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| Photo: MK Metz. McBrooklyn.com |
No casualties were reported.
More sightings at Twitchy.
Go to McBrooklyn's HOME PAGE.
Sunday, March 2, 2014
This Is Not What You Want To See Running Towards You When You Walk Across the Brooklyn Bridge
No casualties were reported.
More sightings at Twitchy.
Go to McBrooklyn's HOME PAGE.
Massively Developing Northwestern Brooklyn Needs More Hospital Beds; Comptroller Warns Closing LICH Would Be Mistake Like St. Vincent's
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| Downtown Brooklyn. Photo: MK Metz |
But hospital access in these areas is already stretched to the breaking point, with Long Island College Hospital's (LICH) service levels reduced by SUNY, and the next closest hospital, Brooklyn Hospital Center already clocking two-hour average waits in its ER. Further away, at New York Methodist, patients are spending nights in the hallways of the ER.
More developments have just been announced that will bring thousands of workers to the area. The new owners of five former Watchtower buildings in DUMBO are getting ready to convert the towering properties into offices for techies, the Brooklyn Eagle reports.
They will join employees at the new hotels and retail developments under construction in Brooklyn Bridge Park, the Brooklyn Tech Triangle, and Downtown, and the tens of thousands of new residents who will soon be moving into the towers springing up in Downtown Brooklyn (see this report by the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership), DUMBO, the waterfront and Brooklyn Heights.
More thousands are expected as NYU expands its footprint utilizing its air rights at Metrotech, and CUNY does the same at City Tech.
If LICH disappears, as developers are trying to make happen, those thousands will be forced to rely on Brooklyn Hospital Center, which cannot physically take care of them. Its location is also a problem. From DUMBO during rush hour it already takes more than a half hour to drive there.
If developers are successful, another thousand units of housing will be built where LICH now stands.
The thousand new units will have no hospital to serve them except, once again, Brooklyn Hospital.
NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer warned on Thursday:
"Dismantling a hospital --- you can’t rebuild from scratch a hospital, you have a network and you have the brick and mortar of the hospital. You can’t bring that back.”
He told the Brooklyn Eagle, “When we realize that five or ten years from now, what do we do? It will cost us twelve times, twenty times more in terms of construction, so I think we’re at a health care crossroads, where creativity is needed and same old, same old isn’t going to cut it."
Based on the current census data, Brooklyn has just two certified hospital beds for every 1,000 residents. Manhattan, by comparison, has five hospital beds for every 1,000 residents. Those figures don't include the recent developments.
We need to be add more hospital capacity to northwestern Brooklyn right now, not subtract capacity. If we don't, the lack of critical health care infrastructure could cripple the economic boom that northwestern Brooklyn is experiencing, and leads to preventable tragedies.
This kind of planning is the job of government, not developers.
cBrooklyn's HOME PAGE.
Only Three Brooklyn Restaurants Participating in NYC Restaurant Week
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| Google Maps |
These are: Benchmark Restaurant in Park Slope, The Greenhouse Cafe in Bay Ridge, and Saul in Prospect Heights.
A three course lunch will cost you $25; three course dinner is $38.
Go to McBrooklyn's HOME PAGE.
If You Park Your Bike at Brooklyn Boulders . . . It Will Be Gone On Monday
If your bike is at @BKBoulders better run fast! Your free storage is up 3/1! All bikes will go. #brooklyn pic.twitter.com/b6tDDdiRsb
— ParkSlopeGossip (@ParkSlopeGossip) March 2, 2014If your bike is at Brooklyn Boulders, run (obviously you can't ride) to the place ASAP. ParkSlopeGossip reports that any bike still there on Monday will be disposed of.Go to McBrooklyn's HOME PAGE.
Thursday, February 27, 2014
RFP Bidding for Long Island College Hospital in Brooklyn Includes Community Meeeting
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| LICH ER. Photo: MK Metz, McBrooklyn |
The process includes a community healthcare meeting on Monday:
Community Healthcare MeetingMarch 3, 2014 at 5:00 p.m. EST
SUNY College of Optometry
33 W. 42nd Street
New York, NY
SUNY College of Optometry
33 W. 42nd Street
New York, NY
The Brooklyn Eagle is running photos of some of the less known buildings that are part of the LICH campus.
Attorney for LICH supporters Jim Walden, of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, told the Eagle, "We look forward to making this the site of the most vibrant and successful hospital in the City of New York.”
Interested bidders are required to attend Monday's presentation.
The complete RFP is posted online at http://www.suny.edu/hospitals/downstate/newrfp/.
SUNY said that it will “initiate the right-sizing of LICH staff while maintaining current services.” Right-sizing means layoffs.
More here.
Go to McBrooklyn's HOME PAGE.
When You Go to Trader Joe's in Brooklyn, You Are Actually in Ponkiesberg
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| Photo: MK Metzz, McBrooklyn |
EphemeralNY dug up more in the old Brooklyn Eagle about Ponkiesberg:
Ponkiesburg was a 17th century enclave of Dutch settlers. Ponkiesburg actually translates to "Cobble Hill."
