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March 7, 1998 |
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Dear Fellow Island Residents: It has been five weeks since the fire in my apartment devastated my family and myself at 4 River Road. Not a day goes by that we don't think about all the help and donations we received from all the people on the Island. From the Church to the Post Office. From 501 Main Street to Manhattan Park Management. The WIRE, the Thrift Shop, the teachers at PS 217, our phantom couple from 20 River Road who on the night of the fire dropped off food to us and were never thanked. To Maxine wherever you are, thank you so much. There are so many to mention, and all you other special people know who you are. Never in our wildest dreams with the big loss we took did we expect the outcry of help we received from our community. I know from time to time there are a lot of negative things said about the Island, but not enough positive things are expressed. This tragedy of ours will never fade in our minds, but it has put my faith back in mankind. My family and I wish to thank you all for your help in getting us through these difficult times and helping us to put our lives back together. Thank you all and God bless you all. The Raimone Family P.S. Hang in there, 7th floor. We'll be back!
Dear Councilmember Miller: I want to thank you for your immediate response and unqualified support in the Tram Crisis. It's what we've come to expect from you and your staff, but it's still appreciated and worth noting. You're always there for us -- your letter to The New York Times, your presence at the meeting last night, your good work behind the scenes - we notice and we're grateful. Speaking for all of Roosevelt Island, you don't need to find an alternative means of transportation to go from the Island to Manhattan. You can walk on water. Sharon Bermon
Mr. Joseph Lynch Dear Mr. Lynch: Thank you very much for your recent positive attention to many matters of great importance lately on Roosevelt Island. All of those seem to have been erased today by your comments to The New York Times, which otherwise presented a pretty balanced report on Island life. The remarks attributed to you about Islanders having "been spoiled: by State money" and being "like children taken off formula and made to eat other food" are highly insulting and extremely disrespectful. Shame on you! Hundreds of Island residents have, over the past 22 years, worked very hard to make the Island work in cooperation and collaboration with many different local and state agencies and their appointees and employees, and have put up with an awful lot of garbage from the very same people they have tried to work with. We are not spoiled but we are citizens of the only place in New York State that has to battle for basic community services that other New Yorkers take for granted. These remarks today have set back my hopes that you will be able to listen objectively, collaborate and respond appropriately to meeting the basic health, safety and transportation needs of the Island community. I'm sure this is not the only fax or letter or phone call you received today. I sure hope that you will clarify or retract those comments, perhaps by a letter to The Times, in time for the next meeting of the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation Board of Directors. Thank you in advance for your prompt response. Nina Lublin
Dear Dr. Blue: I am writing to ask you to pursue an agreement with the MTA to install the MetroCard fare collection system on the Roosevelt Island Tram. Installation of the MetroCard system will complete the goal of "One City, One Fare" by allowing residents of Roosevelt Island who use the Tram to transfer at no charge to the bus or subway. While track work is completed during the next 15 months, the Q line serving the Island will be operating as a shuttle with 20 minute headways. Riders have already begun to shift to the Tram because of this reduction in service. Furthermore, it is my understanding that riders with disabilities are more dependent than usual on the Tram because elevators and escalators have been malfunctioning at the subway station. With the Tram serving much of the subway's purpose, it is a matter of equity that the Tram's riders have the same rights and pay the same fare as other riders in the mass transit system. Tram riders should not have to pay $3.00 to travel to the West Side of Manhattan, one fare for the Tram and a second for the subway or bus in Manhattan. There is precedent for such an arrangement. The City has installed the MetroCard fareboxes in its private franchised buses which operate both local and express routes. Franchised bus riders can now use the MetroCard to transfer to an MTA-operated subway or bus without an additional charge. While the specifics of the City's agreement with the MTA may differ from RIOC's needs, the concept is applicable. I urge you to take action quickly in this matter to ensure that Roosevelt Islanders have access to the seamless transportation system all other New Yorkers can now enjoy. Mark Green
To the Editor: I thought I'd gone to heaven when I moved to the "most integrated community in the world," with a Tram over a river. So, being angels, we residents were, of course, all loving, intelligent.... I've been trying to avoid the realization-but the Frantic Five (Lisa Knox, her co-signers, and the initiator of this Only Skin Color Counts Brigade) have finally made me realize that there is not only God, but also Satan. A friend says the Fuming Five are trying to divide the community (oh, no!) by race: white and black. In 1998 we're to have the South revisited.... I implore my black neighbors not to be seduced by them - Blue is indeed black, as are Jesse Jackson, Vernon Jordan, Ossie Davis and as were Whitney Young, Thurgood Marshall, Harriet Tubman. And those of us who are decent admire them for their deeds, not their complexions. Every resident, complexion irrelevant, should evaluate Blue by his deeds. For me (I will not use the subway) what's vital is the Tram - and minibuses to 59th Street when it is down - not Blue's skin color. I'm not an idiot. I want the six million dollar subsidy back - I pay taxes to the State each year. My teacher always says, "Nothing happens by chance." Could be. Today I received a reminder to renew my annual contribution to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which brings court cases against the white supremacists who lynch (no!) and otherwise torture blacks; sends free Teach Toloerance materials to schools; and protects against the Klan. It made me feel whole again to write the check - larger this year to cleanse myself of the Festering Five's poisonous attempt to make us a racially divided community. I invite everyone of us angels to join me: send your check to Morris Dees, Southern Poverty Law Center, 400 Washington Avenue, Montgomery, Alabama 36104. Send your check and make these race-dividers the Futile Five. Let's not turn this once-heavenly community into a black-may-not-be-criticized nuthouse. Black supremacy is no more sane than white supremacy. Ask any color consultant. Frances Salten
