LICH: Brooklyn Officials Refuse to Play Ball with SUNY on Super Bowl Weekend

Brooklyn elected officials on Friday rejected SUNY’s invitation to participate in its revamped search for a buyer for Long Island College Hospital (LICH), the Brooklyn Eagle reports.

One political insider told the Eagle that SUNY's request was “bizarre,” considering that the Brooklyn "officials on Wednesday had denounced SUNY’s 'last-minute, rushed' RFP-redo."

SUNY gave insider bidders (only one has been made public, Fortis Development Group) a whole weekend to put together the design, partners and financing for northwestern Brooklyn's healthcare system. (Or, they could just knock it down and build condos.)

Aside from the secret previous bidders, others cannot enter the bidding. If you are interested in LICH, however, SUNY says to send in your plan over the weekend and the secret bidders will be informed about it before their submit their new plans on Monday. Maybe they'll even partner with you, though you don't know who they are.

From the Eagle: The advocacy group Patients for LICH said: "The legality of this limited re-opening is questionable. It also belies SUNY officials' statements to their own Trustees, who have been told time and time again, in response to their questions in Trustee meetings, that the RFP process followed required state procedures and could not be re-opened.”

Considering that SUNY still hasn't certified LICH's doctors for insurance purposes even two years after buying the besieged Cobble Hill hospital, it boggles the imagination that they think some unnamed developers could put together health care for more than a quarter of a million residents over Super Bowl weekend.

Brooklyn pols refuse to participate in new SUNY bidding process for LICH [Brooklyn Eagle]

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Security in Brooklyn's Chinatown; BPL's Missing Books; and More Brooklyn Briefs

- Young man was shot in the back “because two groups of young women were fighting about a hair weave." [NY Daily News]

- Where to find Super Bowl parties in Brooklyn. [Brooklyn Paper]

- Mayor de Blasio will be watching the big game from home with his family. [NY1]

- Super Bowl drugs, prostitute party-packs spur bust: 'Girls R in Town Waiting for U' [Bloomberg] Including a mom who pimped her 15-year-old daughter to make some bucks.

- Bed-Stuy's CB3 eyes slow zones. [Brooklyn Bureau]

- Book thieves stole 70,144 books from the Brooklyn Public Library in 2012. [NY Daily News]

- Extra security measures in place in Brooklyn's Chinatown ahead of Lunar New Year. [NY1]

- Pete Seeger's final night. [GregMitchellWriter]

- Thousands are mourning Colonel Meow, the Internet-famous scowling feline who landed a spot in the Guinness World Records. [NBC]

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Eat, Drink and Chat at BAM with Famous Authors

The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) kicked off its "Eat, Drink & Be Literary" series Wednesday with author, Salman Rushdie, the Brooklyn Eagle reports. 

The program, which stretches until May 28, is organized in partnership with the National Book Awards and will feature eight accomplished novelists.

Next appearing on Feb. 12 is Alice McDermott. 

Each event begins with a buffet dinner, including wine and dessert and accompanied by live music. Following dinner, the evening’s featured author gives a reading and discusses his/her creative process. Guests are encouraged to ask questions and have their book signed at the conclusion of the evening. 

Book your tickets quickly -- many authors have sold out. (Not the authors, the tickets . . .)

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Forest City Ratner and Makerbot: New Overlords of Downtown Brooklyn Partnership

The Downtown Brooklyn Partnership announced on Thursday that "one of the most prominent female real estate executives in America," MaryAnne Gilmartin, President and CEO of Forest City Ratner Companies (FCRC), and MakerBot CEO Bre Pettis, will serve as the new co-chairs of the organization’s Board of Directors.

MaryAnne and Bre together replace Alan Fishman, the organization’s Board Chair since it was founded in 2006. Robert Catell, who also served as a co-chair of the organization, retired from the position in 2012.

Downtown Brooklyn Partnership President Tucker Reed said in the press release, “When the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership launched in 2006, Downtown Brooklyn looked, felt and served a very different role than today . . . Nothing reflects innovation more than Bre’s ingenious MakerBot 3D Printing Ecosystem and there’s no better example of a prominent CEO and company dedicated to innovation and to the continued success of the Downtown Brooklyn area than MaryAnne and Forest City Ratner Companies.”

MakerBot has offices in MetroTech, a development of FCRC. MetroTech is also home to the  Polytechnic School of Engineering, which celebrated its merger Thursday with NYU, and more than 40 companies employing more than 18,000 workers.

An area-wide rezoning has ushered in more than 8,200 residential units in some 60 residential towers in the past decade, with thousands more units coming online soon. The area is also home to nearly 50 cultural organizations and eleven universities and colleges attended by 60,000 students.

This growth will be stymied, however, if Downtown Brooklyn loses Long Island College Hospital (LICH), which SUNY Downstate is trying to close despite a terrific battle by local residents, businesses and officials.

“Downtown Brooklyn is the envy of downtowns across America and has helped put the borough on the map,” said Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, who has sponsored a bill seeking to shift money from the sale of LICH to areas he used to represent before he became BP of the entire borough.


