Rally at St. Vincent's on April 30 to Demand a New Hospital for the Lower West Side

Rally to Demand a Hospital to Replace St. Vincent's

Saturday, April 30, 2011, at 2:00 p.m.

2011-04-30 St Vincents Hospital One Year Rally Poster

Christine Quinn Still Has Her Hands In The Slush Fund Cookie Jar

In 2008, New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn announced that all groups petitioning for slush funds would need to submit their solicitations through the Request for Proposal (RFP) process. At the end of 2010, Speaker Quinn was still doling out slush funds, and she alone had the final say.

Speaker Christine Quinn announced on April 11, 2008, that all groups that want money from the approximately $20 million speaker's discretionary slush fund will have to go through the Request for Proposal (RFP) process.

Over two and a half years after she got caught with her ''hands in the cookie jar,'' The New York Times reported that Speaker Quinn still had the ''final say'' in how the slush funds are distributed.

Everybody Is Worried That Christine Quinn Will Probably Defeat The Living Wage Bill

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn refuses to support the Living Wage Bill, just like she squashed the Paid Sick Leave Bill, because she is in bed with special interest groups that oppose the middle class.

The Poverty in America blog has exposed the reason why Speaker Christine Quinn would not endorse the Paid Sick Leave Bill and why Speaker Quinn also opposes the Living Wage Bill : both laws are being targeted for defeat by a shady anti-middle class group calling itself the 5 Boro Chamber Alliance.

The 5 Boro Chamber Alliance was formed in 2009 to take down the Paid Sick Leave Bill, and now it is reportedly organising a political campaign to defeat the Living Wage Bill.

The Poverty in America blog is worried that the Living Wage Bill will be defeated the same way as the Paid Sick Leave Bill was defeated : each were opposed by Speaker Quinn.

''Quinn's silence isn't random; she's declined to take a position on either bill because of pressure from the city's business interests. One of the main business groups that spoke out against paid sick leave was the 5 Boro Chamber Alliance, a group of chambers of congress from around the city,'' reported the Poverty in America blog.

Based on her history, more and more people are worried that we can't count on Speaker Quinn to do the right thing. ''We know what her position was on the paid sick leave bill and how mindful she has been not to cross the business community as she plans a run for mayor in 2013. Let's hope this time the speaker will think first and foremost of the well-being of the great majority of New Yorkers,'' wrote Albor Ruiz from The New York Daily News.

As His Popularity Sags In This Tough Economy, Mayor Bloomberg Spends $1 Million On Desperate Campaign Commercials

Mayor Michael Bloomberg launches a major TV advertising blitz to fluff his ''reputation,'' even as his goodwill amongst voters shrivels up.

Mayor Bloomberg has reportedly made a media buy of almost $1 million worth of TV commercials that tell the story that he has been ''fighting for New York,'' instead of trying to close firehouses, shut down senior citizen centers, cut childcare, layoff teachers, avoid missing votes, build luxury condos on the hallowed ground of St. Vincent's Hospital, make money from government information, and end Progressive Era reforms. It should come as no surprise that, consequently, Mayor Bloomberg is falling in popularity amongst voters. It's almost as if Mayor Bloomberg's legacy has been flushed down the toilet.

True News From Change NYC Blog Has Been Restored

Breaking News ! Update on True News From Change NYC Blog

Gary Tilzer's blog, True News From Change NYC, about New York government corruption, political reporting, and other commentary about government transparency, has been restored. Earlier today, it had been discovered that the True News blog had been suspended by Google for inexplicable reasons overnight. The suspension of the blog had become a focal point of support today by many New York bloggers and activists. No reason for the suspension is yet known, but New York bloggers suspect political censorship might have been one motive behind the removal of the blog.

CENSORED : True News From Change NYC Blog

Update : True News From Change NYC Blog Has Been Restored

Google Blogspot Blog Has Been Removed For No Reason ; Blogger Community Suspects Political Censorship ; Call To Action

Please send an e-mail to press@google.com and copy Gary Tilzer, the owner of the censored blog, at Gtprinter@aol.com -- demanding that the True News blog be restored.

True News is a blog dedicated to reporting about government scandals, politics, and transparency. (Here is the cached version of the True News blog.)

This is not the first act of censorship against Mr. Tilzer. Before the 2010 election, a YouTube video that Mr. Tilzer produced was banned by NBC/YouTube and had to be replaced with an edited version. In the last couple of years, others have faced incidences of cyber censorship or retaliatory activity. One and a half months before the 2009 election, the YouTube channel owned by the artist and political commentator Suzannah B. Troy was likewise censored, until bloggers and a lawyer intervened on her behalf. In 2010, this blogger was attacked by computer viruses 3 or 4 times, including on the day this blogger reported to the New York Department of State Committee on Open Government an act of censorship committed by Brad Hoylman.

