East Sacramento Improvement Association

MERCY! PLEASE STOP!

May 17, 2003

In my last article I reported on Mercy Hospital?’s recently announced plans to build their new Spanos Cardiac Center. As the details of Mercy?’s intentions sink in, it?’s truly enough to give you a heart attack. In its original description of the project approximately a year ago, the new cardiac center was to be achieved without changing the present footprint for the hospital. This is no longer true. And that is the heart of the problem.

Mercy now says it must have a new parking facility, several stories in height, and that it must trespass on the surrounding community to satisfy these parking needs. As Mercy sees it, there are only two options: 1) relocate Sacred Heart Elementary for their new parking structure, moving the school to west of 39th Street (removing several houses on 39th Street and H Street in the process); or 2) take out houses on 39th Street and H Street to put their parking structure on the block west of 39th. This proposal is as unimaginative as it is unfortunate. It will require the removal of several houses, one of which is reportedly more than 100 years old. It will also impose a towering presence and noise on the backside of 38th Street and H Street neighbors, potentially making their homes less desirable and harming property values. Ultimately, the project paves the way for Mercy to ?“break the block?” west of 39th street by destroying its remaining residential intactness, making it suitable for still greater hospital expansion.

Is all this really necessary? If you believe the things that Mercy says to reassure the neighbors, it certainly wouldn?’t seem so. Mercy says that the number of hospital beds that result from its new project will be basically unchanged, and that the number of employees at the hospital will be unchanged. This is how they attempt to persuade us that there will be no traffic impact from the project. But if we are to believe these statements, what is the urgent need that would justify such an incursion on the surrounding neighborhood? Mercy would tell us that it is to satisfy an existing parking need for their employees, so they won?’t park on our residential streets. Amazingly enough, this is all for our sake!

No Thanks, Mercy. Small wonder that neighbors aren?’t buying it, because it doesn?’t make sense. Mercy can give us parking relief by donating its existing property west of 39th (the now abandoned Mercy Care facility) to surface employee parking. They can get 50 to 100 spaces out of that existing area without bothering the rest of the block. Leave the rest of the block entirely alone. Whatever Mercy thinks it is doing, it must stop and think again. If Mercy thinks it needs to expand and wreck the neighborhood, let?’s begin with a top-down analysis of what the hospital?’s needs really are, and what alternatives exist. And Mercy should cease its efforts to push Sacred Heart toward relocation until such an initial planning analysis has unfolded. Such a process should include the neighborhood associations, the school, the church, and others. Don?’t just patronize the community with an invitation to comment on the appearance of the buildings. ESIA will be having a general membership meeting on March 19 at 7p.m. at David Lubin Elementary School cafeteria. There, to the familiar drone of the cafeteria freezers, Mercy representatives will explain their plans. Come if you can and be polite, if you can. In the meantime, please let our councilman, Steve Cohn, know your views on this matter, and the mayor for good measure. Oh yes, be sure to tell Mercy as well.