Mike Bloomberg aka Robert Moses

The Sexton Plan for NYU represents a new low in "urban decay."

That which Robert Moses was not able to do to Lower Manhattan (demolishing the special social fabric of neighborhoods to construct a cross-borough highway), Christine Quinn will do (demolishing the special social fabric of neighborhoods to let NYU carry out this reckless expansion plan). Jane Jacobs advocated for that special "secret sauce" to successful large cities, whereas Mike Bloomberg, John Sexton, and Christine Quinn call for more indiscriminate zone-busting urban development.

Bloombo Dicto Wants More Zone-Busting Towers Around Grand Central Station

Size Queen

If he had to, Mayor Michael Bloomberg would go so far as to close hospitals so that he could approve zone-busting skyscrapers and high-rise luxury condos in the area around Grand Central. First, Mayor Bloomberg violated the spirit and ethics of Jane Jacobs by allowing the Rudin family to demolish a focal point of Greenwich Village. Now, Mayor Bloomberg is going to violate the spirit and ethics of Jacqueline Kennedy by pushing a demolition plan for the area surrounding Grand Central.

Is New York's status based on Mayor Bloomberg's fixation with size ?

Oct. 17 St. Vincent's Hospital rally

Oct. 17 rally for a new hospital in Lower West Side - St. Vincent's Hospital - Call to Action

Please join us for a rally on Sunday, October 17, at 2 p.m. We are meeting outside of the main building of the former St. Vincent's Hospital at the corner of 7th Avenue and West 12th Street.

Click here to register to attend the 100 days without a hospital rally.

We want to express to our politicians that the community is united in believing that we need a hospital in the Lower West Side of Manhattan.

St. Vincent's Hospital closed on April 30 under shady conditions, with no notice to the public. In an emergency, every minute counts. Meanwhile, here we are now way past 100 days that the Lower West Side has been without a hospital.

This rally is fully-accessible for the disabled. For the hearing impaired, a transcript of the video follows :

I want to encourage folks to come to the rally on October 17th. We really need a hospital in this neighborhood. Having an Emergency Room close by is very important.

The closing of St. Vincent's was really a disaster for this neighborhood.

Hello, please, you must come to our rally on October 17th in front of St. Vincent's at 2 p.m. We are hoping we'll get 1,000 people -- at least. Your life could count and depend upon having a hospital in our community.

Unless we have over 1,000 people come out on October 17th at 2 p.m., the powers that be and politicians will think that we are accepting this. And that is wrong, because everybody that I talk to knows that it's wrong, and they are very upset over the closing of St. Vincent's Hospital.

We've heard of 45 minute waits for ambulances, to start with, and then trying to get cross-town on 14th Street ?

When you are having an emergency, every minute counts.

Is that enough to convince you that your life depends upon attending this rally. Thank you. I look forward to seeing you there.

The circuit breakers for the power brokers

The highway and the hospital

The way Robert Moses disregarded the needs of the Greenwich Village community by proposing to build a highway through it is, almost 50 years later, very much the same way Mayor Michael Bloomberg is disregarding the needs of the same Greenwich Village community by letting more luxury condominiums go up in the Village, this time on the former space of St. Vincent's Hospital.

More and more, it seems that each power-hungry man sick with development-envy tests his limits over doomed urban renewal ideas for the vibrant and energetic Greenwich Village.

It is a matter of trust: No third term for Michael Bloomberg

An open letter to Michael Bloomberg

Running for mayor means that you are asking the citizens of New York for their trust. Based on your record of the last 8 years, we know all too well that we cannot trust you. No, sir. Not at all.

When ConEdison neglected its infrastructure, and the lights went out in my neighborhood of Astoria for two weeks, days had to pass before you realized that 174,000 people were both without power and powerless to do anything about it. Being mayor means that we depend and rely on you to stand up for us.

When George W. Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq, many New Yorkers did not support the war. Even though we had proper permits, NYPD put up barricades and the MTA shut down subways – to keep us from peacefully attending our rallies. We have a right to gather and express ourselves. Our mayor should not be suppressing the voices in our community.

After you won the bid to host the 2004 Republican National Convention in our city, you thought it was perfectly fine to arrest over 1,800 protesters. The people you arrested were detained under false pretenses – until a court threatened to fine the city, effectively forcing you to set them free. I wasn’t arrested, but, at the time, I belonged to a small group called, “Gays Against Bush.” The New York Times reported that NYPD was collecting information about our meetings and our rallies. How can the citizens trust their mayor, when he is so quick to squash our freedom of expression ?

For the 8 straight years that you have been in office, the Rent Guidelines Board has systematically raised regulated rents in our city. And any time that the MTA has wanted to jack up our fares, it gets away with it. You haven’t even noticed that NYU is the second-coming of Robert Moses, because while NYU is tearing down historical houses or evicting cultural landmarks, you have been busy closing down firehouses and advocating for the construction of more football stadiums.

The city has changed under your 2 terms, and not for the better. You are constitutionally incapable of relating to the concerns of the average New Yorker. And now you come, asking us to trust you with four more years ? You don’t know what trust means, Mr. Mayor. It means that we give you our permission to run our city for 2 terms, and you return it to us unharmed after your two terms are over.

After voters have twice passed a referendum for term limits, why would you unilaterally help yourself to a third term ? The answer is because you cannot be trusted. We can no longer trust you to run our city. After these 2 long terms, there is no longer any trust left to give.