Delivery Delay
WestView News continues to excel with the writing of its contributors. Brian Pape’s piece in the May issue on Michael Sorkin, an outstanding exponent of sound city planning, was exemplary on two counts. It celebrated the contributions of a talented mind, and also showed the deep and informed knowledge of Brian who has a wealth of facts at his fingertips to share with us.
I would have responded sooner, but unlike the apartment dwellers who receive their free hand-delivered copies on the first of the month, I, being a mere paid subscriber, receive mine at the end of the month and I do not read them right away.
—Barry Benepe
Thank you Barry for your kind words about WestView but let me explain why you, a paying subscriber, get your paper after your neighbors get their free copy delivered by Tim and Steve right to your lobby.
The Post Office will only give us First Class status if fifty percent of our distribution is a paid subscription so we ask our loyal “free” readers to subscribe so everyone can get overnight delivery. To subscribe right now go to westviewnews.org and click “subscribe”
—George Capsis
Notable Articles in WestView News
To the Editor:
This is about two well-written articles by Messrs. Stanley Wlodyka Jimenez (“A Nobel Laureate Crying Out in the Wilderness”) and Drew Davis (“The Last Stand of St. Vincent’s: Healthcare Heroes in Another Pandemic”), both in the June, 2020 issue.
First, in part of Mr. Jimenez article, he notes Nobel Laureate Paul Romer’s 2009 Charter Cities proposal. He describes it this way: “Criticized by some who viewed it as ‘neo-colonial,’ the charter cities proposal called for developing nations to invite outside investors to build cities within their borders that would be exempt from the host country’s laws and constitution.” The author writes that the project failed in Honduras, the first country where it was planned, because of the corrupt government. However, on the face of it the proposal was outrageous because of the plan to sidestep a country’s own laws and constitution. Also, the United States is notorious for having its big corporations get their greedy hands in other countries for their own profit at the expense of the countries themselves; they are leeches. The great Chilean poet Pablo Neruda described this in a poem once. We’ve already seen what havoc their greed creates. The profiteers should get out and stay out.
Drew Davis’s article vividly describes the courage of the St. Vincent’s administrators in accepting patients stricken with AIDS at a time when other hospitals would not. My only disagreement is with his statement that St. Vincent’s finally closed because it ran out of money. There are indications that the corruption of both politicians and hospital administrators, plus the greed and power of the developer Bill Rudin, brought about the downfall of this great, irreplaceable hospital. Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance investigated it briefly and told the New York Post the hospital administrators ran the hospital into the ground (I’ve heard they brought in a whole raft of do-nothing consultants drawing million-dollar salaries, for instance) because they wanted out, and nobody stopped them. After this he fell silent. Nothing more was said. Somebody needs to blow the lid off the whole rotten deal, and let no guilty person escape.
—Carol F. Yost
Bad Advice?
George, thank you for yet another great issue of WVN.
I am concerned about a health article that I think if anything should be considered an ad—Find Your Sparkle and Supercharge Your Immunity, written by Timothy Stahl. He tells vulnerable people, an audience who is now afraid of a deadly virus, how he can help people boost their immunity, and gives his contact information to set up an appointment. “If you are coachable, let us set up a free twenty minute immunity consultation by phone or computer and discuss how I can assist you towards better health; physically, mentally and emotionally. Check out my website at www. timothyericnutrition.com. You can also sign up for an appointment on my Facebook business page at TEN, Timothy Eric Nutrition.”
Take a look at another site that doesn’t speak in that way, actually it warns people to watch out for such “promises.” www.nutritionaction.com/daily/immunity/foods-immunity-whats-the-catch/
I’ve been taught to watch out for “health articles” that have something to sell.
Thank you for running Dr. Alec Pruchnicki’s pieces, which to me are sound medical advice and articles appropriate for WVN readers.
—Joy Pape
MSN RN FNP-C CDCES (CDE) FADCES
Clinical Nurse Practitioner
Medical Advisor-WestView News
Inadequate Staffing for Nursing Homes
Dear George,
I am only 1/3 of the way through the June WestView News, and already it is so full of thoughtful articles and information I don’t get anywhere else! Thank you so much. I am especially interested in the “Mayday” article on page 3 and 10; how can the funds be “out of money” when this shutdown of businesses is barely three months old!? I love James Drougas’s bookstore on Carmine Street and would hate to see it go. It’s full of life and ideas!
The rest of this letter is for Gail Evans, and her article on aging on page 15. Dear Ms. Evans: I was so interested in your article on aging; “inadequate and ill-prepared staffing” hardly does it justice. My husband had a stroke in 2011, and was sent to recuperate to a nursing home in the Ditmars section of Brooklyn. On his second day there, a single aide working alone woke him up and sat him up in his very high bed, then remembered she had something to do by the sink and left him there on the side of the bed, with no one watching him. While she was at the sink, he fell asleep again and fell over and down, hitting his eye and head on the floor. What a thing to do to a stroke victim!!
They called me, and I had to go to Methodist Hospital, where they had sent him. (This was after my husband had already spent weeks in Beth Israel.) We never went near that awful nursing home again, and he spent the rest of his recuperation at the Hopkins Center in downtow Brooklyn.
So you are correct: there are awful nursing homes that don’t train their staff, and that send one aide to do a two-person job. Stay away from them if you can!!!
— Jane Heil Usyk
Donation for WestView
Hi George,
I recently sent you a donation of $25. I didn’t mean it as a subscription because I always get my copy of the WestView News in my lobby. This week I received a copy in the mail as well. I am hoping to send you another donation soon, but in the meantime, please save the postage for at least one paper —I’ll get mine in the lobby.
Thanks and I’ll tell you yet again how much I look forward to reading each issue and how glad I am we have your voice speaking out.
—Diane Martella
Correction
Dear George,
Please note that in the section entitled “LGBTQ Life…” in the June issue of WestView News, the APA removed homosexuality from its diagnostic list in 1973, not 1975.
Thank you, as always, for the great work you do getting this periodical out to your appreciative neighbors.
—Ron Hellman, MD
129 Barrow Street
