Uneasy Rhetoric

Midtown’s hospital is going to get a lot bigger. The city council approved a plan for Sutter to spend almost half a billion dollars to build a regional medical complex centered around the current Sutter General Hospital. Furthermore, even though the complex will create major traffic hassles and bring loads of sick people downtown, according to the article in the Sacramento Bee, neighborhood associations are giving the project their “overwhelming support.”

From The Sutter expansion website.

The “Sutter Master Plan” also includes a revamped Trinity Cathedral as well as new space for Children’s Theater of California (and the B Street Theater, apparently). The plan also includes the requisite luxury lofts, as heckasac points out. I don’t know how much of what Sutter is calling an “urban village” will be Sutter funded and how much will come from other sources. However, Sutter appears to have developed good relationships with the locals.

I don’t think you can build a garage in downtown/midtown anymore without building luxury lofts. I think it must be in the development code now.

The Service Employees International Union opposed the expansion, because they have a long standing beef with Sutter Health. SEIU United Health Care Workers – West owns a website called “Sutter Corporate Watch” which documents problems with Sutter hospitals. SEIU’s opposition and scrutiny probably comes from long standing labor disputes with Sutter Health.

Certainly, I do not think the city council should have voted any other way than to support the expansion. The benefits of this expansion go well beyond health care. However, it wouldn’t hurt to call Sutter to task if there is evidence that they are funding this new “regional health center” by skimping on charity care (Sutter is a nonprofit).