Rudin Gang Are Crudely Laughing At Our Healthcare Disparities

Bill Rudin Gang Laugh at Us ; Meanwhile, We Still Need A Hospital

Activists and community members showed up for the first day in an on-going protest and vigil outside the Rudin Management Company's luxury condominium sales office at 120 West 12th Street, at one of the Manhattan buildings that used to comprise the campus of St. Vincent's Hospital.

In a separate action, started by LGBT civil rights activist Alan Bounville, the community is being asked to take part in a phone zap against Rudin Management Company. Mr. Bounville is asking that everybody contact John Gilbert, the COO of Rudin Management Group by calling 1-212-407-2400 and by e-mailing : jgilbert@rudin.com

"Please join the masses and flood Rudin Management Company's phone and email this week so they are aware of the growing wave of public disgust with them stealing a hospital from the community!" urged Mr. Bounville.

Record your phone calls, upload the sound files, and copy and paste your e-mails and links to the Rudin Phone Zap Facebook event page.

The economics of the Rudin luxury condo conversion plan for St. Vincent's is proving to be a very lucrative real estate development plan. Rudin paid $260 million for the St. Vincent's campus, and it obtained $525 million in construction financing for the project. If you combine these two figures, then the total cost going into the luxury condo conversion is about $785 million. If Rudin sells the luxury condos and townhouses for a combined value of over $1 billion, then it would be very easy for Rudin to net well over $200 million in profit from the closing of St. Vincent's Hospital.

The lure of profit well in excess of $200 million during this Great Recession may be one reason that Rudin has spent easily over $200,000 on hiring the real estate lobbyist Melanie Meyers and made a bundle of approximately $30,000 in donations to the 2013 mayor campaign of Christine Quinn.

The lure of profit well in excess of $200 million during this Great Recession has also triggered a possible fraud probe. Two months ago, The New York Post reported that the Manhattan District Attorney was investigating whether hospital executives intentionally let St. Vincent’s fail, so that the Rudin could buy the hospital’s real estate on the cheap.  

No wonder that William Rudin and City Council Speaker are laughing all the way to the bank, while community members are stuck in crosstown traffic or suffering through long Emergency Room wait times in order to get emergency medical attention.

Peninsula Rudin Condo Conversion

Is the Rudin Family eyeing their next real estate harvesting operation on the dead carcass of the Peninsula Hospital Center in Queens ?

After he's done with St. Vincent's Hospital, it has been heard on the street that William Rudin is considering another real estate harvesting operation, this time at the Peninsula Hospital Center in Queens.

Bloomberg Funds LGBT Haters

From The New York Post :

Gay-nup foes got Mike $$ : Politics over principle

Two Republican state senators who voted against gay marriage are collecting the same hefty campaign contributions from Mayor Bloomberg as the four who bolted their party to pass the historic law that takes effect today.

Campaign records show that Bloomberg, who castigated opponents of same-sex nuptials as "obstructionists," delivered $10,300 to Brooklyn state Sen. Marty Golden on July 11.

That represented nearly 20 percent of the $54,550 Golden's campaign took in over the last six months.

Not only did he steadfastly oppose the new law, but Golden even tried to overturn an executive order that permitted New York to recognize gay marriages performed in other states.

"I believe personally it shouldn't be done here in the state of New York," he declared in May.

A mayoral aide said Bloomberg would also be sending a $10,300 check to Staten Island state Sen. Andrew Lanza, another Republican in the anti-gay-marriage column.

Last week, The Post reported that the mayor gave $10,300 to each of the four Republicans who took the political risk of backing marriage equality.

That put him in the funny position of rewarding both backers and opponents of the law.
"No one agrees on everything," a mayoral aide commented.

Golden and Lanza, as the only two Republicans representing the city in the Senate, are frequently called upon to push the administration's agenda in Albany, the aide said.

"While there was no quid pro quo, Marty Golden carried the taxi bill for us. I'm saying there are lots of issues."

The bitterly contested taxi legislation -- which Gov. Cuomo has yet to sign into law -- would establish a new system of metered cabs serving the outer boroughs.

Rudin Real Estate Donations

In an apparent conflict of interest, Beth R. DeWoody, Madeleine R. Johnson, Eric C. Rudin, Jack Rudin, Katherine Rudin, and William C. Rudin each donated $4,950 to Christine Quinn's presumed 2013 mayoral campaign. During this time, the Rudin family has been trying to salvage a multi-million dollar real estate purchase of the buildings that belong to the bankruptcy estate of St. Vincent's Hospital. Since the Rudin family wants to build luxury high-rise condos on the site of St. Vincent's, do these large campaign donations explain why Speaker Quinn has done nothing to restore a hospital to the former St. Vincent's site ?