St. Vincent's Rudin Inquest

Manhattan District Attorney is investigating St. Vincent's ''go-for-broke plan'' that has supposedly enriched the Rudin Managedment Company, which has been waiting in the wings for the hospital to flatline.

St. Vincent's Hospital is under investigation by the Manhattan DA's office for allegations that the Rudin Management Company has been planning a real estate harvesting/luxury condo conversion plan of the shuttered hospital.

St. Vincent's closed on April 30, 2010, after it laid off many of its employees. Many employees later learned that the hospital was not paying into the state's unemployment fund, so those who were laid off were not eligible for unemployment benefits.

Ever since it closed, the impacted community of the Lower West Side of Manhattan has been calling for investigations into what lead to the hospital's sudden closure. The hospital failed to file a closure plan, as it was required to do, with the New York State Department of Health.

From an article in The New York Post :

Going broke allowed the hospital to get an OK from the state Health Department to sell to the Rudin family, which is building luxury housing on the site. Without bankruptcy, state officials would not have been permitted the hospital to shut down, the sources said.

"This was a well-thought-out plan," said Tom Shanahan, a lawyer for a group of former St. Vincent doctors and nurses suing St. Vincent's. "They wanted out and had to justify it to the state. They were running it into the ground."

DA Cy Vance's team is looking into whether vendors double-billed for services, gave kickbacks for contracts and hired relatives of hospital employees, sources said.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg's Legacy

NY1 Online: Mayor's Legacy Discussion On "Inside City Hall" 3/17/11

Two Manhattan scholars published in Commentary magazine a lengthy assessment of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's record for the past 8 or 9 years. That article was adapted and reprinted in The New York Post as : Bloomy's bubble bursts : New York City voters finally realize -- there's no there there.

Here are the authors of the article, Fred Siegel and Sol Stern, each from the Manhattan Institute, in a joint television interview on NY1. They offer a harsh and critical analysis of Mayor Bloomberg’s time in office.

Bloomberg manipulates tea party for political gain

The following is an exact quote (links and all) from a blog post in The Village Voice:

Bloomberg Shops Tape of Man Calling Christine Quinn a "Whore" in Front of Bill Thompson

By Roy Edroso

We see Mayor Bloomberg is getting serious about his election campaign. The Post says his operatives sent them a tape of Bill Thompson not reacting when the co-owner of the delightful West Village Brit boite Tea and Sympathy called Christine Quinn a "whore." Restauranteur Sean Kavanagh-Dowsett also said Quinn could "kiss my ass." We speculate that Thompson was distracted by the finger sandwiches.

PolitickerNY has the tape, which reveals the source of Kavanagh-Dowsett's rage: the tripling of Tea & Sympathy's rent, and a perceived lack of support for small business owners by Quinn. You have to listen really hard at the end to hear, amid the chatter, the "whore" and "ass" parts...

Later on a Thompson spokesman, noting at the event at T&S was "a forum open to the public," said the candidate nonetheless found the comments "inappropriate and offensive." It's Barack Obama and Reverend Wright all over again! (Does this mean Thompson wins?)

You don't want to get caught talking smack around Quinn. In 2007 Quinn orchestrated the blockage of a proposal to rename a street after activist Sonny Carson, leading a council aide, Viola Plummer, to threaten to "assassinate" councilmember Leroy Comrie. Quinn had her fired. Plummer is now suing Quinn, claiming her firing was racially motivated.