I'm actually not a huge fan of the Participatory Budgeting process. When it works it works, but a lot of good ideas don't get funded because they're not "popular" enough. However, in the case of our councilman Mathieu Eugene it would be a HUGE improvement. Why should Kings County hospital get millions of dollars (every year) from Eugene when so many other capital projects go unfunded? How about gymnasiums and youth centers and park projects and you name it. The hospital is a borough-wide enterprise. Why should we foot such an enormous bill?
Oh, right. Eugene got elected by his steadfast support of the Hospital's unions. And management. Lots and lots of folks work there.
Seriously, can you imagine how much great stuff we could do for $2.8 million?
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I remember being at a "town hall" meeting he held a few years ago and asking him about participatory budgeting, to which he replied, "My entire budget is open! Participatory budgets don't cover all the money the councilman has. I tell you everything." Whatever.
Sorry, I would rather that hospital get the funds. Kings is the only Level 1 trauma center in Brooklyn, it is where the cops and firefighters are briought after traumatic injury. For other needs, Brooklyn desperately needs its hospitals to better than they are. We have to travel over an hour to Manhattan to get to better hospitals and doctors and that is ridiculous. The situation with hospitals and schools in Brooklyn is dire.
Kings County is also the best place to go for GSW - cases are brought in from all over. It is also funded by the City and State; why is Mathieu Eugene spending his discretionary funds here? Is it because of a funding shortfall from the other bodies that are supposed to fund it?
Lutheran and Brookdale are level 1 trauma as well, for the record.
Anon 7:40. You misunderstand me. It's not that the hospital shouldn't get the money. It's that it shouldn't come at the expense of the district's many capital needs.
That our councilman spends his time brandishing oversize checks rather than attending to the needs of the community...grrrrr. Have you seen him lately? I sure haven't. Not even a rep from his office at CB9 meetings. Or any other meeting for that matter.
It's worse than ever, and the sad part is if an election were held today he'd probably STILL win. That's what he gets for calling himself a doctor (he doesn't practice) ingratiating himself to the hospital unions and giving piddly checks to every church he can.
You're right Anon 7:40-
"The situation with hospitals AND SCHOOLS in Brooklyn is dire"
The problem is, Eugene leaves no room to address anything else. Not the lack of after school programs, or lack of books/materials....nada. The money is spent paying for his votes and the rest of us have to deal with his shoddy "leadership" and make do with the same amount of nada we had before.
True leadership would require finding a balance in order to more equally distribute funds.
Portions of the discretionary budget could have gone to Doe Fund volunteers so our streets are clean. How about free legal representation for tenants? Or Parkside Playground which Eugene claims to have "saved"? My list can go and on, but I guess its a mute point since he still has to pay for his votes.
Mr CF,
Can you be more specific about the councilman giving tax money to churches? And for what purposes?
It's entirely possible that doing so is simply illegal. If money goes directly for a soup kitchen it's one thing. If it's to buy bibles or torahs or print preachy pamphlets that's something else...
(I wasn't able to find any info about this topic. The councilman's online presence couldn't be more generic.)
Hey, Q, he came out to the recent Parkside Empire meeting and, as usual, talked about how busy he was but wanted us to know that he totally supports local businesses! After all the nonsense going on at CB9 meetings with MTOPP he's maybe actually right to avoid that stench, although it's not helping us any. This way no-one can say he's come out for the other side.
Diak: There's nothing illegal. He gives money to senior and youth programs and soup kitchens, all things that are technically NOT religious. But c'mon. It's in a church.
To be clear I have no problem with that stuff. It's just that when you give to a popular church, that's a LOT of voters right there. The right disposition and demographic to actually VOTE. That's the really sad part. How few people vote, especially otherwise well-informed intelligent people who simply don't show up.
Can we depose him or like petition him out of office? Btw, this is his last term right?
In addition to the churches there are so many "charities" in this district where most the money goes to pay salaries for its founders. So in other words, not really a charity. Like the charity Eugene founded with his brother, probably. The IRS needs to make it much more difficult to do that.
Are you kidding me? 2.8 million dollars on friggin CT scanners? That money could have gone to help improve pedestrian safety, traffic, youth centers, parks, job training programs. I am at a lost for words. I better stop before I go off. Unbelievable.
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