of the shuttered St. Vincent's Hospital (at approximately 1:00).

See : Abdo Nahmod - St. Vincent's EMS Downtown 911 Response Time Disaster - Call Christine Quinn

Indeed, Chief Nahmod called the closing of St. Vincent's a "geographical nightmare" in the above video (beginning at approximately 3:06).

Later, a group of activists submitted a written demand in person to Speaker Quinn on 13 March 2012, as documented on a blog by Suzannah B. Troy. According to Ms. Troy, Speaker Quinn never answered this request for information.

See : Christine Quinn Meeting Talking Points

Then, I submitted a request on 24 June 2012 to New York City, asking for both EMS response and EMS transport times for the Lower West Side of Manhattan, the area formerly served by St. Vincent's. On 30 July 2012, the Fire Department declined to provide any statistics on EMS transport times.

See : FDNY Refuse to Release EMS Transport Times

According to the FDNY letter, the city does not track EMS transit times, which is an untruth, based on Chief Nahmod's statements at the 20 July 2011 special Community Board 2 subcommittee meeting.

Not only that, but New York City used to track both EMS response and transmit times, and these times were combined to calculate a meaningful metric of EMS responsiveness.

According to a 2006 policy report by former Comptroller Bill Thompson, this combined metric was referred to as the Average Ambulance ER Turnaround Time. For Manhattan, the average time it took in November 2006 for an ambulance to respond to and transport a patient to the nearest hospital was over 30 minutes !

See : 2006 12 21 Bill Thompson Comptroller Hospital Closing Report (Berger)

The bias murder of Mr. Carson is tragic and must rightly be condemned. But residents in all areas in New York City, which were once served by the ten hospitals that have closed since 2006 (when Christine Quinn became Speaker of the City Council) deserve answers, as well.

How many lives have been lost, because of the collapse of so many full-service hospitals in New York City ?

How much worse has the Average Ambulance ER Turnaround Time become as a result of the closing of ten full-service hospitals in New York City ?

Could Mr. Carson's life had been saved, if, two blocks away from the scene of his violent attack, St. Vincent's Hospital was still open ?

Why don't more politicians support a single-payer healthcare system, so that all hospitals could be funded to fully meet the healthcare needs of their patients ?
Richard J. Sheirer died in January 2012.
He lost precious time from his life being transported to Beth Israel Hospital, even though he was
5 blocks away from the former site of St. Vincent's.
On January 19, 2012, Richard Sheirer died a few blocks from St. Vincent's Hospital. According to the report of his death in The New York Times :

"Thomas Von Essen, the former fire commissioner, said that Mr. Sheirer, who lived on Staten Island, had chest pains while driving to his job and pulled over at West 14th Street and Tenth Avenue, where he dialed 911 for help. An ambulance crew arrived at about 9:10 a.m., officials said, and took Mr. Sheirer to Beth Israel Medical Center, where he died."

In an editorial for The Huffington Post, the former mayoral candidate Tom Allon wrote :

"The City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, whose district includes St. Vincent's, and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer (both presumptive mayoral contenders in 2013) have done nothing to try to fill the gap formed by the closing of St. Vincent's Hospital in the West Village."

In Mr. Allon's mayoral campaign, healthcare activists found reason for hope, precisely because Mr. Allon spoke like a leader by calling for the return of a full-service hospital to replace St. Vincent's. This is how he concluded his editorial :

"Mayor Bloomberg, Speaker Quinn, Public Advocate DeBlasio and Borough President Stringer : do your job ! Bring a hospital and full service emergency room back to the West Village.

"Our city can't wait."

Read More :Read More : A Downtown Health Crisis Caused by Politics

Secretary of State Candidate Has a Major Financial Stake in Canadian Tar Sands | OnEarth Magazine

I did not know this about Susan Rice. Did you? I know that the reasons the Conservatives were opposed to her were not based on her private financial holding. But now that I see she is a member of the 1% and much of her private financial holding are in energy and banking interests a HUGE questions is raised for me about her ability to make a decision about fracked oil pipeline that the Secretary of State will make for the Obama administration. Makes me want to know more about the financial holdings of administration officials even if they are put in a blind trust.. The relationship of wealth to civil service is important to understand. If the average Joe or Jane can not afford to step up and only the wealthy do .. what does this mean for the 99%. I don't mean to be simplistic. I know that wealthy people can rise above their class interest, But is this the norm or the exception. Today I am glad Ambassador Rice with drew her availability to serve as Seretary of State. Does anyone know where her wealth comes from? Family? Inheritance? Earned?





Secretary of State Candidate Has a Major Financial Stake in Canadian Tar Sands | OnEarth Magazine