By Ryan Schwach
When Mayor Zohran Mamdani rolled out his $124 billion executive budget proposal last week, it did not include any continuing funds for a new trauma center on the Rockaway peninsula. Now, local officials are calling for the money to be restored in the city’s final fiscal agreement.
Queens Councilmember Selvena Brooks-Powers, the most vocal proponent of a Rockaway trauma hospital, is calling out the administration for not including the funding that would keep the city on track with constructing the center.
In an initial statement following Mamdani’s executive budget announcement on Tuesday, Brooks-Powers said she was “deeply concerned” that money was left out.
“We want to continue to build momentum in the conversation, so my hope is that with every budget cycle we continue to chip away towards where we’re looking to go,” Brooks-Powers told reporters over Zoom on Friday. “It is important for the mayor to demonstrate his support by making sure it’s included in the budget, because he has communicated to me that he believes access to quality health care is a human right, and that he supports the efforts of the community.”
“It is my hope that the final budget that’s adopted will demonstrate that, because the budget is a moral document,” she added.
Constructing a trauma center in the Rockaways has been Brooks-Powers’ top priority for several years. The community at-large often cites it as the isolated peninsula’s greatest need.
It has also long been considered a longshot. But progress was made under the Adams administration when funding was allocated to baseline the proposal and facilitate a land transfer for a possible site for the hospital on Beach 62nd Street.
But more money – and a major approval – will be needed before the trauma center can become a reality.
According to Brooks-Powers, the city needs to allocate as much as $200 million capital investment money.
And the state also needs to approve a trauma center designation. That may be the biggest challenge, since Rockaway does not meet the necessary number of trauma cases to meet state standards that would qualify for a level I or level II trauma center, which locals say is needed.
The councilmember said it is likely that if the center is approved, it would be designated as a level III center, but could be staffed at a higher level to account for Rockaway’s isolation.
“The uniqueness of Rockaway being a geographically isolated community that has high needs makes it makes it an opportunity for the state department to be willing to provide us with the certification,” she said.
Those two efforts need to happen concurrently, Brooks-Powers said, so that when they secure an operator for the hospital, they have already obtained approvals and cash.
“Once we have a hospital operator identified, the money is there, the land is there,” she said. “We want to pretty much be in a position to place this on a silver platter to these hospital operators, so that they would want to come and service the Rockaway community.
Local Assemblymember Khaleel Anderson has been making the case at the state level for approval, as well as more funding.
“I’ve been fighting for capital money to contribute as well,” he said Friday. “It’s been a challenge.”
Anderson, a close Mamdani-ally and the only Rockaway elected official who endorsed the mayor last year, said he wants his former Assembly colleague to keep his commitments.