Jerome H. Blue, Ph.D., President Dear Dr. Blue: I am writing to seek your assistance regarding a very grave matter that grows more serious each day. I am sure you are aware of the charges of racism which have been directed at the RIRA Common Council and other officers of RIRA, both in widely distributed printed material, and through other media. These charges have no basis in fact and seem largely to be based upon the assumption that since RIRA frequently voices its disagreement with many policies and positions of your office, that disagreement can only be racial in origin. Of course, this is a patently nonsensical assumption, as well as being, in fact, a racist assumption in itself. These charges come from a single small group of individuals known to us both, who are unwilling to make those charges in any manner that can be answered directly by RIRA, although they have ample opportunity to do so. Any rational examination of any evidence of racism within RIRA would immediately expose the charge as having no basis whatsoever in fact. In your capacity as Chief Operating Officer of the agency directly responsible for the welfare of our community, we ask that, as a senior employee of the State of New York, you publicly dissociate yourself from these charges in a manner that will reassure the residents of your concern for the good of our community. Roosevelt Island has a long, proud history as a peacefully-mixed community, and our primary concern should be to strengthen it further. If I may be of any assistance to you in this matter, please do not hesitate to ask. Patrick Stewart
Joseph B. Lynch Dear Commissioner Lynch: I found the attached letter, as both read at the February RIOC Board Meeting and published in The Main Street WIRE [Feb. 21], a damning commentary on the motivations of the authors, not as regards their support for Dr. Blue, which assessment they are of course free to make, but as regards their characterization of their opposition. I hope you will find time to meet with the signers of the letter as they request, as well as with Jessie and Eddie Rademaker. There are two points in the letter that I want to address. The first is the usage of the phrase "minority of individuals". The members of RIRA Common Council are elected every two years in an election held on the state/national Election Day. Acknowledging the importance of the RIRA election to Roosevelt Island, RIOC, in fact, paid for the rental of the voting booths used in this past election. There were 2,162 votes cast in the past RIRA election, more than the votes cast for all candidates in each of the following categories: US President (2,118), US Representative (1,908), State Senate (1,559), State Assembly (1,826), and City Council (1,910). This is all the more remarkable given that the seats for each of the Manhattan Park buildings, as well as 546 Main Street, (more than a third of our residents) were uncontested, and drew no votes at all. In the past, the RIRA election was lucky to draw one quarter of the votes for the state and national candidates. This is a very clear demonstration that the residents of Roosevelt Island, all of whom are de facto members of RIRA, were very concerned about the matters represented by the election. The campaign for the RIRA election was extensive, hotly contested, and, as you might expect, fully expressive. Great lengths were gone to by all the candidates in order that the residents be clearly able to understand the positions of each of the candidates. With all humility, my own election (amongst the four candidates) was by a margin of more than three to one. The writers of that letter were at that time amongst the most vociferous spokesmen for the sanctioned authority of RIRA as the formally- elected representatives of the residents. Two of the signers ran for, and were elected to the Common Council. Each of them were outspoken supporters of Jessie Rademaker, (who came in second with 20% of the vote), who was the only candidate in this campaign who specifically adopted a tolerant stance on the current administration of RIOC. Ms Rademaker was, by far, the best known of all the candidates, as she has been active for 20 years in Island affairs. It is strange to me that RIRA is now described to be a minority voice by these same people. At our recent Town Meeting, the church was filled past the capacity of the Fire Laws (which is 675 people), and the Public Safety Dept. acknowledges turning away "a couple of hundred" people. With the possible exception of Ms Donald, none of the signers attended this meeting, where it was publicized that anyone wishing to speak would be heard. The residents who did speak at this meeting were all but unanimous in their condemnation of Jerry Blue and RIOC. There were not a few speakers from the audience; the meeting went more than double its allotted time. This voice of a community this size can hardly be described as a small minority, although they may well be called vocal. My greater concern is with the charge of racism, which has come over and over from this group who can claim no support for their view outside their own small circle. If the charge were any other, it could easily be dismissed as laughable, which this charge, in fact, is. But, as you well know, the charge of racism, once voiced in today's troubled times, seems to take on a life of its own. Especially when it is seen to be supported, as it has been by RIOC, through assistance with the distribution of earlier virulent and irresponsible charges. I do not mean to claim that there is no racism whatsoever on this Island, although I would love to be able to say so. I do however believe that there is far less racism here than there is in most places. And. I believe that the majority of the black community here agrees with me. I can and do say that I have never seen the slightest sign of racism in the workings of the Common Council. And I know that there is no element of racism whatsoever in my own evaluation of Jerry Blue. RIRA does, in fact, want Jerry Blue removed as head of RIOC; we have formally stated that fact many times. It is not, however, because he's black.it is because he's Blue. There is no basis for our position other than his documented performance of his job. There doesn't need to be. Nor is there any evidence, hard or otherwise, of racism in any form coming out of RIRA on this or any other matter. To the contrary, the Council is largely made up of the kind of community-centered New Yorkers who have actively fought racism all their lives. The Council grows more and more frustrated at these charges that are never made in any arena where they can be answered and thereby shown to be as empty and as frivolous as they indeed are. I do hope that you will be able to find the time to meet with this group. I know that if you do, you will be able to point out to them that such serious charges should not be made in the absence of any evidence to support their charges. The Council stands more than ready to address these irresponsible charges whenever we may be given the opportunity to do so. If you can think of any mechanism whereby this constant charge can be put forward, examined by RIOC, and then either formally supported or refuted by RIOC, I believe it would go a long way to quell the potentially harmful repercussions to our community. Please let me know any thoughts you have on this very serious matter. I look forward to hearing from you regarding our own next meeting as well. H. Patrick Stewart
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