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Children's Hospital seeks help on rebuilding through county-wide parcel tax

Original post made on Jan 28, 2008

Children's Hospital of Oakland, one of the country's largest and the only hospital and research center serving children exclusively in Alameda County, is asking voters to approve Measure A on Feb. 5.

Read the full story here Web Link posted Friday, January 25, 2008, 12:00 AM

Comments (6)

Posted by Jack Forder
a resident of another community
on Jan 28, 2008 at 10:22 am

Neighbors are very upset with the unplanned expansion of CHO.

For anyone who'd like information on why, please see the website for Livable Oakland:

www.livableoakland.com

Let's vote NO on Measures A and B and tell private corporations they'll have to look elsewhere for their expansion funds. Tax payer dollars should go to county hospitals, police, libraries and schools- not 193ft towers in low-key residential neighborhoods.


Posted by Susan Parker
a resident of another community
on Jan 28, 2008 at 4:23 pm

NO PUBLIC MONEY WITHOUT PUBLIC AND NEIGHBORHOOD INPUT!! Children's sprung this on our neighborhood and is now threatening eminent domain to home owners not willing to sell to them. How can a PRIVATE corporation get homeowners to pay for their EXPANSION and also take away their homes??? It is not a rebuild OR a retrofit. The money is going toward a monstrous 196-foot tower capped with a helicopter pad. Childrens Hospital serves clients throughout northern California and yet ONLY Alameda County residents and businesses are being asked to pay for it. IT'S NOT FAIR!!! Make Children's Hospital accountable to the residents of Alameda County. Vote NO on Measures A and B. Go to www.livableoakland.com for more info.


Posted by Yasmin
a resident of another community
on Jan 28, 2008 at 9:07 pm

Children's Hospital Oakland doesn't act like a public entity (it's a very closed institution) yet wants $300 million of our tax dollars.

It's secretive about its long-term growth plan, and has been creeping northwards for years, taking over homes and turning the neighborhood into its office space.

Children's never has done any community outreach in its own neighborhood. It presented its plan for a 12-story high-rise as a done deal at a community meeting where a couple of people discovered their homes were in the footprint.

Children's went around the backs of Alameda County supervisors to get Measure B on the ballot. They had to add Measure A because B would have been challenged in court

It's scary when a private enterprise uses eminent domain to take homes.

These are just some of the reasons to vote No on A and B


Posted by Anonymous
a resident of another community
on Jan 29, 2008 at 4:08 pm

I agree that the CHO should NOT use public funds. I oppose parcel taxes for this. I wish people in my neighborhood removed their YES on A signs.


Posted by Katina
a resident of another community
on Feb 3, 2008 at 2:34 pm


I am disappointed and saddened to see a private hospital with such an objectively positive mission behaving with the ethics and morals of a cigarette company.

The hospital snuck behind the County's back to put these Measures on the ballot. It then unveiled a plan to build a 200-foot tower with helipad in a neighborhood of single family homes - with no input from neighbors. It even plans to take homes by eminent domain to do it.

Worse, as a private entity, it wants taxpayers to fund this project for the next 35 years. What other private company will be lining up to use public tax money as its piggy bank?

The Board of Trustees of the Alameda County Medical Center has unanimously voted to oppose Measures A & B. This is $300 million we need to fund and retrofit our own County medical facilities like Highland, to fund police and fire services, to take care of abused and neglected children. County taxpayers already shoulder the burden of reimbursing the Children's Hospital for the Medi-Cal patients it treats. We should not pay for its decision to expand rather than do a smaller retrofit.

CEO Frank Tiedemann, Sr. VP Mary Dean, and Head of Trauma Jim Betts have all stated that the hospital will not leave Alameda County if these Measures fail. Yet, through their $1 million ad campaign, they continue to use vulnerable children to perpetuate the lie that they will.

We must demand that the hospital be a good neighbor. The hospital must treat Alameda County, its residents and its children with dignity and respect. And, like all other non-profits, the hospital should seek a private bond, not a public tax, to finance its projects.

We can demand this by voting NO on Measures A & B.


Posted by anonymous
a resident of another community
on Feb 5, 2008 at 10:19 pm

If Children's Hospital Oakland sees 60% of it's patients from Alameda County, of which a large percentage is uninsured, how is this not a public service.

This is our children.


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