for Friday April 1st

Yesterday afternoon, a hospital patient with an IV dolly and hospital gown smoking right by our home.

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Here is a vendor using the "red zone" and Mercy's entrance for handling freight. Pix from yesterday.

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One busy place. The freight handling area and the bus stop at the same place. Mercy had the area concreted to make the freight station work. Passengers some times have to dodge the fork lifts. Some time 3 forks work the area. This operation is very close to our home. Picture was taken yesterday.

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The NO PARKING FIRE LANE sign is wearing thin from all the bus parking. Photo is from yesterday.

for Thursday March 31st.

At Mercy, things have been better than they were, as I have not seen this situation happen lately.

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Here are three large trucks filling the street back in Dec. 2008- haven't seen this for a while either.

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Here is the driveway jammed up in Jan. 2011. Another situation I haven't seen happen for awhile.

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For what ever reason, things have improved since 2008.

for Wednesday March 30th

This picture was taken on March 2nd, 2009. It shows the trucking area has gotten better these last two years

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The Shredder Trucks are gone now. This picture was taken Jan. 20th, 2011.

They were very noisy. The operators had to shout to each other to be heard.

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The freight haulers seldom use our driveway very much any more.

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I felt something positive should be said.

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for Tuesday March 29th

These pictures were taken yesterday, monday morning. This large truck is parked way past the stop line before the crosswalk with the bumper hanging over into the pedestrian crosswalk.

The trucks are parked way beyond the parking lines and into the travel lane.

This truck is shown unloading in Mercy's entrance driveway and is blocking half of it.

A short clip from Monday morning showing this truck unloading in the red no parking zone and also blocking half of Mercy's driveway. How do the truckers get away with this? The hospital has a surveilance camera installed very close to the front entrance, only a short distance away in direct line of sight.

for Monday March 28

Read 4 blog comments on March 21^st

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Sacramento Bee, Sunday March 27^th, talks about hospitals neglecting potential flood problems.

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Walk UP the gangway to the Delta King? This shows how much the river is up. It is usually a long walk down.

This is a picture of the I St Bridge Sunday afternoon. The river level is 25.1 elevation,

WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH MERCY GENERAL???

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Sacramento Flood information Stages, with focus on Mercy hospital

I St Bridge 31.0 Flood Elevation

I St Bridge Record High; 30.7

I St Bridge action Stage 25.5 (Last Week.)

Today at I St bridge 25.1

Mercy Front entrance area elevation about 26—27 (Google maps)

My driveway a few feet from the Mercy entrance.25.0

Truck Loading dock 17.0 (Google maps) This could be close to the elevation of the lower hospital floors.

Depending on where the levee breaks, Mercy General could have 4 feet coming in the main entrance and have all its lower levels filled.

My questions:

Is there a Mercy Hospital plan for dealing with a levee break from one of many rivers that surround Sacramento?

Is Mercy prepared to seal off all the entrances and protect lower elevations?

Were lessons learned about the hospital flooding at New Orleans being applied?

Why is the new building’s ground floor at a low elevation?

for Friday March 25

Later this morning a truck blocked our driveway, unloaded his wares, and drove off.

for Friday March 25

Friday morning at Mercy's freight station. This truck is clearly using the red zone to park.

This type of truck is 8 Ft. wide, plus mirrors. It does not fit into the width distance.

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The inside of the white lines is 7' 8".

Unless the trucks climb the curb, they are too wide for this space. Truck parking regulations require 10 ft. wide.
the other end of my tape.

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After the rain the ground is littered with wet cigarette butts. I feel sorry for the non-smoking bus riders that have to share the covered bus stop with non-bus riding smokers in the rain.

for Thursday March 24th

Thursday morning. It is raining. (What's new). Mercy's supplies are getting wet again.

The loading area from a distance. Every thing goes in a pedestrian entrance with the door propped open.

A big truck almost fit itself into the yellow zone. Except for his freight handling is being done in the red.

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The buses have eye trouble and can't read all the no smoking signs. There is a long list of problems with long term exposure to propane fumes. The EIR says nothing about this.

for Wednesday March 23

Tues. March 22nd. Right by our home. It is embarrassing to see patients and hospital workers smoking along busy J St. The Coke man was using the sidewalk so she probably chose to be out of the way. See below.

March 21st.
March 22nd. The Coke man. Why isn't he told to use the regular loading dock?

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I have visited 8 other hospitals in the area who deal with the problem. (See March 16th) I have yet to see patients on the sidewalk smoking in there gurneys, holding their IV stands, and in wheel chairs, other than at Mercy General. I have compassion with people with a compelling need like this. I wish Mercy would do better by them and "not in my backyard".

for Tuesday March 22nd

From 3/18/11. This freight operation is using city land and sideway for their freight handling.

Monday morning the big freight truck is on J St. He has fit himself into the loading space, EXCEPT the space is narrower than his 8 ft width. Notice the car going out into the center lane. The other EXCEPT is when the tail gate drops it extends into the red and the driver needs the driveway to maneuver. See Video below. We hear him from our home, especially the back up horns on some trucks.

for Monday March 21st

Not if, but when is an accident going to happen and the driver get hurt? There will be plenty of liability to go around: Mercy Hospital, City of Sacramento, Coke Company, and the driver. This situation exists more than once a week and with more than one company.

for Friday March 18th

No Smoking sign at Mercy.

