Mayor Thomas Demands Montefiore Upgrade Mount Vernon Hospital in the Wake of Recent Tragedies

Dear Mount Vernon,

Our hearts are broken with the tragic traffic accident involving one of our elementary school children who just wanted to travel and play. Drew Faustin was on the verge of “double digits” with his birthday next week and was looking forward to celebrating Mother’s Day with his mom. Though precious moments will never come to pass, we must lean into the lord and pray for the Faustin Family, his Graham School classmates, the Congregational Heights Church, and good Mount Vernon families.

I praise and thank the Mount Vernon Police, Fire, Empress Ambulance and Mount Vernon Hospital doctors who fought like hell to stabilize Drew enough to transport him to Jacobi where he later moved on.

The real fight for Mount Vernon is not with each other, but with those powers and principalities that decide about us, without us. Those responsible for moving health services and safety systems out of our city. This moment of truth must be marked not by Drew’s loss, but Mount Vernon’s gain of a real hospital that has respect for the people.

An uncomfortable reality must be confronted, that is, the lack of commitment to the people of Mount Vernon being matched by the lack of leadership of executives at Montefiore Hospital. Their decisions to not have full trauma services, cutting edge equipment or even a birthing clinic reveals that they simply do not care about common folk with common needs in our beloved community.

Hospital executives and their regulators owe it to the people of my beloved city to answer why we are treated like this. The love of money should not outweigh love of life. I would like to believe that there is no price on life; however, the price tag smacks you in the face when you walk into the hospital and do not see respectable chairs, hand sanitizer stations, adequate parking or basic supplies available. These cheap things can be corrected and must be addressed.

Montefiore — it’s past time to invest in Mount Vernon.

Governor Andrew Cuomo — please help make them make it happen for Mount Vernon.

Life is a gift and it’s not promised to any of us. This is why I waste no time in fighting hard for Mount Vernon all the time. For the past few years, political animus has prevented basic services from getting better, and history shows that the appeasement has never worked on political bullies locally or globally.

As we embrace the hurt and pain of Drew’s passing, my hope is that Mount Vernon residents continue to demand action and resist the enemy of political dysfunction. Political paralysis makes us weaker. It positions us to lose. It makes us miss opportunities. And the sad truth is there is such a thing as being too late.

For the sake of our children, City Council, Comptroller, all public officials work with me to change Mount Vernon for good.

We are stronger together and must unite to defeat the disinvestment in health and safety systems in our city by the well-established old guard. The future belongs to ordinary people and I vow to fight on to win the fight for the people. Join us and let’s use our collective energy to move Mount Vernon forward.

Here is what we can do together:

End “political animus” and policy delays. Enhance pedestrian safety and strengthen quality of life.

Let’s implement the #DriveSafeMV Campaign which targeted approximately $700,000 toward enhancing traffic safety in the city. This included Americans with Disabilities Act accessibility at key intersections, new digital traffic lights, litter cameras, speed bumps and other pedestrian improvements.

I propose we also install speed tables around all schools with digital speed traps, upgrade all traffic signs with flashing lights, and put pedestrian reflectors in the street to strengthen safety. This is the same proposal from 2016 and the cost to accomplish such has gone down.

We can do this, and we can do it now! Let’s go!