Dear Councilmembers and Ed Reyes,
I am writing to express my support for the Barlow Hospital Replacement and Master Plan Project – the proposed project to develop a new facility for Barlow Respiratory Hospital in Echo Park, with the surrounding land allocated for potential development options that might include residential housing units, assisted living, senior living and neighborhood-serving commercial uses. Barlow Respiratory Hospital is a critical asset to the community that we cannot afford to lose.

Rebuilding Barlow is important to our region's healthcare system. The only not-for-profit long-term acute care respiratory hospital in Southern California, more than 70 hospitals actively refer their most critically ill patients who can no longer stay in a short-term ICU to Barlow (and each ICU patient transferred to Barlow frees up bed space for more ICU patients at the referring hospital). Barlow is also one of the few respiratory hospitals in the country with a dedicated research center recognized for developing breakthroughs that are transforming care.

Rebuilding Barlow is also important to the Echo Park community. Not only will the project provide much-needed housing close to downtown, it will also retain and create more than 4,800 jobs over the next 10 years. And 30 percent of the construction jobs will go to workers within five miles of Barlow. What's more, Barlow provides low-cost and charitable healthcare services to the community that will be sorely missed.

I strongly urge you to grant Barlow Respiratory Hospital the right to continue with the replacement hospital and residential community plan so that we do not lose this important institution.