Hundreds Of Residents Protest St. Vincent's Closing

Protestors: I'm glad that St. Vincent's patched up your boo boo when you got hurt. I'm sure you're grateful. But unless you have a viable plan to recapitalize the hospital and replace the management team, then don't waste your breath protesting the closing. No white knight is going to step in and save the place. The city is broke, state is broke, and the Catholic Church has bigger problems to deal with.

There are plenty of hospitals in Manhattan, including Beth Israel just across town.

It's inconceivable that NYC's politicians are allowing a fully equipped medical facility to close without even trying to save it. What's going to happen if, or when, we have another terrorist attack like 911? If we keep closing down hospitals where will the victims go for treatment?

They keep building more and more housing complexes but at what time will they realize that Manhattan is already overpopulated and these residents will need vital services like healthcare.

It seems that more is being done to try to save OTB than to save St. Vincent's Hospital. What a shame!

St.Vincents recently asked for the community to allow it to expand and restructure. They needed to update and The community protested against it. They didn't want added traffic or the buildings to change. Seems funny that the same community is protesting FOR Vinnys now.

As St. Vincent’s Catholic Medical Centers - the umbrella organization for several hospitals and healthcare facilities - emerged from bankruptcy in February 2007, it announced plans to build a new hospital to replace its flagship facility in Greenwich Village. St. Vincent’s says it needs the new facility because the layout of its current facility is outdated and impractical.

St. Vincent’s original plans consisted of a 21-story (329 feet-tall), 625,000 square-feet LEED certified hospital facility with 366 beds, 18 operating rooms, and a new emergency room. The new hospital, which would be the first all-digital hospital in New York City, was slated be built on the site currently occupied by the O’Toole building on the west side of Seventh Avenue between W. 12th and 13th Streets. The Hospital planned to finance its $700 million facilities by selling its properties on the east side of Seventh Avenue between W. 11th and 12th Streets to the Rudin Management Company for $310 million. Rudin’s initial plans for developing the land included building 450 luxury housing units, 15,000 square-feet of ground-floor retail, and 22,500 square-feet of medical office buildings. The proposed development, which would demolish four buildings and adapt four others, was slated to include townhouses, a mid-rise building, and a 266 feet-tall luxury condominium tower facing Seventh Avenue.

To help champion public support for the project, St. Vincent’s created an organization, “Friends of the New St. Vincent’s”, that is co-chaired by former Mayor Ed Koch. Some in the neighborhood, led by the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP), are concerned, however, about the height and bulk of the new hospital and the largest residential building, suggesting the buildings would not fit within the character of the historic district. GVSHP continues to assert that the scope outlined in the City's proposed Draft Environmental Impact Statement is inadequate and does not include a study of lower density alternatives.

Although none of St. Vincent’s properties are individually landmarked, all are located in the Greenwich Village Historic District and therefore development requires approval by the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC). At the LPC’s first public hearing on the matter in April 2008, turnout to the hearing was so large that the Commission continued the hearing for a second day two weeks later.

In early May 2008, the LPC rejected St. Vincent's proposal as originally conceived. Following the LPC rejection of the initial plans, St. Vincent’s released a revised set of plans that scaled back tower heights and bulk. Though the modifications appeased some critics, one continued point of contention was St. Vincent’s proposed demolition of the distinctive O’Toole building. At an LPC hearing on the revised plans, several elected officials, including City Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan 3rd District), Congressman Jerry Nadler (D-Manhattan 8th District), and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer (D) voiced their support for the hospital’s revised plans, including the demolition of the O’Toole Building. However, the LPC maintained that the demolition of the O’Toole building was inappropriate in regards to its location in the historic district.

St. Vincent's thereafter filed a 'hardship' petition with the LPC, claiming that the demolition and development plan is the only financially viable option that enables the hospital to meet its charitable purpose. On October 28, 2008, the LPC approved St. Vincent's plans to demolish the O'Toole Building, reiterating that in terms of landmarking the demolition was inappropriate but finding that in terms of hardship, demolition was acceptable.