Flashback : Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hailed Internet freedom as tool to ‘spread truth and expose injustice’

We need your help to keep courageous bloggers, like Mr. Tilzer, doing what they do. If you are reading this, it is because you are turning to the Internet for reliable information. For it to be here, bloggers, like Mr. Tilzer, have to be able to do their work without fear of retribution or censorship.

Budget Cuts Will Lead To NYPD And FDNY Layoffs

See March Against Christine Quinn and Stop-And-Frisk for updated information about Speaker Quinn's rightful role in NYPD budget making process. Original and obsolete blog post follows :

What Does Christine Quinn Do to Stop Mayor Bloomberg's scorched earth plan to Keep Laying Off More and More Police and Firefighters ? Nothing, as usual.

In newly-released plans of how the New York City plans to cut important services that underpin public safety and public health, a growing outrage is being expressed that Mayor Michael Bloomberg's budget cuts are going too far.

''The city's Independent Budget Office projected yesterday that by June 30, 2012, the Police Department will have shrunk to 34,413 uniformed personnel, a record low since the 34,825 that were on the force on that same date 20 years ago when crime rates in the city were near epic highs,'' reported The New York Post.

"Crime statistics show there is a breaking point, and we're at it," City Councilman Peter Vallone, Jr., chairman of the council's Public Safety Committee, told The Post. "We can't absorb any more public safety cuts."

''The IBO further reported the Fire Department will have 10,282 uniformed personnel on June 30, 2012, down from 10,911 this year, and the lowest level since at least 1980, when the IBO first started tracking the numbers.''

Everybody seems to be outraged by the proposed budget cuts, and the impact it would have on teachers, police, firefighters, and even the City Morgue. But nobody is doing anything about the tens of millions of dollars disappearing into the shady black holes of IT contracts. Or what about the failed $2 billion Unified Call Taker-911 dispatch and emergency call system ? Who is the only person in New York City government, who can stand up to Mayor Bloomberg and Gov. Andrew Cuomo ? If you are counting on Speaker Quinn, better go looking for another champion, because she doesn't do anything to stand up for essential city service cuts. Just look at how Speaker Quinn has done nothing to even save St. Vincent's Hospital from turning into luxury condominiums.

What Does Christine Quinn Do To Stop Mayor Bloomberg's Company From Raiding Our Government Of Its Information ?

Nothing, naturally. Does everybody have their hands in the cookie jar ?

''Bloomberg Government'' is a money-making enterprise for Mayor Bloomberg's company, where he makes money from government and personal information, like contracts, employee lists, and other forms of databases.

Apparently, there is a lot of money to be made from government contracts, especially from cost over-runs, like what happened with CityTime.

So far, prosecutors can prove that $80 million has been stolen from the government payments for the CityTime payroll system, a shady black hole of an IT contract. In a separate analysis of the CityTime scandal, the newsroom of WNYC radio has estimated that, as of December 2010, New York City has spent ''more than $630 million on CityTime, which was supposed to cost just $63 million.''

If only there was a way that Mayor Bloomberg could get rid of checks and balances in New York and others could end progressive era reforms, like collective bargaining in states like Wisconsin, that way companies, which have an inside edge on government contracts and government employee lists, could go after all the cost over-runs that are possible from government contracts once there is no more government oversight ! All the more better for Bloomberg Government would be if Mayor Bloomberg could find ways to stop the City Council from checking his desire for more and more mayoral control.

Meanwhile, with all the employees that revolve between City Hall and Bloomberg L.P., how do we know if there are any safeguards on material, non-public government information ?

Will Gov. Andrew Cuomo Legalise Marriage Equality ?

Now that we have elected a straight man to office, maybe we will see marriage equality become legal in New York, because we knew we could not count on Christine Quinn to do anything about marriage equality.

It is a poor reflection on New York City Council Speaker Speaker Quinn, a high profile gay leader in New York City, that Gov. Andrew Cuomo is the politician, who will take credit for making marriage equality a reality for New Yorkers. Although a municipal-based approach to make marriage equality a reality already exists, based on the Gavin Newsom model, seeing as how Speaker Quinn has not been the source of any marriage equality effort in New York City, hopefully, Gov. Cuomo will be the one we can all pin our hopes on, because we knew we could not count on Speaker Quinn for anything.

Christine Quinn's Puppet Show

Third Anniversary Protest of Term Limits Scam : Christine Quinn's Puppet Show and Political Farce

Join us on Sunday, October 23, 2011, at 2 pm, outside City Hall, for a protest to mark the third anniversary of the City Council vote that overturned term limits.

