Victory Memorial Hospital – the same hospital you tell the EMTs to take you any place but – is now down to only 30 beds, and its Emergency Room’s days appeared numbered.
Victory, with over $100 million in debt – much of it attributed to financial mismanagement by its previous board of directors – is currently in bankruptcy sale proceedings.

The front runner to buy the facility, with a bid of $42 million, is a long-term care facility operator.

Despite the legal efforts of Councilman Gentile, Congressman Fossella, and State Senator Golden – who claim closing Victory’s ER will creates an unacceptable strain on the area’s other three local hospitals – the state has refused to reconsider the DOH commission’s recommendation.

In all likelihood, the hospital will be totally shutdown within 60 days.

With $30 billion in Medicaid/Medicare spending no match for a 20% markup on dry goods – Keyfood of Bay Ridge will close its doors to make way for yet another chain drugstore, reports today’s Daily News.
In a neighborhood that once boasted such mom ‘n’ pop pharmacies as “Bay Ridge Pharmacy,” and a healthy variety of supermarkets – Bay Ridge appears nowhere near a saturation point of chain druggists such as the dreaded Rite Aide that, at best, offers painfully slow checkout and no customer service.

When Bay Ridge loses the 94th street Key Food, it’ll leave Foodtown of 91st street as the only other Bay Ridge supermarket equipped with parking, and only the 3rd supermarket left in the Bay Ridge area – south of 65th.

Foodtown – which recently purchased the old Short Ribs/Blue Claw building next door – is rumored to have plans of razing the building to construct expanded multi-level parking.

Just last year, local residnets’ market hopes were raised when rumor had it the Duane Reade of 4th avenue and Senator Street would close and become a Waldbaum’s.

Instead, it became closeout store – “American Place.”

Just two months after local restaurateur and accountant, Paul Mento, was found dead at the Gregory – an unidentified Asian woman was found stabbed to death Friday afternoon, in the same Bay Ridge hotel.
Unlike Mento – whose death was ruled a suicide after he was found in his hotel bathroom bound with duct tape – the unidentified female victim was found with a knife in her chest, and a suicide note.

The latest victim is the Hotel Gregory’s 3rd DOA in less than 4 months, and second suicide since the 52-yr old Mento last February.

In December, 27 yr-old David Diaz of 5th avenue was found stabbed at the Gregory – 20 year-old Pamela Hanson was arrested and charged with his murder.

Preparations for the demolition of Bay Ridge’s beloved Green Church appear underway, as scheduled, with demolition sheeting cloaking a backhoe beginning the painstaking work of exhuming 211 bodies buried in a crypt on church grounds.

Meanwhile: Committee to Save the Green Church chairperson, Kathy Walker, and local preservationist, Victoria Hofmo – who’ve both lead the ‘effort’ to save the Church – are apparently being sidelined by rank and file among the Bay Ridge Community Council, who, at their last meeting, were shouted down after Hofmo’s presentation to the civic group.

Walker and Hofmo – the self-appointed leaders of Bay Ridge’s preservation movement – bet their entire campaign on their ability to, literally, drum up awareness for this important community issue with weekend ‘protest’ marches, such as the one’s covered by local lampoon filmmakers, Bay Rizz.

Lefty has more on the Gentile two-step, and what we can expect after the congregation fulfills their contractual obligation.

For those still on the fence about Global Warming – sharply rising beer prices will likely make believers out of all of you.

Bay Ridgites can expect a 10-15% jump in prices at their local tap this summer; the result of under-performing crop yields throughout Europe – thanks to droughts in Australia, flooding in Germany, hailstorms in the Pacific Northwest – all of which scientists say is a direct result of global warming.

Rising temperatures will continue depleting barley yields, while industry insiders say the price of hops is likely to skyrocket as much as 200%, with malt expected to make a 50% jump in the next few months, according to Gothamist.

It’s unlikely the increase will have much of an effect on ‘Bar Ridge’ faithful, who are likely to structure the cost of frost-brewed goodness, much the same way they do the rising cost of light crude – one fill-up at a time.

