16 NOVEMBER 10 - NOVEMBER 16, 2017 BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP
EDITORIAL
WHAT DE BLASIO SHOULD
FOCUS ON
The inevitable finally became a reality on Tuesday
night. Mayor Bill de Blasio was re-elected to his second
and final term in office.
While he’s won himself another term, there’s much
truth to the grievances de Blasio’s opponents aired; to
that end, he must remember that he’s mayor of the whole
city, not just of those who voted for him.
To show he’s putting the city first, de Blasio should do
is make amends publicly and privately with Governor
Andrew Cuomo, whose help he needs to tackle the two
biggest issues the city faces today: a dilapidated transit
system and homelessness.
The city and state must forge a cooperative agreement
to upgrade the city’s ancient subway system with a funding
framework amenable to the city, state and MTA. They
14 BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP • MARCH 6 - MARCH 12, 2014
can also partner on an expedited expansion of Select Bus
Service and an increase in ferry service citywide.
De Blasio and Cuomo must also work together to implement
editorial A LOOK BACK compiled by
GO BACK TO THE
DRAWING BOARD
a comprehensive plan to reduce homelessness.
De Blasio wants to build 90 permanent shelters across
the five boroughs, moving the homeless out of hotels
and into something that provides greater services for
those in need.
But, de Blasio must realize that solving the homelessness
crisis must come with addressing a growing affordability
problem in New York City. He need to champion
a new program to help working families stay in the city
and off the street.
After allegations of corruption and pay-to-play dogged
much of his first term, de Blasio needs also to refute those
claims and be completely forthright with the city and
investigators. If there is no impropriety, he has nothing
to fear and the courts will exonerate him as they’ve done
before.
Finally, knowing that de Blasio has an eye on the national
stage, we urge him to focus on the bigger picture
before him: New York City. He’s accomplished much in
four years, and there’s much left to do. The best way for
de Blasio to build a reputation nationally is by being an
effective mayor who gets things done.
An executive’s last term in office is known for legacy
building. What kind of legacy does de Blasio want to
leave in 2021? We’ll soon find out.
HOMEREPORTER AND SUNSET NEWS
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Gary Nilsen and Helen Klein
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Editor in Chief ... Helen Klein
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Ridge News (founded 1943) were merged into the HOME REPORTER AND SUNSET NEWS.
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Photo by Gardiner Anderson
And the award goes to… Bay Ridge, which
has provided the backdrop for many movies
and television shows over the years, from
“Blue Bloods” and “Saturday Night Fever” to
“Mad Men” and, in 2006, to “Then She
Found Me,” starring Helen Hunt and Bette
Midler, seen above in a September, 2006,
Home Reporter photo taken on location on
Shore Road at 77th Street. Midler performed
at the most recent Oscars, singing “Wind
Beneath My Wings” during the awards
show’s In Memoriam segment. “Then She
Found Me,” which also starred Matthew
Broderick, was also shot inside a historic
home on 88th Street.
Each day, thousands of people depend
on SUNY Downstate Medical Center for
emergency medical care and vital
health care services.
But this state-operated public hospital has been in
danger of being closed or privatized for more than two
years. Hundreds of jobs have been lost, and numerous
health care services have been cut or curtailed due to the
hospital’s ill-prepared “Sustainability Plan.”
Now, there is language in the 2014-15 proposed state
budget that would open the door to as many as five corporations
to operate SUNY’s public hospitals.
United University Professions, the union that represents
nearly 3,000 employees at SUNY Downstate, has been
fighting to keep SUNY Downstate a fully operational staterun
facility. However, UUP isn’t fighting the battle alone.
The SUNY Downstate Coalition of Faith, Labor and
Community Leaders has become an important ally. The
coalition has staged a number of rallies and protests over
the past 18 months to save health care services and jobs
at SUNY Downstate and keep it a public facility.
The latest such effort is a 48-hour interfaith fast. It
will begin Sunday, March 9, at 3 p.m., in front of
Downstate’s 470 Clarkson Avenue entrance. Interfaith
leaders and members of the community will participate
to show their strong support for this beacon in Brooklyn
and call attention to the threats it faces.
You can take part in the fast or find out more about it
by calling 718-270-1519, or sending an email to
Brooklyn@uupmail.org.
We strongly urge you to join our campaign. Take part in
the fast, or come out and show your support. Together, we
can deliver a strong message that SUNY Downstate must
remain a full-service, state-operated public hospital.
The threats facing SUNY Downstate are real. The
SUNY Board of Trustees has openly discussed the possibility
of closing SUNY Downstate. There is also language
in the Executive Budget, which would allow corporations
to control SUNY’s public hospitals; one corporation must
affiliate with an academic medical institution or teaching
hospital. SUNY Downstate has Brooklyn’s only
teaching hospital.
Privatizing or closing SUNY Downstate as a way for
the state to save dollars is shortsighted and unnecessary.
We believe the answer to Brooklyn’s health care shortcomings
lies in the “Brooklyn Hospitals Safety Net Plan,”
a UUP-backed initiative to stabilize and deliver health
care throughout Brooklyn.
This plan would preserve SUNY Downstate and save
several financially unstable hospitals in Brooklyn,
including Interfaith Medical Center, Brookdale, Long
Island College Hospital and Kingsbrook Jewish Medical
Center. You can see the proposal online at
http://www.brooklynhospitalplan.org.
It calls for the creation of a network of satellite ambulatory
care centers, and would be controlled by and affiliated
with 14 other Brooklyn hospitals. Downstate would
be the network’s hub, educating and supplying physicians
and medical staff to the care centers and working
with doctors at the other hospitals.
