April 30, 2025
Frustration, bitterness and accusations of callous disregard marked a final contentious public hearing by the Downstate Community Advisory Board April 28, as a deadline for the board’s report on the future of Downstate University Hospital fast approaches.
More than 100 attendees—mostly Central Brooklyn residents, Downstate medical students and clinical or academic faculty—vented their complaints at the DCAB’s fourth hearing about a process that the state insists has been a fair and full chance to let the community speak about the future of its beloved hospital.
Downstate supporters said otherwise.
Many speakers described the hearing and its three predecessors as highly orchestrated and tightly controlled forums in which DCAB members did not respond to direct questions or comments. Dozens of advocates held up paddle signs during nearly 90 minutes of public comments that read, “You’re not listening!” on one side and “You don’t care!” on the other. At times, Downstate supporters broke into chants in support of the hospital.
Public patience running thin
“You’re having meetings in between the meetings we know about,” said Karen Fleming, a Brooklyn resident and former president of a Transport Workers Union local, at the hearing, held in the auditorium of CUNY’s Medgar Evers College campus in Central Brooklyn.
As Fleming’s two-minute speaking period ended and Fleming continued to talk, moderator Oma Holloway of the ADENA Consulting Group tried to get Fleming to end her comments. Fleming sharply told Holloway, “I’m not finished,” and went on to tell the Advisory Board, “Today, you spent 45 minutes talking to us. We need to talk to you. We know what we need.”
UUP Downstate Chapter President Redetha Abrahams-Nichols has been a public face of the medical staff’s effort to save the hospital.
“As you see, I’m holding a sign, because this is how we feel—that you’re not listening and you don’t care,” Abrahams-Nichols said when she rose to speak. “We’re here talking about $1 billion? We need $2 billion!”
“I’m telling you right now we’re not going to stop until you break ground,” she continued. “This [process] is not working, this is not collaborative. You’re sitting on a stage looking down on us. You come to us with a plan and stop having these meetings.”
The $1 billion that Abrahams-Nichols referenced refers to the money that Downstate supporters hope will come to the hospital in the forthcoming state budget. Gov. Kathy Hochul placed $750 million for capital renovations and repairs to Downstate in her 20205-2026 Executive Budget. The Senate and the Assembly recommended an additional $250 million toward that end.
Fraught history of Advisory Board
Hochul announced the formation of the DCAB—which includes UUP President Fred Kowal and SUNY Chancellor John King Jr.—in late November 2024, months after the board’s creation was included in the 2024-2025 enacted state budget. An April 1 DCAB deadline to submit its report was subsequently pushed to June 1.
In the months after the DCAB was formed, a nonprofit advocacy group, Brooklyn for Downstate, also formed to present an alternative voice and alternative plans for the hospital’s future. Brooklyn for Downstate’s recommendations include a reduced number of beds at the hospital, but also major renovations, new construction and expanded preventative care through outpatient clinics. Click HERE to view the plan.
The DCAB is considering several proposals to renovate and revitalize Downstate University Hospital; click HERE to read them. At the meeting, Holloway, reading verbatim from a PowerPoint presentation, offered a pessimistic outlook for most of the proposals it has considered.
Public asks: What price a life?
That only served to fire up supporters. More than two dozen people rose to denounce the process, quote Scripture about caring for the poor and direct angry questions to DCAB members about whether their priority was money or people’s lives.
Brooklyn resident Hartwell Alleyne spoke for many when he stood at the mic and reminded board members that they carry a terrible responsibility as he asked them, “What is the price of a life?” Alleyne quoted a passage from Matthew in the New Testament in which Jesus tells his followers that “What you do to the least among you, you do to me,” and then Alleyne asked the board, “Where is your moral standard? Where is your moral code?”
Advisory Board members listened intently but did not respond to direct questions—although several offered reassurances during their introductory remarks or later in the hearing that despite accusations that they are not listening, they are taking into consideration public comments about the hospital.