for Monday February 28th

One of the Mercy officials talked about landscaping at last Wednesday's neighborhood meeting. Someone pointed out the landscaping has all ready started. With ponds and red flamingos. The one bird isn't doing so well and he was so close to the emergency room. Click to enlarge.

for Friday February 25th

My Comment:

The Mercy Enviornmental Impact Report (EIR) is as big as a old telephone book. It weighs over 5 lbs. And covers many subjects in minute detail. But skips many of the subjects that effect us.

Joan and I attended many meeting in the years before the EIR approval. We thought we had done our homework. We could not get in to the final meeting and stood outside. Mercy purple shirted employees enthusiastically filled so many seats. Mercy's presentation seemed to be: Vote for us because we are a great medical hospital. I believe them to be a good medical hospital. I am also sure they are not a good neighbor, to us in particular, and to the neighborhood in general.

Our living situation is totally different than presented by Mercy and their EIR 1n 2007.

We want a new EIR. One that covers:

1. Smoking in the neighborhood.

2. Truck unloading and freight delivers on J st. Noise along our whole back property line and blocking our driveway.

3. Bus fumes and the bus stop next to our home.

4. Lack on any screening between our property and Mercy's parking lot. The old screening is gone and has been replaced by bare land and signs. Mercy says they will do some screening in 2013.

for Wednesday February 23rd

Wednesday at 11:00 am this truck was unloading. The bed on this truck measures 8ft wide. From the curb to the outside of the bed measured 9 ft. (Approx).

The inside of the white striping measures 7' 8". The truck's bed was sticking out past the inside of the white markings 1' 4", and crowding the cars into the center lane.

Also the truck was well into the red zone. And the truck had a cooler engine and I could smell the fumes.

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Today at the fire lanes. They should be clear and empty all the time.
All jammed up. We are posting this blog to let Mercy know we don't want this activity along our property line. The EIR weights about 5 lbs and doesn't talk about these situations. I think a new EIR is in order. (Environmental Impact Report)

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Last night there was a long and spirited meeting with the Mercy people and their neighbors.

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Mercy's answers boiled down to they can only control what is on the campus.

My reply was you have created the problems. You need to solve them. It is not up to the neighborhood to police smokers, all your freight trucks, buses parked in red zones, fumes,etc.

A question I kept asking was: "Why do none of these problems exist at UCD, Sutter General, and Sutter Memorial?" "Why?"

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What really bothers me about all this, I finally realize the truth, Mercy has no plans to change anything right up to 2013 when the construction is scheduled finished and well beyond this date. Evidently the campus is just too small to operate as they are doing. For instance Mercy's on-site loading dock closes at 2 pm. It should stay open later. Trucks are street unloading till 6 pm sometimes. Sutter Memorial has a phone number truckers can call for after hours and weekend delivery.

for Tuesday February 22nd

Taken today Tuesday the 22nd. Typical freight handling by our house. And there is a smoker a few feet from our property.

In the center of the picture is the freight operation. When this operation is going on Mercy's buses often go elsewhere. See Below.
Mercy buses at the their front door. Why can't they do their thing here or else where. One day last week the buses were routed to J. St. The passengers had only had a little distance to walk, and they had rain protection under a tree.

for Monday February 21st

This is the same shredder truck, at 6:15 pm. The yellow loading zone on the public city street is only to be used for 30 Minutes. A clear violation of city parking ordinances and according to Mercy against the law. According to the letter they gave us on Feb 18th, it's required by law to shred patient records on the hospital campus.

Monday afternoon

This was taken today in the afternoon.

We received a hand delivered letter from Mercy Hospital on February 18th concerning the issues between Mercy and ourselves. One of the issues addressed was in regards to the shredding service they use. They hire Shred-it, but instead shredding the confidential patient records on the hospital campus they take the confidential patient records off campus and shred them on the public street.

Let me quote directly from their letter “The shredding service is required to remain on campus to complete their shredding due to patient confidentiality. We recognize that this service is noisy, but required by law. We have relocated the performance of this service to another location on campus.”

From reading their letter it appears that the hospital is breaking the law by having this service performed off of their campus. As promised in their letter the trucks were not relocated, they were back on the city streets on Monday Feb. 21, parked in the yellow loading zone more then 30 minutes. See above pictures

We were very disappointed to see this noisy operation back so close to our house.

The women under the tree are smoking.

for Monday February 21st ....Presidents Day

Picture taken yesterday, a patient and her friend smoking near our home. The patient is in her hospital gown.

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Yesterday I said I would suggest one solution to hospital smoking: Have a smoking area in the center of the hospital area. Make it nice and weather free. Have the stop smoking vendors pay for it like Nicoderm, etc. Don't make the smokers feel subject to embarrassment while they are put on public stage, in their gowns, their gurneys, and pushing their IV carts.

Outlawing something does not have good record of preventing total abuse such as pot, liquor in the prohibition, gambling, prostitution, etc. I think continuing education is a better answer. Hospitals are in the healing business. Healing and education is a better answer than prohibiting smoking in your backyard, and exporting your problem to the neighborhood.

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Another answer: Pass on the extra costs of treating smoking diseases to the smoker and his HMO.

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It is Monday. One truck is out on the street. Another one off the street. See 2nd truck on the far right and in picture below).

Why not why not keep the big freight trucks off J St. all the time with the hospital delivery trucks and busses, unloading at the front entrance or the rear loading dock? It all seems arbitrary. Most delivery vehicles are too wide for the loading dock area on J St.

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Mercy Hospital neighborhood meeting tomorrow (Tuesday) at their basement auditorium, 5:30 to 6:30pm.

