Dear Editors:
Gary Tomei and the members of the Preserve the Village Historic District (PVHD) are proud that they limited the size of the condos on the St. Vincent’s site, helped establish the park across the street, and helped save the O’Toole Building.
But you know what they didn’t preserve? A 160-year-old tertiary care hospital.
When the wounded and bleeding St. Vincent’s Hospital came to the community in 2007, in a desperate, and possibly futile, attempt to save itself and continue serving our neighborhood, the PVHD, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP), and many individuals fought to stop it. Now, the hospital is gone, and we still have plenty of luxury apartments on that site.
They got a few less condos? Big deal.
The quality of life, and even the preservation of life, in our area would be much better served with a hospital rather than a massive luxury development of whatever height.
They are disbanding? Good riddance.
—Alec Pruchnicki, MD,
St. Vincent’s Hospital
Department of Medicine, 2003–2010
