Ray Kelly Beats Christine Quinn

If The NYPD Commish Runs For Mayor, Then Ed Koch, The Snooki Of New York City Politics, Would Dump New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn In Favour Of Commish Kelly.

The Gothamist reports that Ed Koch has joined in the bandwagon, urging New York Police Department Commissioner Raymond Kelly to run for Mayor of New York City in the 2013 election. If Mayor Kelly were to run, then ex-Mayor Ed Koch has announced that he would rush to withdraw his endorsement of Speaker Christine Quinn only to turn-around and throw his support behind Commissioner Kelly. Speaker Quinn should be familiar with fair-weather friends : she herself stopped supporting the effort to save St. Vincent's Hospital once the Rudin family opened their checkbook to the tune of $30,000 in campaign donations.

Berger Attacks SUNY Downstate

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Stephen Berger decides which hospitals will close in Brooklyn, and he serves at the pleasure of Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Call Gov. Cuomo @ (518) 474-8390 and tell him : (i) to fire Stephen Berger, and (ii) that we need universal healthcare for all.

From The Brooklyn Eagle :

BROOKLYN -- Several hundred Occupy Wall Street (OWS) activists -- accompanied by a phalanx of NYPD officers -- marched across the Brooklyn Bridge and rallied in Cadman Plaza Park in Brooklyn Sunday afternoon, marking six months since hundreds of them were arrested on the bridge.

Spirits were high and the music was spirited, but the theme of the anniversary march was sobering -- the dire state of health care for Brooklyn residents, especially those served by five hospitals in crisis: Brooklyn Hospital Center, Interfaith Medical Center, Wyckoff Heights Medical Center, Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center, and Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center.

Wall Street financier Stephen Berger, appointed by Gov. Cuomo to be in charge of restructuring health care in Brooklyn, is recommending that New York change its laws “to allow for-profit investors to invest in financially-distressed public hospitals.”

The group criticized Berger’s plan to close SUNY Downstate's inpatient services and move them to SUNY LICH in Cobble Hill, leaving thousands of central Brooklyn residents without health care services – a plan rejected by SUNY Downstate President John LaRosa. They also criticized his push to close Kingsboro Psychiatric Center and move its services to Staten Island -- a plan that was canceled Friday after Brooklyn legislators interceded on Kingsboro’s behalf.

Berger also blocked an effort to include an emergency room at SUNY Downstate at Bay Ridge. ...

Rudin Family's Political Liability

Hospital Protesters Hound Christine Quinn

New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn continues to suffer the presence of activists, who protest her apparent conflict of interest in approving the Rudin Family's billion-dollar luxury condo and townhouse complex plan for St. Vincent's Hospital.