Is ''Westside Healthcare Coalition'' A Lie ?

''West Side Healthcare Coalition is a Lie''

In a sneaky marketing ploy, the backers of the first aid clinic that is being proposed to replace St. Vincent's Hospital has been mailing deceptive brochures to residents of the Lower West Side of Manhattan. The brochures indicate that they are being mailed by a group calling itself the Westside Healthcare Coalition.

A WhoIs search on Network Solutions today showed that the website for the front group is registered to Mehigan, Bellone & Associates, Inc.

According to a press release distributed by angry residents, ''The practice of setting up seemingly grassroots groups to lobby for corporate or political interests is known as astroturfing. The stealth-style marketing technique is banned by the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR).''

The real group that has been fighting to restore a hospital to our community is the “Coälition for a New Village Hospital.”

West Side Healthcare Coalition is a Lie

Don't be fooled by the suspicious mailings by the front group calling itself the Westside Healthcare Coalition. They are just as fake as the claims being made by North Shore-LIJ, namely, that the first aid clinic that the Rudin family is proposing to install in the O'Toole Building will be able to treat real medical emergencies. And even in the face of all this deceptive literature that is being sent through the U.S. Postal Service, still no word from City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.

Slick LIJ-Rudin PR Campaign ?

The community of the Lower West Side of Manhattan are outraged over a deceptive political campaign brochure that was mailed to residents in connection with a proposed first aid clinic that may replace St. Vincent's Hospital.

Community anger has reached a new high, such that one member has launched a new blog, Every Minute Matters, to counter the hundreds of thousands of dollars being spent by North Shore-LIJ and the Rudin family, to make sure that their greedy hundred million dollar condo conversion deal goes through.

The slick mass mailer is an act of political subterfuge, community residents say, because it is being mailed by a front group calling itself the ''Westside Healthcare Coalition.'' (A WhoIs search on Network Solutions today showed that the website for the front group is registered to Mehigan, Bellone & Associates, Inc.) The intention of this fake political brochure can only be to intentionally confuse the public between the front group and the real group called the Coälition For A New Village Hospital. The real group has been fighting for over one year to, at first, save St. Vincent's Hospital from closing. Then, once the hospital closed under shady conditions, the real Coälition has been fighting in court to save the hospital buildings and zoning, so that a new hospital can open on the location of the former St. Vincent's site.

Here is an anonymous line item review of what some community members describe as deceptive advertising that is printed on the controversial political brochure, which was mailed through the U.S. Postal Service :

West Side Healthcare Coalition is a Lie

The community isn't surprised that the axis of evil (aka North Shore-LIJ-Rudin Family) would resort to spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a sick and twisted public relations stunt ; the Rudin family stands to make hundreds of millions of dollars from the luxury condo conversion of St. Vincent's Hospital. Even in the face of these deceptive political advertisements that are being mailed to city residents, the community continues to be likewise outraged by the veil of silence around City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who have taken no concrete actions to save St. Vincent's.