Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Fewer hospitals, more clinics (and bike lanes!)

From the Daily News:

QUEENS MAY BE running a little low on hospitals these days, but there seems to be an abundance of medical clinics and centers popping up around the borough.

North Shore Long Island Jewish Health System just opened an urgent care clinic in Rego Park to help alleviate the pressure on local emergency rooms.

North Shore also opened up two ambulatory centers of medical specialists in Flushing and Whitestone within the last few weeks. That's in addition to the other clinics that have been created within the past year or two.

"The establishment of new urgent-care centers is not intended to replace hospital emergency departments," said state Health Department spokesman Jeffrey Hammond in a statement. "Rather, they provide an alternative to a closed physician office or inappropriate use of emergency departments."

There is no official count of how many medical centers are in the borough, agency officials said.

But the state has awarded almost $50 million to Queens hospitals and health care institutions since the closure of St. John's Queens Hospital, in Elmhurst, and Mary Immaculate Hospital, in Jamaica, in March 2009.

North Shore received a $5.3million grant from the state to open its urgent care center in the former St. John's primary clinic on Queens Blvd.


WAIT!!! We have good news to report. Right outside St. John's, we may see a shiny new bike lane along Queens Blvd. Isn't that what's most important to us all?

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Speaking of bike lanes along Queens Boulevard, wasn't it just last year a bicyclist was crushed to death while proceeding east along the Boulevard-o-Death, whilst trying to squeeze between two truck? Yeah more bike lanes-o-death, thin out the herd.

Anonymous said...

Maspeth Mom says....

The more bike lanes we have, the more hospitals we are going to need - and cemetaries!!!

Anonymous said...

We don't have the hospitals because they went broke serving the illegals whenever they needed asprin and a warm place to sleep. Now bike lanes to serve who, illegals who work as food delivery folks on electric bikes?

It's our tax money to spend or not,I rather spend my own money than some idiot spending my money on foolishness. I know how to spend money I don't government to do it for me.

Anonymous said...

Sounds good to me. Bike lanes will promote a healthy lifestyle. My NY State and NYC tax bill can NO LONGER support unlimited carefree hospital access to everyone who chooses to live that lifestyle. Thank you.

Peter said...

What's with all the hostility against bicyclists??

I'd rather see more bikes, buses, and pedestrians than private cars, but I'm not wishing death on drivers.

Queens Crapper said...

Well, I agree the hostility has gotten out of hand, but a lot of times the routes these cyclists want are not practical. Queens blvd was built to be a highway, not a mall-lined street.

Anonymous said...

Queens Crapper is right. Queens Blvd is a highway. Pedestrians shouldn't walk there, why do they even have businesses aligned at the corridor.

Those who walk along the blvd and try to cross the street don't belong. I don't understand why it hasn't been closed off for cars only a long time ago!

Queens Crapper said...

Different types of vehicles - trucks, cars and bikes - mixing in traffic is a different safety issue than pedestrians crossing at lights where vehicles stop. We already know the bikes won't stop for them.

Anonymous said...

Who the FUCK is the asshole that is putting bike lanes on Queens Blvd.?

This moron will have blood on his hands.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous - I agree! We should not make Queens Boulevard function like an actual boulevard -- with a healthy, balanced mix of uses -- car lanes, bus lanes, bike lanes, greenery and broad, pleasant sidewalks. We should not try to be like the rest of the world. We are NYC! We are special! We demand traffic sewers that kill people, depress businesses, pump pollution into the air and water and prioritize speeding cars over people.. i mean, that's what a city's all about, right? Vast conglomerations of cars! Let us remain dysfunctional and angry, because that is what we are used to, we like being ignorant of history and basic urban planning principles, and we are scared of change.

Status quo forever!

Anonymous said...

Actually, you seem to be the one ignorant of history and urban planning. The country switched over from the bicycle in the late 19th century which is why we have so many roads - and with parking no less!

Anonymous said...

The whole Re-design of Qns Blvd from the beginning was a ploy to get more parking meter revenue from Queens residents,and not to remedy the pedestrian fatalities.

Anonymous said...

Other cities use pedestrian overpases to alleviate traffic, but our pedestrians consider themselves too important to be bothered.