To the Editor:

It has been our intention from the very beginning to provide the good people of Roosevelt Island with the very best megastore possible. We wanted a store which would provide most of the needs for all the Islanders.

We have invested a great deal of time, effort and considerable expense to bring the store to a level which the island deserves. We sincerely feel we have created a quality supermarket, with first class products and fair pricing.

We may not be the least expensive on every item, but when our sale items are compared to competitor sale items or regular prices, and comparable products are matched and compared fairly, we are most competitive.

The article Comparison Shopper by Nina Lublin was skewed to reflect unfavorably on our store.

There is not a $77 vs $60 difference in the market basket of the items that were compared. For example, your reporter put a price of $5.99 for Holland Red Peppers which are imported vs the ordinary red peppers in the Trade Fair and Associated. The common red peppers we also carry in our store at competitive prices.

I am not going to apologize for carrying first class products.

The other uncharacteristic items compared were for example, a 6 roll pack of Scott tissue to a 6 roll pack of Marcal. The quality between these two products is miles apart and of course is reflected in the retail price. On some of the other items like detergent, they had Wisk on sale and we had All or Tide on sale. Your reporter unfairly picked out my retail price against their sale price.

In our meat department, we carry certified Angus beef and Perdue Chickens, and all I ask you to do is taste the difference. Again, I will not apologize for carrying premium class products.

However, that which made me most angry was the fact there will always be a fluctuation of a dime (higher or lower) in the market place. The way your paper presented it, with the market basket being $77 vs. $60, is completely misleading to the consumer who reads the bottom line. The bottom line difference in your article was derived unfairly and inaccurately.

John Catsimatidis
Chairman & CEO

[Editor's note: Scott and Marcal items, and others where brands were not comparable, were not included in the totals shown. The shopping list used was created in advance without information on what specials were on offer at the stores surveyed.]

Dear Councilmember Miller:

This is in response to the June 30 letter sent by Assemblymember Grannis and you regarding MetroCard free transfers for certain trips made to and from Roosevelt Island.

As your letter stated, the MetroCard automated fare collection system is technologically capable of handling rail-to-rail transfers. While rail-to-rail transfers improve customer convenience, they also offer additional opportunities for customers to make free roundtrips so there is concern over revenue loss. We are working on ways to minimize the potential for fare abuse before introducing a limited number of rail-to-rail transfers. Although 63rd Street line customers already have access to all East side buses, we will take your suggestion of a walking transfer from Lexington Avenue-63rd Street to 59th Street-Lexington Avenue under advisement.

Extending free transfers to Roosevelt Island Tram customers poses both policy and operational issues. MetroCard equipment would have to be procured for and installed on the Tram before it could be included in the free transfer program. Additionally, the revenue implications of including the tram in the free transfer program would have to be quantified and a plan for dealing with the revenue shortfall would have to be developed. Any decision to include the Roosevelt Island tram in the MetroCard program would have to be approved by the MTA Board as well.

Thank you for bringing these suggestions to our attention. If I may be of further assistance on this or any other transit-related matter, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Lawrence G. Reuter
President, MTA

To the Editor:

I am surprised that, in The Main Street WIRE issue of January 24, my name was utilized in a letter to the editor without the publication attempting to contact me for a response or an explanation. To clarify, here is a summary of the situation that the letter referred to.

I was accused of neglecting my child medically by Roosevelt Island's PS217, after I had discontinued the daily dosage of a certain medication intended as a sedative. I did so upon reading studies that suggest that this substance might inhibit physical growth in some children.

The school made this accusation before the New York Bureau of Child Protective Services. Not surprisingly, the school's accusation of medical neglect was dismissed as unfounded by the New York City Bureau of Child Protective Services, after its regulatory two visits.

My son's pediatrician felt that the accusation had no medical basis. (Shouldn't an official accusation of "medical neglect" be supported by a written statement from a physician? I saw no evidence of that.) My lawyer told me I was being harassed (but she believed I had no legal recourse - though the whole thing smells like a violation of civil rights to me). Even the Bureau caseworker who visited us was skeptical of the accusation, of its source and its motivations, and commented on it. Allow me to explain.

I had been dissatisfied with the quality of my son's education at PS217, and had expressed that dissatisfaction in meetings at the school by asking questions, offering suggestions and requesting guidance. My overtures were met with either manifest hostility or patronizing reassurances of the child's scholastic progress (despite concrete evidence to the contrary).

But the worst part is, by charging me with "medical neglect", PS217 tried to force me to continue to sedate my son shortly after I had requested that his educational needs be better addressed. A novel approach to education, indeed I could elaborate on the magnificently Orwellian overtones of the school's actions, but I won't.

Suffice it to say that after I obtained his transfer to a funded private school, my son appears to be happier, better adjusted, and finally learning; and that so far, there have been no demands for sedation from the educators who now minister to his needs. But then, I expected as much.

You see, the sad message contained in all of this is that many caring parents would rather withdraw their kids from public school than attempt to battle the system's bureaucracy, which appears more concerned with protecting educator's jobs than with educating children.

As far as Roosevelt Island, I am not alone. Other controversial incidents have sparked a grass roots struggle to make the local school more responsive to the community's needs (though this may be denied by some elements whose representative nature I seriously question).

I continue to sympathize with the community's efforts, but the bottom line is, I have removed my son from PS217. I can only hope that somehow, somewhere, somebody in government realizes that by refusing to acknowledge the parents and children they are supposed to serve, the public schools of this country may be contributing to their own demise.