Christine Quinn's Puppet Show and Political Farce by connaissable

Back on this day in 2008, the New York City Council voted to change the term limits law, thereby allowing Mayor Michael Bloomberg to seek re-election. The action by the City Council, lead by Speaker Christine Quinn, undid the term limits approved by New York City voters, who had previously passed two referendums that had restricted the service of elected politicians to a limit of two four-year terms.

Vote Quinn out of office !

Does Christine Quinn support Mayor Bloomberg's plan for massive teacher layoffs and school closings ?

Has New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn done anything to stop Mayor Bloomberg's plan for massive teacher layoffs ?

We don't know, because Speaker Quinn never takes any public policy position in opposition to the mayor. Said another way, Speaker Quinn is just going to go along with all the layoffs that Mayor Bloomberg announces, just like she goes along with everything else that Mayor Bloomberg does, says, or wants. Speaker Quinn is Mayor Bloomberg's puppet.

Sacrifices Turn Out For Naught In Effort To Save St. Vincent's Hospital From Luxury Condo Conversion

Last month, four community activists were arrested after orchestrating a sit-in to save St. Vincent's Hospital from being sold to the greedy Rudin family, which stands to make millions and even hundreds of millions of dollars from converting the hospital into luxury condos. It was reported earlier today that St. Vincent's Hospital is going to become luxury condos. Do no politicians hear the plea of voters, who ask for a downtown hospital ?

The Hunter College-Christine Quinn Needs Assessment Provided Political Cover To Allow The Sale Of St. Vincent's Hospital To Real Estate Developers

Jane Jacobs is turning in her grave !

Christine Quinn's Bluff Pays Off : Needs Assessment Provided Cover For Back-Room Real Estate Deal For St. Vincent's

We don't want to say, ''We Told You So,'' but we told you so. First, Christine Quinn said, ''We are not going to fall for that BAIT-and-SWITCH.'' But, like time and time again, Speaker Quinn was just pulling the wool over our eyes.

It was reported earlier today that St. Vincent's Hospital is going to become luxury condos. Naturally, it should come as no surprise that the announcement coïncides with a Joint Meeting of Manhattan Community Boards 2 and 4. The upcoming needs assessment (aka Monkey Survey) was nothing but a farce, SMOKE-and-MIRRORS to provide the Rudin family cover to buy St. Vincent's and turn it into luxury condos.

Assess Your Access Community Forum

Voters have no say in their government under the administration of Speaker Quinn and Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

St. Vincent's Hospital Becomes Condos

Christine Quinn Sells St. Vincent's Hospital to Rudin Family ; Jane Jacobs is Turning in Her Grave. :'(

New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn continues her campaign to sell New York City landmarks to real estate developers, activists say. Witness the latest announcement involving the historic real estate of the former St. Vincent's Hospital.

From Curbed :

If this graphic looks familiar, it's because we've seen it before, back when the Landmarks Presrevation Commission approved the highly controversial St. Vincent's redevelopment plan. In the intervening months, the hospital's closure took that redevelopment plan off the table, and the great St. Vincent's sell-off began. And then this bombshell: the Observer reports that, actually, the sawtooth O'Toole Building will be retrofitted and reopened as an emergency medical facility, with assistance from Rudin Management, the developer behind the previous plan, and North Shore-LIJ hospital. A victory for preservationists? Yes and no.

One thing the preservationists didn't want was the construction of an FX Fowle-designed residential building on Seventh Avenue South. Win some, lose some: that aspect of the old plan is back in a big way (as is the Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates makeover of St. Vincent's Triangle). The building will contain 450 units of luxury condos. Last time the subject came up, the LPC ordered the 233-foot building cut down a few stories, so we don't know what the final version will look like. We're guessing the architectural surgeons will still end up with something similar to the last design.

The rumour amongst activists it that, for an encore, Speaker Quinn will join forces with Mayor Bloomberg, to bust the unions of public employees, like teachers.

Hold Christine Quinn Accountable : Stop LGBT Discrimination by the St. Patrick's Fifth Avenue Parade

Talk Is Cheap

Youtube.com — What has City Council Speaker Christine Quinn done to end the St. Patrick's Day Fifth Avenue Parade's discrimination against LGBT participants ? Nothing. Make a request to Speaker Quinn to back-up her words with action : quinn@council.nyc.ny.us

Updated ! See what they are doing in Boston for their St. Patrick's Day Parade.

Marriage Equality NY Update

Nervous Politicians In Albany Worry Over Approach To Marriage Equality.

There is a secret that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg would like to keep hidden in his gay marriage closet : the fact that in 2005 Mayor Bloomberg ordered lawyers for New York City to appeal the trial court ruling issued by New York Supreme Court Judge Doris Ling-Cohen, who decided that marrying the person of one's own choosing was both a privacy right and a liberty right.