In March 2009, a coalition of community and preservation groups (including the GVSHP) sued the LPC and St. Vincent’s, citing concerns that the LPC did not follow the hardship requirements as established by the Supreme Court when approving demolition plans. The groups argue that because the O'Toole building still functions adequately as a hospital building, no hardship has been established. Andrew Berman, Executive Director for the GVSHP, has explained that the GVSHP does not find the O'Toole Building to be historically significant but instead only opposed St. Vincent's hardship argument.

On July 7, 2009, the LPC approved Rudin’s revised plan to build approximately 400 residential units with the luxury condo tower reduced to 203 feet and St. Vincent’s revised plan with the medical tower reduced to 286 feet-tall. Costs have ballooned since original estimates, despite many reductions in the height and bulk of the proposed buildings. Revised cost estimates for the hospital facility have increased to $830 million and overall development costs, including Rudin’s portion, have increased to $1.6 billion.

In addition to the pending lawsuit, St. Vincent’s revised development plans must still undergo the Uniform Land Use Review Process (ULURP) and be approved by the City Planning Commission and City Council. The ULURP process will not begin until the Environmental Impact Statement is completed. If approved, Rudin’s residential development will not begin until the medical facilities are complete.

How could St. Vincent's have gone forward with such a an expansion? The tower would have had to be sold to pay off the debt. The new hospital was a pipe dream and an examination of the books during the process would have proven it. But St. Vincent's hid its true financial state and nobody in authority demanded that they become more transparent. By the way. it's not the same community. A majority of the protesters are health care workers who don't want to lose their jobs and people who live elsewhere. Very few of the protesters live nearby. Still the neighbors never wanted the hospital to close, just to be realistic and better run. That never happened and this is the result.

Damn that Susan Sarandom and her ex tim Robbins for opposing the expansion of St. Vicnent;s Hospital. it is all their fault. It is really Christine Quinn and her master Bloomberg who are both so SILENCE on this.

this is where the OG text is from http://www.plannyc.org/taxonomy/term/786

Insurance companies have been caught dropping people who have just gotten sick based upon trumped-up accusations of fraud. Any suggestion that the insurance corporations would play by the rules as long as we did is ridiculously naive.

Isn't this the same hospital that recently fought for a major expansion? And isn't this the same community that fought tooth and nail to prevent that?

St. Vincent's was bleedding an average of 8 million a month since it's last bankruptcy so how could they do a massive expansion. They were trying to finesse a real estate deal to build a tower that would have been sold to pay off more of its debt. But what does have to do with this except to point out how inept the administration has been for years?

It means that they had a plan to save the hospital and NIMBYs stopped it.

It might not have been the best plan, but it accomplished the goal of keeping the doors open, which is first and foremost. After that you can get into better management, but it is a mute point now.

This is why we have to re think the role of community boards in real estate development. Their role should be shifted to the advisory position it was originally intended to be, and not the end all and be all opinion that it has become.

Those who voted against the tower were the ones being greedy, and now will have to pay, along with everyone else in the neighborhood. Perfect example of the old saying "bulls and bears eat. pigs get slaughtered"

"While the state plans to open a facility an urgent care center,"

Huh?

Every door that is closed there would be a door that would open...

Silly protestors...thinking a hospital should be a part of a community rather than a profit-making venture. Socialists! There is no more American society... only capitalistic opportunities to strike it rich. That's the truly moral way... from each according to his inability to find tax loopholes, to each according to his ability to screw the other guy!

Here's a crazy thought, how about more people give up having cable tv and a cell phone and get health insurance? This is the kind of shit that happens when people think they can get something for nothing. That's where we lost the American society.

While I agree with the fact that too many prioritize cable TV and cell phones over more important things, I don't see the direct connection. I guess you're implying that people without health insurance were using St. V's and not paying?

Further, even if someone were o save ~$200/month from ditching tv and phone access, that would hardly allow them to pay ~$600-800/month for individual health insurance in New York. On top of that, it would likely only cover a portion of a hospital bill. On top of which, the hospital would be reimbursed such a small amount, it likely wouldn't cover their expenses.

St. V's failing has much more to do with the the larger failures of the health insurance industry (and the fact that the land is worth more today than the hospital would make in profits over a couple of decades) than it does with a handful of patients not having health insurance.

Christine Quinn is a sell out but then this community voted for her so suck it bitches.