To the editor,
Kenneth Langone is the chairman of the board of trustees at New York University Langone Medical Center. I am writing to you because I am sure that chairman Langone does not understand what is happening in Brooklyn, in his name, regarding the destruction of Long Island College Hospital and its replacement by luxury condominiums. I am sure that when he does understand 1) the devastating effect on emergency healthcare for 1.5 million Brooklynites, today and for decades to come and 2) the critical role New York University Langone Medical Center has played in this “property conversion,” he will do the good and right thing.
The solution: New York University Langone Medical Center can resuscitate and revitalize the Long Island College Hospital campus and provide a much-improved, 250 bed, full-service, acute care hospital and a full-service, acute-care emergency room, both of which existed just 17 short months ago. The request for proposals winner behind Fortis Property Group, which is planning to build luxury residences on the former medical campus, was going to do exactly that. New York University Langone could do this rapidly, efficiently and excellently, and be profitable — and become a beloved neighbor and not a hated intruder and enabler.
Jon Berall
Brooklyn Heights
The author is a physician and a former court-appointed ombudsman who monitored Long Island College Hospital as it closed.