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A New Hotel on Montague Street? And More Brooklyn Briefs

.@NYCCouncil Speaker @MMViverito During Her Swearing-In Ceremony at @HostosOIA College in the Bronx. pic.twitter.com/2Zhs12Z61b
— william alatriste (@willalatriste) January 30, 2014

- A man pleaded guilty in Brooklyn court to smuggling nearly 40,000 piranhas into New York. [CNN]

- Weiner says he contacted FBI about Grimm. [Roll Call]  PLUS: Weiner gives Grimm advice about how not to threaten reporters. [Daily News]

- Is there a plan to tear down an office building at 189 Montague St. and build a hotel in its place? [Brooklyn Eagle]

- The Heights Players premiere their production of John Patrick Shanley’s "Doubt: a Parable" this weekend. [BHB]

- Paroled drug offenders can apply for resentencing under new drug law reforms, an appellate panel in Brooklyn held Wednesday. [NY Law Journal]

- Two best friends Gov. Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio, wearing matching scarves, inaugurated the city’s Super Bowl Boulevard Wednesday night. [Politicker]

- Your skin and hair may be mostly Neanderthal. [CBS]

Jon Stewart: "to be fair, I'll throw you off a f-cking balcony is a fairly standard and traditional Staten Island goodbye."
— Jillian Jorgensen (@Jill_Jorgensen) January 30, 2014

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Residents Out of Home at 884 Madison Ave., Bushwick

884 Madison Ave., Brooklyn. Photo: Google Streetview

Responders on the scene of another home vacate on 884 Madison Ave in #Brooklyn. Providing emergency housing and funds to residents.
— NY Red Cross (@redcrossny) January 29, 2014

We don't know yet what happened to this building in Bushwick, but the Red Cross is helping residents who have had to vacate the premises.

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Officials in Brooklyn Are Really Getting Fed Up with SUNY, and Just Want Them To Give Up LICH Already

@nynurses @CoreyinNYC @bradlander united to #SaveLICH as a full service hospital! pic.twitter.com/rbp9Ghr5em
— Nastaran (@NasMohit) January 29, 2014

Thanks @stephenlevin33 @DanielSquadron @cmenchaca @JoanMillman52AD @bradlander @nynurses who joined us tday #savelich pic.twitter.com/yp2EOhMFTg
— Letitia James (@TishJames) January 29, 2014

If nothing else, SUNY Downstate has really brought together the people of Brooklyn.

In today's installment of this sad, medically-dangerous and money-burning nightmare, official after official in Brooklyn denounced SUNY for "re-opening" (but not really re-opening) its RFP to sell Long Island College Hospital (LICH).

SUNY told the developers who originally submitted bids for the hospital in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn that they (but no one else) can "rejigger" their bids anyway they want. But the players have just a few days -- until Feb. 3 -- to redesign northwestern Brooklyn's health care system.

Because who needs more than a few days to design a health care system for more than a quarter of a million people in the fastest-growing neighborhoods in Brooklyn?

"Throughout this process, SUNY has acted in bad faith— making deals behind closed doors, violating good-government rules, and keeping the community in the dark as it seeks to rid itself of LICH,” Public Advocate Letitia James said at today's press conference outside LICH. “We’re sick and tired of it."

In full denial mode, SUNY said that allowing the previous bidders to revamp their bids would “enhance the openness, transparency, and effectiveness of the process."

- Brooklyn officials denounce SUNY’s revamp of LICH RFP [Brooklyn Eagle]
Note: scroll down to the bottom of the linked article to read Brooklyn official's suggestion for how a new RFP should be carried out.

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How's the Food On 'The Roof' of Whole Foods? And More Brooklyn Briefs

- L Magazine describes the food at The Roof of Whole Foods in Gowanus. [The L Magazine]

- Jay-Z issues statement about selling his share of basketball team. [Pitchfork]

- Water pipes have beeen cracking in the recent deep freeze. [NBC]

- Check out this Groupon deal for the Fairfield Inn in Boerum Hill. [Groupon]

- Brooklyn artist creates incredible pastels of icebergs. [This Is Colossal]

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Even Weirder in Brooklyn: SUNY to Allow RFP Bidders to Totally Change Their Offers for LICH

Photo: MK Metz

 We didn't think it could get any weirder -- but in yet another twist to SUNY Downstate's bizarre RFP (Request for Proposals) process to sell Long Island College Hospital (LICH), SUNY Downstate announced last night that everyone who participated in the original questionable, secret, real-estate oriented RFP has a couple of days to rejigger their proposals.

That's right! All you secret bidders have until Feb. 3 to totally change everything about your secret bids.

Why would SUNY do this? It could be, as SUNY says, they want to be as open and honest as possible. They have said that they will even let someone from the community look at the results this time around.

Or . . .

SUNY's chosen "winning" RFP bidder, the mega-developer Fortis which wants to build condos, tried to change their proposal after the RFP process ended.

But losing bidder Brooklyn Hospital Center, which wants to build 1,000 apartments on the property of their rival hospital LICH, pulled a hissy fit.

SUNY couldn't very well allow Fortis to change their bid after the RFP ended without allowing everyone to do so.

So it's a free for all for the chosen few developers. The secret bidders can pair with different developers or clinics, merge with shell corporations from Moracco, or join together with their original rivals to put a deal together before Feb. 3.

After all, the RFP is shut to everyone else, and they all know the players and the offers on the table. And there's no competition from anyone wanting to keep LICH operating as a hospital! It's brilliant in a totally dirty, scumbag sort of way.

The only requirement for the participating developers is that they throw in some kind of health care services somewhere near where LICH that is "consistent with the health care needs of the community," as the developer considers those needs.

 And to pay SUNY at least a quarter of a billion for the "LICH property, plant, and equipment."

LICH supporters say they "will fight until hell freezes over."

The SUNY contempt trial is February 11. 

More at Brooklyn Eagle.

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US Representative Michael Grimm Threatens to Break Reporter In Half and Throw Him Off a Balcony

US Representative Michael Grimm (Brooklyn, Staten Island) threatened to break NY1 reporter Michael Scotto in half and throw him off a balcony Tuesday night.

The altercation happened after President Obama's State of the Union address, when the NY1 reporter attempted to ask Grimm about the federal investigation into his campaign fundraising.

"You're not man enough. I'll break you in half. Like a boy," Grim threatened Scotto.

Full story and video at NY1.

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