An extra city council chamber might not have held everyone who showed up Tuesday night. Most who couldn’t get in swarmed the lobby; some outside held signs against the windows. Just before the vote, the project’s furious opponents – including East Sacramento resident Holly Greenwood – walked out.

Greenwood: “We’re not against people getting good health care. We just want an old, established neighborhood in the city to be respected and to be preserved!”

Under the project, Mercy will not only build a new heart center the hospital says it desperately needs; it’ll also relocate and rebuild the nearby Sacred Heart Parish School. Mercy President Denny Powell:

Powell: “So it’s not just the neighbors that live right around the hospital that benefit from this. It’s the entire Sacramento community.”

But that community remains sharply divided.