April 18, 2017 - Today the Greater Utica Chamber of Commerce went public with a resolution supporting the downtown hospital concept. We have posted it below and offer rebuttals in "(red)".
RESOLUTION OF THE GREATER UTICA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE IN SUPPORT OF A NEW INTEGRATED HEALTH CARE FACLITY/CAMPUS IN DOWNTOWN UTICA
WHEREAS; the Mohawk Valley Health System has proposed building a new, free standing hospital in downtown Utica creating a new health campus for the region, (they also approved building this new facility at St. Luke’s where they today own 64 acres. Note, they say a “health campus”, but it’s a “hospital”, plain and simple - a large inner-city hospital district!) and
WHEREAS; the New York State Government, under the leadership of Governor Andrew Cuomo and area legislators including Senator Joseph Griffo, Assemblyman Anthony Brindisi and Senator David Valesky have committed and recently awarded $300 million (the legislation reads this is not a pot of cash, it will be a new “30-year bond”, not a gift, it just taxpayer debt with additional interest and fees to be added) to the project which is also endorsed by Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente, Jr. and Utica Mayor Robert Palmieri (the majority of voters don’t seem to want the downtown plan, and seem to say the hospitals we have are not run very well. So why do politicians vote to bulldoze downtown and push out 40 current businesses?) , and
WHEREAS; the new facility would replace the two aging hospitals that are St. Elizabeth Medical Center (are there any code violations? Some people say they love this hospital, and many parts of it are much, much, newer than 100 years old.) , which is 100 years old and the St. Luke’s Campus of Faxton St. Luke’s Healthcare which is nearly 60 years old (The majority of this hospital is very new. There is a brand new senior home and a $15 million dollar co-generation power plant next door, and the campus has 64 acres, plenty of land as they’ve been buying land there to expand for years!) and would lead the way for a new regional state of the art integrated healthcare campus with all private patient rooms (Private room are a plus, but built at St. Luke’s the views will be better and the air will be better, it is up on a green hilltop!) and be only the third new hospital built in New York State in the past twenty five years (Odd statement! So does this mean that all the areas of the entire New York - without new hospitals - must build new ones ASAP? This statement seems to brag at fact we’d have a new building, meanwhile so many things that are important to the concept are fully unknown!), and
WHEREAS; there is an increasing number of retiring physicians in our community, the new downtown hospital will assist with the recruitment of young physicians and other healthcare professionals who wish to practice at a the new state-of-the-art (“hospital”, they dropped that word… they can just as well be attracted to a new hospital at St. Luke’s and Faxton, and still live downtown, and under 2 mile drive or bike, or ride on a city bus!) as well as desire to live within walking distance to work, restaurants, and entertainment venues, (The proposed downtown hospital would destroy a large part of our little “metro center”, so doctors and nurses will have a much less interesting downtown to visit and or live in. Also where it was proposed, the hospital would divide-up many of our newly redeveloping neighborhoods.) much like larger metro medical centers, and
WHEREAS; the new regional medical center would affiliate with academic teaching centers that would enhance and expand medical providers in our area and support continued recruitment, (This statement is meaningless; now being accomplished at our current hospital locations, it has nothing to do with a downtown location. In fact, the St. Luke’s Campus is opposite Utica College, so “educational synergy” is better at the current campus.) and
WHEREAS; the new hospital would support and enhance the revitalization of downtown Utica (NO! Urban Renewal is a failed concept, it would hurt downtown!) and the entire Mohawk Valley Region (Total bunk! A new hospital at any location in and around downtown would have the same outcome on the “Mohawk Valley Region”) and complement the growing number of economic initiatives in the area including, but not limited to, nanotechnology (Nano is in Marcy, moving hospital 1.75 miles North is an improvement) , research (what research?) , education (Utica College is next door to the St. Luke’s Campus, downtown move hospital away from education) and business development (what does that mean?) , and
WHEREAS; the Mohawk Valley Health System has assured our board of directors that our member businesses located within the new facility’s footprint will receive fair market value for their properties (Fair market value is not enough to relocate a business, and maybe these business want to keep their location, and what about brownfield implications?) , and
WHEREAS; the Mohawk Valley Health System has offered a forum to be conducted in 2017, available exclusively to the membership of the Greater Utica Chamber of Commerce, to educate them on the many aspects of this project (Why two years later, and what would it do to change anything?) , and
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED; the Board of Directors of the Greater Utica Chamber of Commerce is in full support of the proposed new hospital in downtown Utica as it will provide for the transformation of healthcare (No, wastes healthcare dollars, so healthcare will not be better transformed!) for the entire region (how does a new building for sick people transform a region?) as well as support the growth and economic development of our communities (How? Please give examples..) . Approved April 11, 2017
Please return for more in the coming days and months ahead. Have a lead or insights on the Chamber, please send us an E-mail Message
