Today, the New York City Council will vote to approve the Rudin Condo Redevelopment plan for the site of the former St. Vincent's Hospital. This is part of a process of erosion of access to healthcare for the majority of New Yorkers - in favor of allocating more and more resources to the wealthiest among us.
Just yesterday, it was announced that Peninsula Hospital in Rockaway, Queens will close - leaving that working class community grossly underserved. Peninsula joins St. Vincent's and many others as casualties of our misplaced priorities. Indeed, as I write you, the advocates of the 1% are trying to overturn the Affordable Care Act - the most significant expansion of access to healthcare in the US for almost 50 years.
I write you this with sorrow, but not with resignation. The health or our families, our neighborhoods, our city and our country is too important to give up. The Coalition for a New Village Hospital will continue to advocate for increased healthcare services for all. We will continue to fight for the expansion of healthcare facilities on the St. Vincent's site.
The Coalition has put forward a plan, namely adding additional floors to the O'Toole building, that would allow for a hospital for our community. Please call your City Councilmember at (212) 788-7210 and tell them our community needs a hospital. Thank you.
We will continue to fight for a full service hospital for the Lower West Side - and for the healthcare of all of us. I look forward to keeping you updating on that effort.
In Solidarity,
Yetta Kurland