Patricia Duarte Perez

Sen. Alphonse D'Amato
370 7th Avenue
New York, NY 10001

Dear Senator D'Amato:

Your longtime political associate, Jerome Blue, is an incompetent who is destroying Roosevelt Island. He's been at it for too long, and it has to stop.

We know he is in his position, as President of the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation, because you have caused his appointment to be made. We want him out. Now.

Blue's 20 months have been marked by mismanagement, disregard for the community and its residents, a neglect and gradual degradation of the physical facilities of the Island, and a total unwillingness to work with residents and the residents' elected representatives (in the Residents Association and in the City Council, the State Assembly, and the U.S. House of Representatives).

Last week's Tramway accident, in which a dozen people were injured, is only the most recent example - an accident fully preventable if Blue had listened to the advice and pleading of Roosevelt Island residents who know the facts. We are fortunate people did not die, and no children were on board.

As your constituents, we need your help. We need you to stop excusing yourself from this matter by claiming "it's a state affair." If you must provide a place for Blue, please put him somewhere else - where it won't be possible for him to affect adversely the lives of citizens of the State of New York. Please help us restore our community to the wonderful place it was before Blue arrived and began behaving like a petty dictator.

As voters and taxpayers, we are entitled to competent and effective local government. We hold you responsible for the fiasco Jerome Blue's management of Roosevelt Island represents.

We ask that you act swiftly to work with the Governor to correct this situation. We will wait only a short time before moving to escalate our attempts to draw additional media attention to this matter.

These tomatoes are a gift from the people of Roosevelt Island. We are delivering them to you in the hope that you and Governor Pataki will be able to make a salad and eat it in peace and harmony. We hope you and the Governor will use these tomatoes for the purpose God intended, but please understand that - in the age-old tradition of throwing fruit and vegetables at those who perform poorly - those hundreds of protesters last night wanted very much to throw them at Jerome Blue, the Governor, and you. As this election year goes on, we hope we will not have reason to throw these at you, symbolically, across the State of New York.

[For] the angry, concerned and frustrated residents of Roosevelt Island,

Patrick Stewart
President, RIRA

To the Editor:

After last week's accident involving the Roosevelt Island Tram, The New York Times ran an article claiming that perhaps the "quaint...little red cars" are dispensable. I wholeheartedly disagree, and I know that Roosevelt Island's residents share my sentiments.

Even though a subway runs to the island, half of the 6,000 Roosevelt Islanders a day who use public transportation take the tram. Why is the number of tram riders so high? Simply because many people feel safer traveling above the city in the Tram, rather than underneath the streets in the dark subway. For the senior and disabled residents and schoolchildren, the tram is the easiest and most secure transportation option. These reasons alone validate the tram's significance as an essential lifeline for Roosevelt Island.

The quick repair of the tram should be the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation's (RIOC) top priority, as well as determining why this accident happened. I, along with Assemblyman Pete Grannis and Councilman Gifford Miller, have written to the National Transportation Safety Board to investigate the accident. It is essential that we understand why this accident happened so that we will be able to prevent further catastrophes from occurring. Eleven people were injured in this accident-that is eleven people too many.

Carolyn B. Maloney
Member of Congress

To the Editor:

Wednesday night's town meeting was a disappointment. It's marvelous that RIRA has enough clout to pull elected officials (or at least their representatives) from all levels of government to attend such meetings. However, they should have been required to sit and listen, not allowed to natter on endlessly. Did the person who set the 3-1/2 minute time limit even once enforce it?

Furthermore, the standing-room-only crowd most decidedly did not come to this meeting to hear the same complaints and allegations they've heard so many times before raised by the same people who get so much ink in The WIRE issue after issue. Those of us who were attending a town meeting for the first time were scolded in person, as we have been previously in print, for not showing any community spirit before. But I gotta say, if every RIRA meeting is run the way this one was, they've blown a golden opportunity to foster an increased level of community participation.

What we needed to do was to extract promises from the officials present about specific actions they can take to solve our transportation problems. We needed to make clear assignments for 1) getting tramway service restored ASAP (preferably with a console operator on duty), 2) delaying the planned cuts in subway service, and 3) getting Dr. Blue to provide bus service at state expense until tramway service is restored.

Although some new information was presented during the first ninety minutes, and the news about the Mayor's appointment of two residents to the RIOC board was heartening, over half the people in attendance at the beginning of the meeting gave up and went home well before 10 p.m., convinced that no effective, focused discussion (much less action) was likely to take place. All the panelists claimed to have tried everything they could think of to get Dr. Blue to do what we need done, but they admitted they haven't had a great deal of success. Maybe it's time to add a few new techniques to our repertoire. How about non-violent protest? How about sit-ins at the RIOC office? How about making Dr. Blue call Public Safety to get protesters out of his face? How about the mother of all voter registration drives, and a pledge drive for those already registered, so we can throw Pataki and D'Amato (and therefore their appointee, Blue) out of office?

I applaud the efforts of all those present Wednesday night who are working night and day to make our common life better, and I want to be part of the solution. The fact that the place was packed indicates that I'm not alone. Now that RIRA's got our attention, enough commitment to get us out of our homes on a nasty night, and our names on that sign-in sheet, let's hope they don't squander all this collective energy. No more speeches, put us to work!

Dawn Helene