Hey all, to clear things up – last year I helped Jonah Evans and Eli Ackerman build the SaveCharityHospital website, buying the domain. But virtually all of the content on the site is theirs.

Frenemy, I guess my reputation proceeds me ;)

Monkeyboy, intersting article but perhaps poorly researched? I quick survey of the site or any of the posts would reveal the to main writers of the site. Also if you take a longer look at the site, it is quickly apparent that this is not some personal “opinion” blog, but a well researched, rigorous community advocacy effort. Eli Ackerman is a well respected investigative journalist on staff with the Lens, and Jonah Evans has been involved in several high profile community organizing efforts over the past few years. The amount of information and the detail with which they tracked this story, disrupts your ‘scale arithmatic.

LIke I said I think the overall point is interesting but that you picked a poor example and might not have looked into it very carefulle

[one word comment is irony]

On one side, Charity was allowed to languish without clean-up for some time, as if the State wanted as much damage possible in order to bolster the need for their McHospital Plan. Then there was the complete lockdown on press save for a few Charity personnel-guided tours which were tightly controlled and only went to specific areas, notably the basement level which flooded. I try not to be the Conspiracy Nut, but everything about the way the State has handled this issue screams collusion.

I’d love to know where the old equipment went. I seriously doubt it will be used in the new McHospital. Surely there are provisions for new Machines That Go Ping in the LSU Plan, but was the old equipment recycled? Sold to other care facilities? Destroyed?

I get the scale thing. I see Charity in one way and I only have my own scale to work from, but I have yet to hear from the other side as to why my scale is wrong. From the start LA/LSU has simply dismissed the Save Charity movement as reactionary, mis-informed, paranoid and simply wrong. That is, when they acknowledge them at all.

Lastly, the Packards used in the Indy 500 were slim, custom jobbies, not the road-yachts you’re probably thinking of. Regardless, even those cars never won an Indy 500 which speaks more to Packard’s engine department than their aerodynamics guys.

Sheesh. No wonder Loki fired you! :)

And I guess I should say at this point that I do hope they can save the building and find a suitable use for it. Architecturally, it would be a tragic loss. But even so, I don’t believe as a state of the art medical facility, it is a good choice.

My thinking on this is painfully simple: The building was constructed in 1939. So take a 1939 Packard; a beautiful and powerful car at the time it was built. Make any and all renovations to it you want but you have to use the same frame without modifying it, and try and win the Indianapolis 500.

I got about ten feet inside when the security guard stopped me. I told her I had heard that Charity was in danger of collapse/razing and wanted to get some shots of the lobby. You know, the cool floors and Art Deco lobby and all that. She referred me to Charity’s business office across the street. So I walked over and through the receptionist I was informed that unless I was a member of a Major Media Outlet I would not be allowed access because it was “too dangerous inside.” Funny, those worker ants seemed okay, and they had been there for a while judging by the amount of crap in those 18-wheelers…

Thanks for the info – I’ll note it in the post.

…but he doesn’t run the SaveCharityHospital.com website