It’s a simple, effective plan and, if given a chance, it
will work.
New York has a responsibility to provide for the health
care needs of its citizens. The Brooklyn Hospitals Safety
Net Plan—our plan and the community’s plan—is a
viable, workable option for long-term health care in
Brooklyn.
That’s something that Brooklyn residents desperately
need.
Frederick E. Kowal is president of United University
Professions, the union representing 35,000 faculty and professional
staff at SUNY’s 29 state-operated campuses, including
SUNY’s public teaching hospitals and health science centers
in Brooklyn, Buffalo, Long Island and Syracuse.
With the city deciding to move forward on most of the
school co-locations approved late last year, as Mayor
Bloomberg prepared to vacate City Hall, parents in
southwest Brooklyn are not only disappointed but angry.
While the Department of Education under Mayor de
Blasio wisely opted to back out of a planned co-location of
a new high school inside Gravesend’s John Dewey High
School, the DOE decided to move ahead with two others:
the co-location of a charter school inside Seth Low
Intermediate School in Bensonhurst and another inside
Joseph B. Cavallaro Intermediate School in Bath Beach.
These – like others in the borough and the city – are
both fiercely opposed by parents, educators, students
and the local Community Education Councils, all of
whom contend that the co-locations would steal necessary
space from students already attending the schools,
and those who will be going to them in the near future.
While the city has said it only considers under-utilized
schools for co-locations, area education advocates say
that both Cavallaro and Seth Low are well utilized, and
likely to become more crowded as students now in elementary
school in both District 20 and District 21 move
up to middle school.
Indeed, District 20 is one of the most crowded school
districts in the city, so much so that the city built a host
of new schools for it in the past decade, with more being
planned, meaning that public school students in both
District 20 and District 21 are likely to feel the squeeze
should they have to share space with students from a
charter school.
That strikes us as patently unfair. While some of the
charter schools poised to open in September, 2014 may be
worthy additions to the city’s educational offerings, their
needs should not trump the needs of existing schools
with existing students. And, indeed, when a charter
school is put inside a public school, the process must
involve the school communities at both educational institutions,
and parents must also be involved.
The city must go back to the drawing board and come
up with alternative arrangements for the charter schools
planned for Seth Low and Cavallaro as well as other
schools where they are opposed.. The students who
attend those schools deserve no less.
guest op-ed
Keep SUNY Downstate open and public
BY FREDERICK E. KOWAL
Entire contents copyright 2016 by Home Reporter and Sunset News
A LOOK BACK
If this building looks familiar, it should. With some minimal changes to the
exterior, the American Machine Foundry building at Second Avenue and
55th Street, seen here in a photo from the files of this newspaper, became
Lutheran Medical Center (now NYU Langone Hospital - Brooklyn) in 1977, one
of the first industrial buildings in Sunset Park to be repurposed. Lutheran, of
course, was much older, founded in 1883 on Fourth Avenue near Ninth Street
by Sister Elisabeth Fedde as the Norwegian Lutheran Deaconess Home and
Hospital. Before moving to the Second Avenue location, the hospital was
situated at Fourth Avenue and 45th Street for some 88 years.
Compiled by Helen Klein
HELLO, COLUMBUS!
The efforts of a few politicians and individuals
to remove the significance of Columbus and
eliminate its importance in history is appalling
and disturbing. These people are not historians,
researchers or scholars. Their ignorance is as
equal as it is to their arrogance.
The meaning of Christopher Columbus is simple.
It is a message to all immigrants who had the
courage and determination to risk it all to come
to this great land with nothing but a glimmer of
hope and a desire for a better future.
Most immigrants fled from persecution and
oppression especially when it pertained to their
religious beliefs. The significance of Christopher
Columbus has two core values which are imprinted
upon us all and that is religious freedom and
hope for a better life now and for generations to
follow.
Of course, like any of us, Christopher Columbus
had his flaws. So did many historical figures,
whom we still honor, respect and value as they
shaped this nation.
President Abraham Lincoln was the most memorable.
While credited with abolishing slavery,
he did believe that blacks and whites should be
separated.
Also, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson
were slave owners. Should we, then,
tear up the paper money that their faces are
imprinted upon? Should we take down the
White House and U.S. Capitol that were built
by African American slaves?
How about President Theodore Roosevelt,
who killed more indigenous Native American
Indians and Spaniards under the honored flag of
the United States of America? Due to Roosevelt’s
motives, the United States took land away from
Native American Indians and the Spaniards.
Should we eliminate Wall Street in downtown
Manhattan which was created to keep away
American Indians? Should we eliminate the name
New York because the Duke of York was a huge
slave owner?
Should we eliminate the prestigious Fulbright
and Rhodes Scholarship programs, both
which are named after individuals who traded
slaves? Do we eliminate Columbus Avenue in
Manhattan, change the name of Columbia
University or change the District of Columbia
in Washington?
These self-proclaimed revisionists should put
their intolerance aside and perhaps have a more
meaningful conversation with the truth. Columbus
is not just a pride of Italian-Americans, but
Spanish-Americans who funded his journey to
the Americas. Columbus’ mission was to spread
Christianity.
Particularly in the current situation immigrants
finds themselves today, the meaning of
Columbus has never been more important. It is
the meaning of courage to settle in this land and
to be able to practice religion freely. These are the
pedestals this country is founded upon.
John Ciafone, Esq.
LETTERS
BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP/file photo