Rally TODAY: 100 Days Without a Hospital

Come one, come all!

Join the Coalition for a New Village Hospital tomorrow for

100 Days Without a Hospital Rally,
TODAY, Sunday October 17th
2 PM
West 12th St. and 7th Avenue

If there remained any doubt as to the need for a New Village Hospital, Ruth Ford and Adrienne Day's must read article in City Lights dispelled it.

Can't make it today? Here's what you can do:

RALLY_10_17_10_v3_Flyer

Coalition for a New Village Hospital holds Planning Meeting

Over 125 people turned up for Thursday night's planning meeting at Our Lady of Pompeii Church in the West Village. In addition to community members, attendees included representatives of numerous community groups – including PTAs, block associations, civil rights groups, civic associations.

The meeting, chaired by Civil Rights Attorney Yetta Kurland, discussed various approaches to our demand for a new village hospital.

Here's a video of Ms. Kurland explaining the state of the legal challenges:

At this point, we were joined briefly by Julie Menin, Chair of Community Board One. Ms. Menin discussed the joint taskforce of Community Boards 1, 2, 3 and 4 on health care – and committed to work towards a hospital for the lower West Side. She also addressed the stresses already being felt on New York Downtown Hospital (formerly Beekman) in lower Manhattan.

Here she is discussing the role these hospitals play in the event of a homeland security emergency.

After these introductory presentations, the bulk of the meeting was composed of community ideas on how to fight back. Some of the consensus ideas were:

• A campaign of Street Actions at the site of old St. Vincent's (more on this soon)
• Work with the Community Boards to help keep the St. Vincent's site designated for hospital use.
• Outreach to elected officials
• Art and Culture installations
• A complaint to the Attorney General's office was circulated.

Things are developing very quickly, so watch this space...