These Mercy buses are smoking away. They are parked in a red No Parking Fire Zone close to our home. They make, I believe, about 6 trips per hour. They stay from 2 minutes to six minutes. The smoke is visible in certain weather conditions.
This is picture from our driveway. showing a human smoker and a bus smoker.

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What Joanie and I want is for Mercy take responsibility for the their situation. The bus can pull ahead closer to the front door out of the red zone. The Mercy parking people and security can ask the smokers to stay away from our home. If asked they almost always comply. It is mercy's problem, why should we being the ones who ask.

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Why can't Mercy build 20 feet of their promised screening wall now. One that separates our residenti1al from commerical zoning.

for Thursday March 17th..........., St. Pat's Day

Mercy freight sitting out in the rain.

It was a light to heavy drizzle. Most of the other hospitals have covered unloading.

Here is one of their trucks on March 14th. In clear violation of the parking ordnance. The tail gate comes down and the driveway is used. See yesterday's video.

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It has been brought to my attention, Mercy is required to have 10ea 10 x 40 foot spaces for commercial vehicles on their property. This is based on their square footage.

I feel we deserve some answers from Mercy and from the city.(Corrected)

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for Wednesday March 16th

This is a video clip. It shows one of Mercy's delivery trucks. He is illegally parked and is unloading in the red zone and into Mercy driveway. All this goes on in front of Mercy's video camera. We think this operation is very unneighborly at such a very short distance to our home. This picture was on March the 10th.

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Shorty I will summarize my visits to other local hospitals, compared to Mercy General.

Kaiser on Norris

Methodist in the South Area

UCD

Shriners

Mercy San Juan

Mercy Folsom

Sutter General

Sutter Memorial

for Tuesday March 15th

Last Wednesday I visited Mercy San Juan. It appears they have a beautiful campus. This is the front entrance. No trucks or smokers. It is a no smoking campus. And every one I talked to was very clear on this. Smoking on the outside side walks only.

The campus does have residents next to it, but it is well screened off and does not a place for a quick puff. I don't know about noise.

The loading area seemed too small and not rain protected for unloading.

Similar in design to Folsom's Mercy. There is a sign that says Deliveries...30 Min. Parking. 6 am to 2:30 pm.

for Monday March 14th

This is the front door of Mercy Folsom. That's my reflection in the glass. Sign says "No Smoking with in 30 feet from front door. I asked if this was OK to smoke this close. "No, only on the sidewalk outside the hospital." There is no residential next to the hospital. There was one employee smoking on the sidewalk. No patients smoking with their medical gear.

Food service deliveries are on a schedule. With a short trip from the outside door to this door.

This is the freight door. Maybe another small door for small freight in to a stockroom.

There is a timed unloading.

Plenty of maneuvering room for trucks to back into the door. Item of note the containers on the left are permanent. I guess trucks can unload into them also. It was Sunday, yesterday. Very quite. Tomorrow I will show my visit to Mercy San Juan.

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Today I posted a clip and took it down. It was out of sequence. I will put it up later this week.

for Friday March 11th

It gets tiring to be negative so much about our neighbor, Mercy. Today I visited Mercy San Juan and will comment next week mostly positive. Impressive campus with a big question.

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Mercy thanks for having the clean up man pick the cigarette butts. This is much better the big ash cans on the sidewalks.

for Thursday March 10th

This is Mercy's security camera that can over see our home. I wonder if we had a problem and needed help, would Mercy help? I am not sure. There is a kindly old lady that delivers mail to their building next door. She used to say hello to our dogs, has been told to stop by the powers that be. Over the decades we have lived next to Mercy there has been countless occasions where their patients have need help. Broke, lost, discharged, waiting for buses that didn't come. We try to help each and everyone. On elderly person showed up alone, in her wheel chair. She had wandered off from Mercy Manner. It took more that a few calls to get her back. We wheeled her back in her chair. The front desk people gave me weak thanks.

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Something I don't understand about the buses. Sometimes they stop in the fire zone by our home. Sometime they pull ahead to the main door. Why can't they all, or most, pull ahead, and stay out of the fire lane and exhaust their fuel other than against our line?

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It is not uncommon for our home driveway to be mistaken for Mercy Property. We were promised a decorative wall separating our property from Mercy's. Why can't this stretch of wall be installed NOW. There is no reason we have to wait till 2013. This project started in 2008. Mercy is like an 800# gorilla to us.

for Wednesday March 9th......... Ash Wednesday

Mercy's freight area. Spy camera is in the white circle. This camera can see the smokers, the illegally parked trucks and busses, into our driveway, and probably our backyard. It can ss I am sure illegally loading on city property and sidewalk area.

Why can't the eye see the buses idling along side our property line. However sometime the busses move ahead to the front door where they can legally be stopped. See above. Why can't the busses do this most all the time.

for Tuesday March 8th

Last Thursday I went to Kaiser Hospital on Cottage Way to see what they are doing about trucks and smoking.

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Smoking? One hospital employee told me everyone goes out behind some containers to smoke. On hospital property. There was no body there smoking when I checked. A security person said "No Smoking". We don't even want you smoking on the city sidewalks. We send a walking security around and a driving security around often. All we have to do is to politely ask and almost everyone puts their buts out and/or moves across the street. There are no residential homes adjacent to the campus.

Trucks: I didn't go below, but Kaiser had no trucks on the ground level. There are two underground tunnel entrances like this for freight handling. I saw no unloading/freight handling on public streets.