The fortification at Ponkiesberg was a “conical hill which was situated from sixty to eighty feet above the present grade of the streets."
A commenter on EphemeralNY says, "Another story has it that the hill in question was actually one of a number of Native American mounds in the area, all of which were long-ago razed by subsequent developers..."
History buff (and past editor of the Brooklyn Eagle) Fred Halla, on his Grand Republican site, says the Ponkiesberg Fortification was situated on on Red Hook Lane between Fulton Street and Boerum Place.
388 Bridge Street Makes Quite an Impact In Downtown Brooklyn's Skyline
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| Photo: MK Metz, McBrooklyn |
Here you can see the impact it makes on the skyline, as seen from Joralemon and Court Streets near Brooklyn Borough Hall.
Two questions:
1.Where are the children who eventually live here going to go to school?
2. Where are the people who get sick here going to get emergency treatment if LICH closes? (Brooklyn Hospital? Really?)
Go to McBrooklyn's HOME PAGE.
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
Justice Demarest to Stay On Top of Othmer Endowment in SUNY - LICH Deal
The agreement, devised under Justice Johnny Lee Baynes, will allow a real, honest RFP to be offered for Long Island College Hospital (LICH) . . . but Justice Demarest had to sign it first.
Sources told the Brooklyn Eagle that before signing the LICH – SUNY settlement papers on Monday, Justice Demarest made some handwritten changes to the agreement.
The most important change, the sources said, makes clear that Judge Demarest retains jurisdiction over the trust-related issues -- so that SUNY must go back to her to complete any transaction.
This includes the quickly disappearing $140 million Othmer Endowment, which LICH supporters had despaired would be totally lost when they had to agree to drop all charges against SUNY in return for an honest RFP.
This important insertion by Justice Demarest is another layer of oversight to that provided already by Justice Baynes, who said in court that he was going to make sure everyone was treated with the respect they deserved.
Brooklyn is very fortunate to be served by Justice Baynes and Justice Demarest!
LICH – SUNY deal OK'd with Addition: Brooklyn judge retains jurisdiction over Othmer Endowment [Brooklyn Eagle]
Go to McBrooklyn's HOME PAGE.
Monday, February 24, 2014
Greenpoint Slumlord; Brooklyn Law School Sells Properties; and More Brooklyn Briefs
Just walked past a dead body lol #Bushwick
— R.P. (@ChitlinsAdobo) February 24, 2014
- Alleged Greenpoint slumlord attacks angry residents: videos. [Gothamist]
- Man killed by garbage truck in Crown Hts. ID'd as 25-year-old Ukranian man in town to celebrate his friend’s wedding. [Daily News]
- Brooklyn Law School sells six Brooklyn Heights properties for $36.5 million to Kushner Cos. [Brooklyn Eagle]
- Today at 2 pm, the City Council will hold a hearing on the question: "What changes in the City Council's Rules can make a more responsive, transparent, and effective legislature?" Make your suggestions here.
- Despite rookie missteps, Mayor de Blasio's "big policy issues are what matter to New Yorkers." [WSJ]
- A hearing on the train chaos at the Super Bowl was postponed after the departing head of NJ Transit said he would not attend. [CBS]
- Evil calculations: Should Cuomo have killed the Working Families Party? [City & State]
- Think it's bad here? Packs of Chihuahuas have taken over the streets of a town in Arizona. [Gawker]
Go to McBrooklyn's HOME PAGE.
New, Honest LICH Bidding Could Start This Week, If Justice Demarest Approves
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| Long Island College Hospital (LICH). Photo: MK Metz |
State Supreme Court Justice Johnny Lee Baynes has already approved the agreement. On Monday other parties must sign off on the deal -- most notably, state Supreme Court Justice Carolyn Demarest.
It was Justice Demarest who approved the takeover of LICH by SUNY Downstate in 2011, and it was Justice Demarest who expressed remorse with her approval when she saw what a mess SUNY Downstate made of LICH.
No doubt she is thinking long and hard about a deal that will absolve SUNY of its LICH crimes -- at least the ones we know about.
The agreement has many details, but its major point is: SUNY will issue a new Request for Proposals (RFP) with the stated objective of finding an operator who will operate LICH as a full-service hospital. Members of the community will sit at the evaluation table. (Community gets about 35% voice, all told.)
It doesn't guarantee a hospital. Rather, proposals that include a hospital will get a higher score by evaluators. It doesn't guarantee healthcare workers jobs either. Layoffs may start in April.
All the deal guarantees is an open process, designed with the input of the community, to sell LICH to someone who wants to operate a hospital. If no hospital bidder appears, then the bidder offering the most medical services will likely win.
Once the RFP is issued, any and all bidders will have 15 business days to submit a proposal. Evaluators will have seven business days to consider and rank the proposals.
Since at least one group already proposed a hospital, interested bidders best propose a full-service hospital if they want to be considered.
Many more details are listed here.
Go to McBrooklyn's HOME PAGE.
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