The Ad Campaign: Quinn, Development Interests and the Closing of a Hospital

Critics of Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker, on Wednesday released an attack ad asserting that Ms. Quinn allowed St. Vincent’s Hospital in Greenwich Village to close three years ago. The critics’ political committee, called NYC Is Not For Sale 2013, says that its mission is to defeat Ms. Quinn’s mayoral bid and that it does not represent any particular candidate. Its leaders are from Local 1180, which represents communications workers; an animal rights group which opposes horse-drawn carriages; and Wendy Kelman Neu, chief executive of Hugo Neu Corporation, a recycling company. The ad is to air on television.

Click below to jump to a fact check:

• 0:08  Campaign Donations

  It is correct that Ms. Quinn’s potential mayoral campaign received donations from the Rudin company, from six Rudin executives who gave the maximum of $4,950 each, but the ad gets the total amount wrong. It was $29,700, not $59,400, according to the Campaign Finance Board. The ad’s sponsors conceded on Wednesday that they had double-counted the contributions, and said the mistake would be rectified. In 2007, the Rudins were selected to develop hospital property in a plan that the hospital hoped would bring in enough revenue to keep it solvent. But Ms. Quinn was not an unalloyed supporter, urging that the development be scaled down, as it ultimately was.

• 0:14  Rudin and Closing the Hospital

  A quotation flashed on the screen asserting that the Rudin plan led to the hospital closing is false. The hospital closed because it was $1 billion in debt and went bankrupt before any development could get off the ground. In the time of the budget crisis, neither the city nor the state offered St. Vincent’s enough money to bail it out. Ms. Quinn was part of a task force of public officials and labor leaders working with Gov. David Paterson that tried to save the hospital, and it would be difficult to apportion blame.

• 0:18  Effects of Closing

  The ad is replete with loaded language. It implies that people may have died because St. Vincent’s closed, but there is no evidence that this has happened, according to the Greater New York Hospital Association, a trade group. It does not mention that the hospital is to be replaced with a 24-hour emergency facility, scheduled to open in early 2014 and run by the North Shore-LIJ Health System. Ms. Quinn “played a major role” in establishing that facility, Kenneth Raske, president of the hospital association, said.

SCORECARD Ms. Quinn has depicted herself as a fighter for the people, including those in her Council district, where St. Vincent’s was located. But she has also taken tens of thousands of dollars from developers and other parties with interests near her Chelsea neighborhood, including Chelsea Market and Hudson Yards. The ad seeks to tie her to big money and development interests. In doing so, it packs an emotional punch, but under closer scrutiny, its assertions are not fully supported by evidence and documentation.

David W. Chen contributed reporting.