Quinn Supports Tax Breaks For Top 1 Percent

In the post-Occupy Wall Street world that we live in, now comes New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who has flip-flopped -- she has announced that she no longer supports her very own 2009 proposal to raise taxes on the 1%. Instead of raising taxes on the top income-earners in New York City, Speaker Quinn now favours not raising taxes on them.

Because she is ashamed of being outed as secretly supporting the 1%, "Ms. Quinn on Monday repeatedly declined to answer questions about her position on income taxes," The Wall Street Journal reported.

Christine Quinn : Moving on Up While Poverty and Homelessness on the Rise

Gary Tilzer, the owner of the most in-depth political blog in New York City at True News From Change NYC, has posted a fair use political satire photo illustration of New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn's luxurious condo.

"For the next few days, True News will be inviting guests," to Speaker Quinn's new home, Mr. Tilzer has promised on his blog.

The magazine fluff piece about Speaker Quinn's luxury condo is the latest breach of journalism ethics by The New York Times. Activists have twice organised major demonstrations outside the world headquarters of The New York Times to protest what activists describe as an intentional campaign by editors of The NYTimes to only publish public relations articles about Speaker Quinn to help fluff up her mayoral campaign. On September 12, activists held this demonstration in front of The NYTimes building :

Prior to that, on August 28, activists held their first protest against the deliberate media bias, that promotes the political campaign of Speaker Quinn :

Activists have said that they believe that Carolyn Ryan, an editor at The NYTimes, is partly responsible for the editorial bias in the newspaper. Other activists also point out that because The NYTimes is losing money, as are other old mainstream media companies, the newspaper may be trying to curry favour with the billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who may end up having to provide financial support to fluff up The NYTimes.

Meanwhile, The NYTimes makes no connection between the political graft and corruption in city politics that is responsible for the 1% to live high on the hog, while the New York City budget shreds the social safety net, ignoring the rise in poverty and homelessness.

Activists Confront CB2

A Mass Civilian Trauma Exercise was held outside St. Vincent’s Hospital ; activists then interrupt Manhattan Community Board 2 meeting.

As part of the "mass civilian trauma exercise," many participants wore surgical masks and paper signs around their neck. The signs indicated what accidents, diseases, or emergencies they "have." Then, the "sick" participants "waited" for emergency medical treatment on the sidewalks outside St. Vincent's. No emergency help ever came, precisely because there is no longer a hospital in the Lower West Side. Some participants did not "make it."

After the "mass civilian trauma exercise" came to an end, team of "survivors" marched to Grace Church, 86 Fourth Avenue, Tuttle Hall, to ask for help from Jason Mansfield, the chair of CB2's Environmental, Public Safety & Public Health Committee. Mr. Mansfield turned his back on the community's need for a full-service hospital.

St. Vincent's Rudin Probe

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.

Yetta Kurland - Presenting Petitions to Rudin Family to Block Condo Conversion of St. Vincent's

Yetta Kurland - Presenting Petitions to Rudin Family to Block Condo Conversion of St. Vincent's

At a community board meeting on June 8, 2011, the activist and civil rights lawyer Yetta Kurland presented a stack of over 7,500 signatures on a petition to a representative of the Rudin real estate development family. The petition demands that the Rudin Family must be blocked from undertaking a luxury condominium conversion of the former site of St. Vincent's Hospital. In her presentation, Ms. Kurland explained the history of a prior deal that gave the Rudin Family use of a hardship exemption, but, which Ms. Kurland said, no longer applies. Watch the video for more information.

St. Vincent's Condo Conversion

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.