NIMBY ALERT!!! NIMBY ALERT!!! 
By Bob Shallit - Bee Columnist
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Home free: Mike Klein thought he was prepared for the response after we identified him as the go-to guy for Mercy General Hospital's home giveaway. He wasn't.
"We were bombarded," says the Sacramento developer, who is helping the hospital unload five homes that stand in the way of a proposed expansion project.
After the story ran Monday, Klein says he received more than 80 calls and e-mails in the first 24 hours. How many have the resources to actually relocate a home, a process that requires an empty lot and estimated costs in excess of $80,000? Maybe a dozen folks, he says.
Meanwhile, the giveaway is generating plenty of anger from a group of east Sacramentans who oppose the hospital's project. One of them, Larry Augusta, calls it a "PR ploy" to blunt opposition to Mercy's controversial expansion.
And, he warns, neighbors will take to the streets if the homes are moved before there's a final City Council ruling on Mercy's proposed new cardiac center.
"There will be bodies lying down (in front of the moving trucks). It will be worse than Tiananmen Square," he says. 
Fighting words. But unnecessary, says Wendy Hoyt, the urban planner working with Mercy.
The hospital expansion project goes before the Sacramento City Council on Nov. 27. None of the five homes will be moved before the council votes yea or nay, she says.