Mr. Phillips' "Counterpoint" claim that opposition to
placing a new hospital in Downtown Utica is based on a notion that
"Utica isn't good enough" easily avoids important matters that Uticans
should think about. It also avoids the possibility that hosting the
facility may not be such a good deal: that Regional decision-makers
have found yet another way to dump costs associated with a regional
facility onto the backs of beleaguered Utica Taxpayers. There is little
dispute that we can use a new facility. The relevant questions are
"Where is the best place? And for what purpose?"
No
comfort is taken from the fact that a "professional firm" was hired to
survey different sites. That firm is Mohawk Valley EDGE: a regional
"economic development" agency supported with our tax dollars that is
also a "private" entity, shielding its activities from public scrutiny
and making it difficult to know whose interests it serves. EDGE has
seemingly made an industry of using public grants for "make work"
projects, often moving facilities from Point A to B with little to no
sustainable increase in jobs. Its efforts have often been to the
detriment of Utica. It has induced sprawl and has frequently required
massive infusions of local dollars for new infrastructure, which the
public will have to maintain forever. The Downtown Hospital appears to
follow the same "M.O." When it proposed Downtown as a possible hospital
site, EDGE ignored the Utica Master Plan, Zoning Ordinance, and Gateway
District regulations (the will of Utica's people). It literally
marketed to MVHS the properties of individuals and businesses without
their knowledge, as well as blocks of city street pavement without the
public's knowledge. Whose interests did these actions advance? Why did
EDGE presume it could market private property? Why did it presume that
it had the authority to make Utica planning decisions and change Utica
traffic patterns?
Public
Health Law Section 2825-b supplies the grant for new hospital
facilities. Its sole purpose is to strengthen and protect continued
access to health care services by funding projects that "consolidate
multiple licensed health care facilities into an integrated system of
care..." Several things suggest that officials are using the state's
money to advance a local private and/or political agenda rather than the
foregoing. Although the site determination held the greatest
consequences for the public both under this law as well as for other
reasons, EDGE offered Downtown to MVHS with NO PUBLIC INPUT. Afterward,
the discussion of alternate sites, particularly those that have bearing
on the law's purpose, has been deemed "out-of-order" because Downtown
was "a done deal." EDGE's studies, which supposedly compared alternate
sites, have been kept out of public view. MVHS/EDGE/local officials have
given the public no compelling health care-related reason to place the
project Downtown, while at the same time claiming that doing so would
somehow economically transform Downtown (which is not a consideration
under the law). Hospital officials are on record saying that they were
told that they HAD to choose Downtown or there would be no state money.
Since the legislation out of Albany does NOT expressly limit sites to
ones within Utica, EDGE/local officials appear to have conditioned their
assistance upon MVHS placing the facility Downtown rather than its
"back-up site" on the St. Luke's Campus -- and for purposes other than
those in the law.
Placing
the hospital Downtown will clean-up a handful of blighted buildings,
giving an appearance of "success" while generating years of "progress"
reports that will boost the media image of the politicians. It may also
temporarily benefit some Utica-based trade unionists during the
construction phase. However, belief that a Downtown Hospital would spur
economic development nearby is not credible because (1) hospital
complexes are largely self-contained with exhausted employees wanting to
go home after their 12-hour shifts, (2) earlier urban renewal projects
that concentrated employees into new office buildings failed to spur
other development, and (3) no studies have been offered to demonstrate
successes from this approach.
Wherever
the project is located, it will DECREASE hospital beds and jobs because
those are MVHS objectives of consolidation. Placing the project
Downtown, however, will additionally eliminate most of the jobs
associated with the 40 businesses that will be taken. Prior local
projects show that taking businesses causes most of them to permanently
close because the business owners' private wealth that is destroyed by
the wrecking ball is only partially reimbursed by the "market value"
received for real property. The spectacle of our government officials
actually cheering the destruction of private jobs -- for whatever reason
-- sends a chilling message to would-be investors in Utica.
The
economy of Utica and the region depends on the viability of its small
business sector. While most small business start-ups fail, chances for
long-term survival are improved if they are located in a "hub" with
other businesses nearby. Utica cannot lose 28 acres of its Central
Business District to a medical campus without threatening its future as a
place for small businesses to start and grow. This is a Regional loss
because suburban locations would be hard pressed to match the advantages
found in Utica's CBD for low costs, pre-installed infrastructure, and
close proximity to other businesses. This is particularly true now in an
era where investing in Downtowns has again become fashionable. It is
also particularly true for the Columbia-Lafayette corridor between Baggs
Square and the Brewery District because the choicest properties in the
latter neighborhoods have already been snapped up for redevelopment.
Placing
the hospital Downtown threatens Utica's future financial stability.
Ninety plus parcels will be permanently removed from the tax rolls,
while municipal services will be extended to new, non-paying
facilities. Uticans will have their taxes raised to cover (1) the lost
property taxes and service extensions, (2) the lost sales taxes from
taken businesses, (3) the City's share of a new parking garage, (4) a
substantial portion of the County's share, (5) replacement of the police
garage, and (6) costs for brownfield and infrastructure remediations.
EDGE's balance sheet that purports to show that local taxpayers can
afford the project leaves out many of these costs but includes
speculative revenue from new medical office buildings -- speculative
because the buildings are not currently proposed and because it is
unlikely that medical providers who built new facilities in places on
and near the St. Lukes' Campus, in South Utica, and in the Utica
Business Park will abandon those investments just to be near the new
Downtown Hospital.
Lastly,
moving the hospital from the St. Luke's Campus to Downtown will HARM
local health care by increasing the distance to the medical providers in
the aforementioned places. How does moving the hospital a couple miles
away from its rehabilitation facility and skilled nursing home on its
current campus foster "an integrated system of care?" Mr. Phillips'
argument that the existing St. Luke's facility must be closed while a
new hospital is built on that campus is belied by the fact that several
wings were added to the existing facility over the years with no
interruption in service.
In
sum, placing the new hospital facility in Downtown Utica will harm
Utica, Uticans, Utica businesses, and local health care. It is time to
focus on the purposes of the legislation and build where more grant
money will go toward health care. Build the new facility on the St.
Luke's Campus.