Today – Bay Ridge retail giant, Century 21, prepares to break ground on 279 units of additional parking and expanded retail space, in a ceremony that includes Bay Ridge’s most prestigious business and civic leaders: Councilman Vincent Gentile, 5th avenue/86th street BID chairman Pat Condren, CB10’s Josephine Beckman, 68th Precinct Commander Eric Rodriguez, among others.
Pat Condren, doing his usual soft-shoe for all things retail, bills the retailer and its plans as:

“… a community-minded business and the largest corporate retail contributor to the 86th Street Bay Ridge BID… We’re happy about the additional retail space and the new parking garage coming here. The garage will help relieve parking and traffic congestion. The expanded store space will entice even more shoppers to shop Bay Ridge rather than going to Staten Island and New Jersey, when they can get what they want right here.”

Not all residents share in Mr. Condren’s ambitions for Bay Ridge.

To most Bay Ridgites, Century 21 is considered not only the cause of the very congestion they now seek to remedy, but cite tone deaf local pols’, and business leaders’ pathological obsession with keeping the mega-retailer happy as reflective of their broader attitudes on the future of Bay Ridge’s development – both commercial and residential.

It’s worth noting that Century’s expanded parking facility is in addition to 86th streets massive, underutilized(?) Municipal Parking Facility on the corner of 5th avenue between 86th and 85th street *on the site of the old bowling alley, next door to Legacy Suite.

full article from Brooklyn Eagle

Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Church will be holding a bone marrow testing drive for 8 month old baby Anastasia Sonia Madimenos, Sunday, April 20th, from 1pm – 5:30pm.

On December 7th of 2001, Anastasia was diagnosed with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia and has been undergoing life saving chemotherapy to cure her of this rare blood disease.

For more information on Anastasia and upcoming events, visit: Foundation for Anastasia

For further details on Sunday’s event, contact Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Church: 718-836-3510

Police are crediting a watchful neighbor for thwarting yesterday’s attempted burglary of a Ridge Boulevard home on 78th street, yesterday afternoon.
The 68th precinct, NYPD aviation, and SWAT responded to the neighbor’s 911 call, which lead to the capture of Jorge Rodriguez, 27, who according to the Brooklyn Eagle:

“was allegedly found with heroin, drug paraphernalia and a stolen check in his possession at the time of his arrest. According to police, he has an existing record, having been arrested a month ago on drug charges.”

The Ridge Boulevard Victorian home is owned by well known neighborhood proprietor of 5th avenue’s Indoor/Outdoor Garden Nursery, Helena De Paola, who was having brunch at 3rd avenue’s Pegasus Restaurant when alerted of the break-in and arrest – according to the Eagle.

She arrived on scene just as police took Rodriguez into custody, following his surrender from the home.

Photo credit: Brooklyn Eagle

Nearby residents and our own local blogger, Lefty, spotted NYPD aviation hovering at very low altitudes above 78th street and Ridge Boulevard, this morning – around 11am.
Gothamist is reporting it as a ‘perp search.’

It remains unclear what the perp was being sought for.

Bay Ridge’s United Methodist ‘Green Church,’ sold to developer Abe Betesch of Abeco Management for 9.5 million dollars, may be in play again – according to the Brooklyn Eagle.

The Eagle is reporting a listing for a ‘corner property’ on Ovington and 4th avenues, initially offered by Dakota Realty, then pulled in less than 24 hours because ‘the broker didn’t want to get involved.’

It would appear that even in a neighborhood such as Bay Ridge, long considered by its real estate ‘leaders’ as immune from such dirty words as ‘recession,’ Mr. Betesch’s 50 unit project has been relegated to the same fate of his Atlantic Yards counterpart, Bruce Ratner – falling under the weight of tumultuous global credit markets and thinning demand for new housing.

The Church has been locked in a caustic battle between local preservationists and the church’s dwindling congregation over the sale, contingent on the demolition of the Church.

Preservationists have charged the congregation with unsubstantiated wrongdoing, incompetence, ‘lying’ – while attacking the wisdom of the deal that has been made.

While it’s debatable how ‘good’ of a deal this was, the congregation has argued that it is their deal to make.

It remains to be seen if Betesh’s bid to flip the property in any way halts plans for demolition.

more from: Left in Bay Ridge