A historic year for New York State
BY BRAD HOYLMAN
Under the new Senate Democratic
majority, the 2019
legislative session was
one of the most transformative
sessions in New York State
history, positively impacting
many people in our district.
We enacted historic protections
for tenants; protected
our environment by passing
the Climate Leadership and
Community Protection Act;
protected abortion rights by enacting
the Reproductive Health
Act; expanded the lifesaving
school speed-camera program; addressed
our imbalanced criminal justice
system by reforming our discovery
and speedy trial laws, eliminating cash
bail for misdemeanors and nonviolent
felonies, and decriminalizing possession
of small amounts of marijuana; reformed
our electoral process by authorizing early
voting and closing the LLC loophole;
took action to prevent gun violence by
creating Extreme Risk Protection Orders
and banning bump stocks and ghost
guns; strengthened laws prohibiting sexual
harassment and protecting equal pay
in the workplace; passed the DREAM
Act to make undocumented students
eligible for fi nancial aid; and stood up to
President Trump’s politically motivated
PROGRESS REPORT
COURTESY BRAD HOYLMAN’S OFFICE
State Senator Brad Hoylman, center,
with Assemblymember Richard
Gottfried, to the left of him,
standing with tenant activists.
pardons by closing the “double jeopardy”
loophole.
The state Senate passed 53 bills for
which I was the lead sponsor. I’d like to
tell you about some of them.
The Child Victims Act: The former
Senate Republican majority talked a big
game about protecting crime victims,
but it took the new Senate Democratic
majority to pass legislation I carried
with Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal
that the Republicans blocked for years:
S.2440, the Child Victims Act, which
allows people who were sexually
abused as children to seek justice
against their abusers.
The TRUST Act: Last month,
Governor Cuomo signed into law
my bill S.5072A, the TRUST
Act, which enables New York
to furnish state tax returns of
elected offi cials — including the
president of the United States —
to requesting congressional committees.
Protecting Hudson River Park: A
bill I sponsored with Assemblymember
Richard Gottfried, S.6281A, will help
Hudson River Park save millions in insurance
costs in the wake of the Oct. 31,
2017, terror attack on the Hudson River
bikeway and spend more on the green
spaces we love, by requiring New York
to indemnify the park for any lawsuits
that arise out of incidents that occur
along the Route 9A bikeway and greenway
adjacent to the park.
Banning fl oating billboards: Another
bill that I sponsored with Assemblymember
Gottfried, S.6541A, bans fl oating
digital billboards from the state’s navigable
waters, including the Hudson and
East rivers.
L.G.B.T.Q. legislation: Thanks to
the new Senate Majority, the Senate
passed its fi rst L.G.B.T.Q.-specifi c legislation
since the 2011 Marriage Equality
Act. Bills I sponsored that passed both
houses include S.1047 (GENDA), which
I sponsored with Assemblymember Gottfried
and prohibits discrimination on
the basis of gender identity or expression
and covers transgender people under
the hate crime statute; S.1046, which I
sponsored with Assemblymember Deborah
Glick and bans so-called “conversion
therapy” of minors; and S.6573, which I
sponsored with Assemblymember Danny
O’Donnell and bans the so-called
“gay panic” or “trans panic” defense.
Protecting public health: Legislation
I passed to protect the public health of
New Yorkers included S.2994A, which
banned nonmedical exemptions to vaccination,
the abuse of which likely contributed
to this year’s outbreak of measles in
New York State; S.301A, which I sponsored
with Assemblymember Rosenthal
to discourage and reduce e-cigarette use
among minors; and S.439A, which limits
the use of fi refi ghting foam containing
PFAS chemicals.
Hoylman is state senator for the 27th
District (Upper West Side, Hell’s Kitchen,
Midtown, Hudson Yards, Chelsea,
Greenwich Village, Hudson Square,
Noho, East Village, Stuyvesant Town/
Peter Cooper Village)
Mt. Sinai is transforming care Downtown
BY DR. JEREMY BOAL
Modern healthcare is evolving.
No longer are monolithic
hospitals sustainable or even
desired. Nationwide, hospitals are closing
at a rate of roughly 30 per year, as
healthcare turns to new models that
focus on keeping patients out of hospital
beds and in ambulatory, outpatient
settings. In response, hospitals need
to be nimbler and more adaptive, and
founded in the technological and medical
advances of today.
That’s why, at Mount Sinai, we are
building a new $1 billion vision and
platform for care in Downtown Manhattan.
This vision is centered around
a new, state-of-the-art Mount Sinai
Beth Israel (M.S.B.I.) hospital, but
this transformation does not stop at
its doors. Instead, we are investing in
services and programs that reach into
the community to serve you where you
need it most: close to home.
Last week, this vision took a major
step forward as we fi led Certifi cate of
Need (C.O.N.) applications with the
New York State Department of Health
for the new M.S.B.I., an enhanced and
fully integrated New York Eye and Ear
Infi rmary of Mount Sinai and a new
Mount Sinai Comprehensive Behavioral
Health Center.
The new M.S.B.I. will feature all-private
inpatient beds, cutting-edge cardiac
and neurologic interventional services,
an operative platform, and a state-ofthe
art emergency department. The facility
will be integrated with the New
York Eye and Ear Infi rmary of Mount
Sinai (N.Y.E.E.) — a nearly 200-yearold
institution that provides world-class
care and education in ear, nose, throat
and ophthalmologic care. This integration
will enhance and revitalize services
available at N.Y.E.E., including a 24/7
eye trauma emergency department and
access to state-of-the-art imaging, pharmacy
and laboratory services.
Alongside the construction of the
new hospital, we are also making the
single largest private investment in
behavioral health in New York’s history
— a $140 million commitment to
create the Mount Sinai Comprehensive
PHOTO BY CLAUDIA PAUL/COURTESY MOUNT SINAI
Dr. Jeremy Boal, president of
Mount Sinai Downtown.
Behavioral Health Center. As one
of the city’s largest mental healthcare
providers, we fi rmly believe that treatment
of mental illness and substanceuse
disorders is critical to improving
the overall health status of all our communities.
This one-stop setting for psychiatric,
addiction, physical health and
social-service needs will be located on
the Lower East Side (in the former Rivington
House) and connect our Downtown
patients with a holistic model of
care that preserves all the existing behavioral
health and addiction services
that M.S.B.I. currently provides — and
adds nearly a dozen more.
Our existing Union Square facility,
which is currently being renovated,
co-locates over 30 unique specialty
practices. And, in addition, it recently
opened the Martha Stewart Center for
Living, as well as a new seven-day-aweek
urgent-care program.
The transformative nature of this
plan is in the interconnection of our entire
river-to-river network of 20 separate
locations below 34th St. This represents
an entirely new approach to the
delivery of care for New Yorkers, and
our commitment to adapt our health
system to make sure our patients can
get the care they need, when and where
they need it.
Boal is president, Mt. Sinai Downtown,
and executive V.P. and chief clinical
offi cer, Mt. Sinai Health System.
Schneps Media TVG August 1, 2019 15