By Curtis Skinner 12/06/12 1:50pm

sick day

Beth Israel Hospital. (Violette79/Flickr)

Beth Israel Hospital’s Clogged Emergency Room IS the Emergency

The sign at the entrance to Beth Israel Medical Center on First Avenue at 16th Street screams “EMERGENCY ROOM,” but five hours into her wait to be seen for sharp pain in her ribs, it didn’t feel that way to Yamira Velazquez.

Her regular hospital, Bellevue Hospital Center, shut down after Hurricane Sandy ripped through the northeast. So did both NYU Langone Medical Center and the VA Medical Center next door. Bellevue won’t reopen its emergency room until at least February. NYU and the VA have not yet announced dates.

And so, like thousands of others seeking immediate medical care, she ended up in the emergency room at Beth Israel, the last standing hospital for two and a half miles in any direction. Read More

By Ian Lamb 10/30/12 8:28pm

Frankenstorm

A zombified cell phone cluster. (Ian Lamb)

People Clustering for Cell Phone Service, Pitch Black Hospitals Among the Oddities of Post-Sandy Manhattan

Special correspondent Ian Lamb tried to pitch in at Bellevue, but not being a doctor or a generator mechanic, he was turned away. Here is his report from the Middle to Lower East Side of Manhattan this afternoon.

There’s no power anywhere on the East Side until 42nd street. Drivers were surprisingly civil but it weirds me out. Every few blocks there’s a crowd of people who have found cell service; otherwise there is none. It’s all very 28 Days Later.

The whole of lower/downtown/LES manhattan was really creepy this morning. The weirdest thing was driving without any traffic lights or traffic cops. Everyone was being very respectful though, everyone stopped at every intersection. No animosity between pedestrians and drivers, for once. I think everyone was just in shock, though, because by the time I was driving out of Manhattan, everyone was back to being assholes. Read More

By Dana Rubinstein 4/15/10 9:44pm

Bellevue Redevelopment Officially Dead

The city’s controversial plan to redevelop the former Bellevue Psychiatric Hospital, now a homeless shelter, into a hotel and conference center is now officially dead… or at least in a very deep sleep.

On Thursday, Louise Dankberg, of the Bellevue Community Advisory Board, and Carol Ann Rinzler, of the Turtle Bay Association, sent out the following Read More

By George Gurley 8/15/05 12:00am

But Should We Get Married?

My and Hilly’s first session of couples therapy seemed to be going well; we’d already covered the issue of my irritability, for example. The session continued:

GEORGE: Why even bring that up? I don’t think there’s any reason to say I’ve yelled at my cat. I mean, you got me: I’m guilty. And you’ve seen Read More

By Lisa Dierbeck 4/12/04 12:00am

Then and Now, Bellevue Is A State of Mind

I’ve always been afraid of Bellevue. As a child, I pictured it as a crumbling castle full of shadows, secret passageways and catastrophes. Embarrassingly enough, even after living in New York for most of my life, I had no idea where the hell it was. Imagining someplace exotic, such as Staten Island or the Bronx, Read More

By NYO Staff 10/22/01 12:00am

Manhattan Community Board

Lower East Side Gets N.Y.U. Dorm Without a Fight

When you’re one of the hottest universities in the country-attracting 30,000 applicants a year for a mere 4,000 spaces-growth is inevitable. When that growth must take place downtown in a crowded city like New York, conflict is also virtually inevitable.

New York University-which has Read More