If politicians in New York wanted to pass marriage equality -- to guarantee that the right to marry was equally offered to all loving couples, regardless of any factors -- then the marriage bureaus would be told to issue marriage licenses to all loving couples, regardless of any factors. (That's how we saw the entire national conversation change in respect of marriage equality, thanks to the courage and leadership of Gavin Newsom, who was then the mayor of San Francisco.)

Too bad for us, as we wring our hands in New York, that we are stuck with Mayor Bloomberg, who doesn't believe in taking action to make marriage an equal right.

William Rudin Gives Shocking Interview About St. Vincent's Real Estate Harvesting ; From Christine Quinn, Nothing But Silence

Rudin Interview on New York Real Estate Harvesting From Bankrupt Hospitals.

William Rudin, chief executive officer at Rudin Management Co., talks about New York City's real estate and the outlook for commercial property, including the millions the family stands to make from the carcass picking of the real estate property of St. Vincent's Hospital. Watch at 5:40.

To add insult to injury, naturally this interview was broadcast on Bloomberg Opinion, in keeping with Mayor Michael Bloomberg's worldview of starving the beast until it dies in the back of an ambulance, stuck in crosstown traffic.

Hospital Needs Assessment Fixed

Hunter College has been engaged to conduct a ''needs assessment,'' to determine if we need a hospital to replace St. Vincent's. Many members of the Lower West Side of Manhattan believe that Hunter College was hired to play bad cop. Activists say that Hunter College is going to issue a report based on a Monkey Survey that there is no need for a hospital, which will give City Council Speaker Christine Quinn a free pass to say, "Hey, guys, it's not my fault that we don't need a hospital. If you are angry, blame Hunter College. Now, how fast can we build more glass and steel luxury condominiums ?"

Why Are They Closing St. Vincent's Hospital? (Pt. 20) - At Hunter College from g. sosa on Vimeo.

Do We Have Any Effective LGBT Leaders In New York City ?

Members of the LGBT equality advocacy group called Queer Rising blocked traffic near Bryant Park on March 1, 2011, in an act of civil disobedience, demanding marriage equality in New York.

Eight activists from the were arrested after the group had unfurled a 75-foot banner and blocked traffic on 42nd Street and Avenue of the Americas in New York City. The activists were later released by police, according to a statement issued by GetEQUAL.

The marriage equality demonstration was reported about by a network-affiliate news program on WPIX 11.

Following is the full statement from GetEQUAL, followed by additional links to other Internet coverage of the protest and the arrests.

Earlier this morning, eight activists were released from a NYC jail after they took action to stand up to our politicians' unceasing cowardice to do what's right for the LGBTQIA community. After years of waiting for marriage equality in New York and countless broken promises, members of the direct action group Queer Rising, allies of GetEQUAL in New York, demonstrated their growing frustration by sending a clear message to our elected officials.

At 8:30 this morning Kevin Beauchamp, Nora Camp, Natasha Dillon, Frostie Flakes (Adam Siciliano), Jake Goodman, Honey LaBronx (Ben Strothmann), Eugene Lovendusky, and Kitten Withuwip (Caldwell) blocked traffic at the intersection of 42nd Street and 6th Avenue in Manhattan, where they unfurled a 75-foot banner that read "NY DEMANDS MARRIAGE EQUALITY NOW!" and chanted "I Am...Somebody! I Deserve...Full Equality! Right Here, Right Now! I Deserve...Full Equality!"

We know the courage these eight activists showed today is the same courage that lives inside many who are reading this email right now -- that the hunger for full equality that drives these activists is the same hunger that drove the suffragists to keep fighting for their right to vote; it's the same hunger that drove our civil rights fighters to keep fighting for their constitutional guarantee of equal protection, equal opportunity, equal access and equal justice; it's the same hunger that drives our fellow LGBTQIA brothers and sisters to keep fighting for the day when our dignity will be recognized, our love will be revered and our humanity will be respected.

Today's action is just the beginning of a sustained campaign that Queer Rising will be organizing in the months to come, in partnership with GetEQUAL and other civil rights activists in New York. If you're hunger for equality is pushing you toward taking up the fight, whether occasional grumblings or unrelenting pangs, today we invite you to take action for what is rightfully ours -- full equality!

If you want to get more involved with equality organizing in New York, email GetEQUAL.NY@gmail.com and we'll get you connected with opportunities in your area!

Every moment is one more opportunity to change your world...

Read More :

• Next Magazine : Queer Rising protesters clash with police on 42nd Street
• Pam's House Blend : Queer Rising NY marriage equality protest; live Tweeting by Village Voice's Steven Thrasher
• The Advocate : Activists Arrested in N.Y. Marriage Protest