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Last Friday afternoon I received a hand delivered 2 page letter from Mercy. I will post this letter in it's entirety and answer the points raised. Mercy has accused Joanie and myself of harassment. We usually think of our selves as being subject by Mercy to harassment from early in the morning when the first truck starts unloading till 9pm until the busses stop send exhaust out way.

for Friday February 18th

At Mercy Loading Dock, Friday morning, freight coming in as usual. Picture from my driveway.

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I went to UCD Hospital to see how they are handling smokers and trucker docking. Above is a picture of their docks. No trucks were doing their business on public streets or in Fire Lanes on hospital grounds.

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Smoking: No smoking on the campus. Strangely unlike Sutter Memorial I saw no "No Smoking" sign. Visitors are discouraged from smoking on the sidewalks around the hospital, especially on the sidewalks around the hospital in the residential zoned area. The neighbors complained. They are encouraged to smoke across Stockton Blvd in the commerical area, and not on the sidewalks directly in front of the hospital. Evidently the Shriners Hospital has the same policy. I only saw one person smoking in their car and some construction workers smoking at a lunch table in back.

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Monday I will post a way to solve the smoking problem for all concerned, making everybody happy.

for Thursday February 17th

It was a busy rainy day at the Mercy Loading Dock on J St. Mercy had an event in the parking lot and closed the lot to freight trucks and their busses. The busses loaded on J. St loading zone. The freight trucks went to the dock off H St.

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I didn't get to UCD as promised to check them out for freight and smoking. I will try tomorrow.

Trucks lined up at the Interior Loading Dock off H St.

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Another view.

The unloading was handled fairly efficiently. Here a fork lift is handling pallets. These pallets are fairly close the back of kitchen area. Why isn't all freight handled this way?

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The Mercy Buses did their job on J St. They occasionally blocked our driveway, and Mercy's main entrance too. (As shown above). Mercy traffic directors kept thing moving. In my opinion these buses must be moved from the Fire Lane and their exhaust taken away from our house.

for Wednesday February 16th

Today, Wednesday, was a normal day at the Mercy Loading Dock on J St. I paid another visit to Sutter Memorial to see what they are doing about smoking and smokers. Sutter since 2007 is a non-smoking campus.

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No smokers on the sidewalks in front of the hospital

No smokers adjacent to the neighbor property owners.

Here they are in a small sheltered area just for them.

The shelter is removed from the secondary main entrance. Past that you can see the loading docks.

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I wonder how UCD hospital complex on Stockton Blvd. handles the problems Mercy has created for itself.

for Tuesday February 15th

Tuesday at the Mercy J St. Truck Dock. Nothing new or different. This trucker using City parkway for loading his cart and city sidewalks for hauling his freight.

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Today I went over to Sutter Memorial Hospital in East Sacramento too. Maybe a mile away from Mercy. The above is one of their loading docks. They have three. Note that it is a covered dock.

This is a sign on one of the docks.

Sutter Memorial has another dock across the way. (See below). And evidently another one in the basement for "after hours and weekends" deliveries.

Above is a Sutter dock. It is covered and no rain water gets on the freight.

Where are Mercy's docks? Why are they using the very busy J St and City parkway and sidewalks? What are the after construction plans for the street loading docks. I have asked Mercy reps in open meetings and received fuzzy answers.

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Tune in tomorrow to learn about Sutter's "None Smoking Campus" and why there are no smokers walking the neighborhoods. No patients pushing their IV stands or laying on their gurneys while they smoke in our neighborhood along H and J St.

for Monday February 14th

Typical Monday morning at the Mercy J St. loading dock. The tailgate of the large truck is just a few yards from our bedroom window. The driver is taking extra effort to do his job quietly.

This is very dangerous loading. The driver using the narrow lane to do his side loading. The lanes are chocked because the trucks don't fit inside the parking spaces. Note in the background, a full pallet is moved across the traffic lane.

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The noisy forklift transports the whole hospital's food products through the cafeteria. The noise level is 77.3 over a background of 51.9 decibels.

for Friday February 11th

In the circle, a driver is unloading his truck in the traffic lanes. Notice the car going into the center lane to avoid hitting him.

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The driver on this truck is all but blocking the pedestrian's street crosser's vision.

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Driver is using the public sidewalks as a freight handling area.

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The hospital needs a place for these people to smoke.

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And that place is not in font of our home. All pictures taken this morning.

for Friday February 11th

At the Mercy main entrance this morning. I didn't get my tailgate wake up call. The driver was carefully and quietly lowering it and raising it. I just bought a noise measuring device.

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And the busses were stopping at the entrance and not in the fire lane by my house. At least as long as the loading dock was in operation.

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I have a new gadget. A sound meter. I wanted to test it, but the truck driver was doing his job silently. So I measured the noise of bringing all the freight thru the dining room to the kitchen. I understand all the food for the hospital moves on this route.

The background noise was a quiet 57.9.

The noisy freight cart registered 77.3 decibels as it went by..

for Wednesday February 9th

Pictures from Wednesday am. This Coke truck is way of the loading zone and is choking Mercy's main entrance.

Other vehicles pulling into the entrance are forced into a wide turn.

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This bus is forced into the center divider. The driving lane is being choked off by the Coke truck parking past the parking lines.

for Tuesday February 8th

Since Mercy campus is closed to smoking, where do the patients go for a puff? Into our neighborhood. "Mercy it is not neighborly to foist off your problems to your neighborhood."

for Monday February7th

Present day. Instead of growth, it is barren view from our parking. See yesterday's pictures.

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Looking into our driveway from Mercy's parking lot. The greenery screen is gone that was on the barren strip. This is a negative impact on our home.

The master plan calls for a tasteful separation. The answer to this "when the whole project is done". This is years out, 2013-2014?? Why can't this be done NOW.