Clues to Monte’s real intentions

To the Editor: 

If anyone really wants to know what Montefiore Medical Center is trying to do in Riverdale, just take a look at the gigantic out-patient facility it officially opened this week in Pelham Bay. 

Yes, the mega-clinic there is much larger than what Montefiore wants to build on Riverdale Avenue — but it is situated in Hutchinson Metro Center, a 42-acre corporate park that is located right next to Hutchinson River Parkway, a major highway. That is where a mega-clinic belongs — not in the middle of a residential neighborhood where it would create parking and traffic nightmares.

In a New York Times article about the outpatient clinic at Hutchinson Metro Center, Montefiore boasted about how it expects to handle 300,000 patients a year with a staff of 500. This explains its refusal to provide us or Community Board 8 with a business plan and specific numbers regarding staff and patient visits for its proposed Riverdale mega-clinic. It also gives us a good idea of why Montefiore insists  the facility in Riverdale is not subject to review under a law passed by state Sen. Klein and Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz which requires a public forum to be held by the state health commissioner. 

Montefiore’s proposed mega-clinic on Riverdale Avenue is the wrong facility in the wrong place, and we urge Mr. Klein and Mr. Dinowitz to make every effort to get our governor and state health commissioner to enforce their law.

JIM GROSSMAN
Committee to Protect Riverdale