Yetta Kurland: Next A Full Service Hospital West Vilage

"Very disappointing day for the Lower West Side of Manhattan as NYC Council Land Use Committee approves a deal to turn our only hospital into luxury condominiums... but the fight continues. There is a solution that could allow for a hospital, and the hundreds of people who used St. Vincent's every day for emergency services aren't going away. Next step full City Council Hearing... http://www.wnyc.org/blogs/wnyc-news-blog/2012/mar/14/city-council-brokers-west-village-deal-st-vincents/" Yetta Kurland

Yetta Kurland update on efforts to get a hospital where St. Vincent's was

Dear Neighbor,

Last night close to a hundred members of the Coalition for a New Village
Hospital along with other community members came out to the Community Board 2
Full Board Meeting to demand that a resolution to lock the land use at the site
of St. Vincent's be put on the agenda for the next meeting.

I am going to be honest, we weren't optimistic, but we were determined,
committed and we are on the right side.

In the sweltering heat of Elizabeth Irwin High School's auditorium, person after
person got up to repeat the message; we need a hospital back at the site of St.
Vincent's, we don't need another needs assessment, we need to lock the use of
the land so it can only be a hospital.

The Board listened, and I am delighted to report, no actually I am ecstatic to
report, that thanks to the courageous efforts of several Community Board Members
and the continued hard work of so many of you who have been fighting since the
hospital closed on April 30th... we didn't get it on the agenda... WE PASSED THE
RESOLUTION!

That's right, the Board passed a resolution that put a land lock on the property
to stop any changes to the zoning, certificate of occupancy or other part of the
land use that would eliminate the hospital use.  It also called on the
Bankruptcy Court to be advised of this and to petition the Court to set up a
Community Council with the help of New York City Corporation Counsel to let the
Court know we want a hospital on the site of St. Vincent's and to be engaged in
the Bankruptcy Court's procedures.

I will send around a copy of the resolution as soon as it is available, but in
the meantime I wanted to share this news with you as soon as possible.

This is especially meaningful given the recent statement by Speaker Christine
Quinn in Chelsea Now that she "will continue our push for a full service
hospital here".  The Community Board and the City Council will play the key role
in determining the future of St. Vincent's when it comes to the heavy real
estate interests surrounding the area.  Now, with a commitment from both it is
substantially more hopeful that we can in fact ensure the site is only used for
a hospital.

Next, we have to make it happen now, with the infrastructure that already
exists.  This is up to us and our statewide officials to put pressure on
Commissioner Daines to obey the law.  New York Public Health Law requires that
the Department of Health affirmatively make a finding that there is no need
for a hospital before it takes away the services of a hospital.  In the near
future we will be sending around a letter to Commissioner Daines and we hope you
will get your electeds, tenant associations, block associations and other
community groups to sign off.

I am very happy to share this victory with you and want to personally thank you
all.

In solidarity,
Yetta

Yetta Kurland July 15th St. Vincent's Omnibus Committee

Dear Neighbor,

I hope you will join me on Thursday July 15th for the next St. Vincent's Omnibus Committee Meeting which will take place at 6:30pm at PS 41 located at 116 West 11th Street.

Last month we tried without much success to engage the Committee in a discussion on how we could get a hospital at the St. Vincent's site. While we were unsuccessful in having at that discussion last month, the Chair Brad Hoylman assured us that he would be willing to have that discussion with us in the future.  It is our hopes that this will happen this Thursday.

Please tell your friends and join me.  The St. Vincent's Omnibus Committee is part of Community Board 2 which oversees the St. Vincent's site.  The Community Board could be incredibly influential if it chose to take a stance on this issue as it has great power in the land use process which is central to the fate of the hospital.

Please pass this around, tell your friends, and let's make sure to show up and let people know we are not going away and we deserve a hospital on the Lower West Side of Manhattan.

Also, save the date, the full Community Board 2 meeting is set for Thursday July 22nd and it is even more important to attend this meeting.

I will keep you all posted.

Best,
Yetta

Yetta Kurland Restore St. Vincent's Site

Dear Neighbor,

I hope you will attend our planning meeting to restore a hospital at the St. Vincent's site.  It is this Thursday, May 13th at 6pm at Our Lady of Pompeii Church located at 25 Carmine Street (at Bleecker).

This is a follow up meeting from our April 30th Town Hall Meeting where Assemblymember Gottfried, Assemblymember Glick and Senator Duane joined us to discuss some of the serious concerns with how St. Vincent's Hospital was closed and equally serious concerns with the fact that we now have no hospital on the lower west side of Manhattan.

There was an incredible turnout of hundreds of community members.  I am including some photos below of the April 30th meeting.

Many great ideas came out of this Town Hall discussion and many of you have emailed me since then with other great ideas and thoughts.

We need to hear from you this Thursday as we sit down together to organize our next action and get even more people out.

The only way we will hold those responsible for this illegal closure and get a new hospital for the Village is if we get our entire community to come out so please come on Thursday to help us plan how to do this.

Please RSVP by responding to this email that you are coming and let me know if you are bringing anyone.

Look forward to seeing you all there.

Best,
Yetta Kurland
http://yettakurland.com/

Yetta Kurland exposes shady closing of St. Vincent's post by Suzannah B. Troy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XBtpawY_3Q

Yetta Kurland ask you to join her for a march and rally to demand a hospital for the community

Dear Neighbor,

I hope you will join me tomorrow at the March and Rally which will start at 1pm at 25th Street and 9th Avenue and meet at St. Vincent's at 2pm and don't forget to bring a sign or poster that lets our elected officials know we deserve more than "urgent care" and that we demand a Hospital, not an Urgent Care Center, to serve our community.

I also want to let you know about the Community Town Hall Meeting, which will be held April 30, 2010 at 7pm at the Hudson Guild (9th Avenue location) to update everyone on our legal efforts to stop St. Vincent's wrongful closure.

I was disappointed yesterday that the Bankruptcy Court denied our stay to stop the closure.  So many of us have stories of being deeply connected to St. Vincent's.  The cultural, medical and historic loss will be felt for a very long time.

But this is only beginning our or efforts.  Now more than ever, must fight to ensure comprehensive health care for our community.  To do that, we need to ensure our community has a voice in these bankruptcy proceedings.

We will continue.  I promise we will not give up until we have answers to what went wrong at St. Vincent's, until we have a new hospital with better management that comports with the needs and look and vision of our community.

Finally, I promise to fight to ensure that our voice, the community's voice, is heard in this process.

In solidarity,
Yetta

David Kaufman author and theatre critic & Suzannah B. Troy as mermaid discussing La Cage Aux Folles, St. Vincents and Goldman Sachs

David Kaufman and I enjoyed this beautiful day having lunch outside in the West Village.   Here I am donning a dress which is rare and posing as a mermaid.


 We discussed the greedy new scandal of epic proportions of Goldman Sachs.  So much for supposed change and we had to bail out these banks.

A YouTube was sent to me earlier today with a woman asking President Obama why not bail out St. Vincent's considering the community depends on this hospital.

I praised Yetta Kurland to David because of her efforts to save St. Vincent's which has taken her literally to Manhattan Supreme Court according to the NY Daily News where she is representing patients.  She is asking the judge to stop the closure of St. Vincent's.

And last but not least we enjoyed the beauty of the day and David Kaufman highly recommends the revival of La Cage Aux Folles.   He told me it is a must see because it is so intimate and moving.  It is a seedier stting which makes it more realistic; truer to the material.  Extremely entertaining and yet politically significant.  Be accepting of everyone!  (Including us mermaids.  p.s. As usual I am on the run and I am paraphrasing and rushing....