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Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Changing Landscape of Brooklyn Part 2 (Hospitals)

During my last walking tour of downtown Brooklyn, I passed by this building, which is a condo development on the corner of Carlton Avenues and Greene Avenues:






It is an obscenity what they are asking for this building, which I suspect is a pre-capitalization on the Atlantic Yards/Nets Stadium project, which is only a few blocks away

Considering that the neighborhood is rich with history such as the old Brooklyn Eye & Ear Hospital, (see the old ad in a medical journal):



[Graduate Course in Ophthalmic
Plastic Surgery
The Brooklyn Eye and Ear Hospital will present
an intensive course in Ophthalmic Plastic
Surgery, April 24 through 26, 1974. For registration
and further information please contact
Dr. Vernon Dressier, Administrator, Brooklyn Eye
and Ear Hospital, 29 Greene Ave., Brooklyn,
N. Y. 11238.


or the old Adelphi Hospital at 50 Greene Ave (where this writer was born). Both are now high-end rentals/coops/condos. See the photo: and this headline in the New York Times of 1942:

"To stimulate interest among parents to purchase war stamps and bonds for their babies, the Adelphi Hospital, Greene Avenue and Adelphi Street, Brooklyn, held a baby health and beauty contest yesterday. Four "victory babies," winners in the competition, received paid-up war stamp books, which may be exchanged for bonds".



Now, both of these hospitals were in a simpler time: no stray bullets hitting innocent men, women or children, no medical malpractice claims or personal injury attorneys laying in wait at the entrance of the hospital. In fact, on Greene Avenue, one could leave ones door open in the early evening and nite in the summer to catch the breeze coming off of Fulton Street. Now, we have such behemoth-type hospitals such as Woodhull, which exist to only justify themselves. New York City government has taken going to the hospital for emergency care an adventure and it is no wonder that overbilling to medicare, New York personal injury, wrongful death and medical malpractice claims are through the roof in Brooklyn and the rest of New York.




A Photo of Woodhull Hospital


Up Next: Kings County Hospital

1 comment:

mdonnelly said...

I think I was a victory baby born in July 1953 at adelphi. The story was different in my mind. Not sure. I was a Gerber babyhood photo contest winner 2nd place. But I remember stamps of some sort? Green stamps from grocery ? A&P ?....do the names of the victory babies of Adelphi appear anywhere in history?! Thanks. I ea curious what it looked like.