Our leaders have instructed us to return to our real lives and try to remove the horror from consuming our waking and sleeping thoughts.  Good advice, but not easy to do.  I'll bring you up to date on our emergency activities and then move on.

Roosevelt Islanders have come together as a community, mourned together, and responded to this tragedy together.  Groups and individuals have inundated our Fire Department neighbors with food and hard goods.  Their response to us is flying over Main Street just north of 580 Main.  I like looking at that banner! 

Vicki Feinmel and her RIRA fundraising committee have been collecting money for a relief fund over the last two weekends.  The current total raised is $6,388.98 and counting, and we thank everyone who contributed, especially the Korean community, which presented us with a check for $1,040, and the Senior Association for their generous gift of $250.  The Common Council has asked the Fundraising Committee to allocate the funds appropriately among the families of the Islanders who were lost.  RIRA will make a contribution of $1,000 to the fund and, in addition, will donate the cost of a commemorative plaque and arrange for the planting of a memorial tree.  Thanks to all of you who sat out in front of the Chapel and at the Farmer's Market to solicit money from passersby.

Last issue, I included the draft of a resolution condemning any racist behavior against our Muslim neighbors.  Needless to say, the Common Council passed the resolution by acclamation.  I've tried to arrange a blood drive during the days just after September 11, but the demand elsewhere for equipment and phlebotomists was just too great.  However, I can report to you now that RIRA, in conjunction with the Icla da Silva Foundation, the New York Blood Center and RISA (the Senior Center), will request your participation in a blood drive scheduled for all day Saturday, January 5, 2002 in the Senior Center.  The Blood Center informs me that there is a perennial need for blood at this time of year and that the massive caches of blood from the past three weeks will have expired by then.

As you know, the question of cutting our Tram's third shift has not been decided.  The RIOC Board canceled its September meeting, and the agenda posted for October 11 makes no mention of the Tram question.  When I wrote of this in the September 8 issue, my fear was that RIOC would cut service or simply choose to leave the issue dangling.  They will not permit our voices to be heard next Thursday morning, but if you can attend the RIOC Board of Directors meeting, you should. 

Our Community Board 8 has not been heard on the Tram question since it was raised on July 12, but I've learned from Elizabeth McKee, acting District Manager, that they are addressing this pending issue at their full Board meeting on October 4.  However, as I'm obliged to write this column before that date, I don't know the outcome, and can only hope that CB8 has added their influence to the unanimous roster of elected officials who have supported our demand for the retention of Tram hours.

Becker & Becker Associates, the developers who have been given conditional approval to build a new residential community around the old Octagon landmark, presented an update of their proposal to our Planning Committee last week.  It was well received by the members, but raises serious, fundamental questions that were not appropriate to raise with these developers, but must be answered by this community.  BBA plans to build 450 units of housing in ten-story wings off the central Octagon building.  80% might be fair-market housing, with 20% reserved as affordable housing.  The Octagon would be renovated as five stories, with the bottom two used for some community purpose and the top three reserved as twelve three-bedroom apartments.  The visual material presented was very attractive, and the committee's questions centered on plans for the landscaping (to include an enhanced barbecue area and tot lot plus 1« acres of open space) and parking facilities (which could be built under a revamped tennis court).

It seems to me that the first question we should ask is, do we want a new residential community of over 1,000 people to be built on one of our two remaining parks?  Do we want to amend the General Development Plan, the part of the Master Lease between the City and the State that defined this Island as a planned community, in order to permit this use of designated parkland?  If building Octagon Park Apartments requires that RIOC amend the GDP, should we, the community, approve this process, or insist that developers conform to the GDP as it currently exists?  And then, what are the implications of changing the GDP on the remaining open space at Southpoint?  And, is it the responsibility of the City Council to effect this change, or does the Mayor's office factor into the equation?

These are not easy questions, and I have requested that Larry Parnes and the Planning Committee host a Town Meeting to allow this community to address them.  The potential benefits may include additional ground rents to increase RIOC revenue, possibly some additional lower-cost housing made available to current residents, additional customers for Island merchants, additional Tram riders and an attractive Octagon fa‡ade.  The downside includes the loss of significant park space potentially available to City residents at large, the loss of the "ecological park" planned for this area and the Water Tunnel #3 area, as well as the loss of our ability to control development through our only "zoning" document, the GDP.  After all, if the GDP can be changed whenever a lucrative deal is presented to RIOC, then any semblance of maintaining a planned community goes out the window. 

At some point, our Councilmember, Gifford Miller, will need to hold hearings here to take the community's temperature.  The argument has been made that the General Development Plan is 30 years old, and things change.  This is true.  However, this community should, must, decide what changes are appropriate and what changes are not in our best interests. 

Personally, I'm torn between the benefits of cleaning up a derelict piece of Island real estate and the liability of adding another population center, unplanned and originallyo designated as parkland, to our Island's mix. My goal is to achieve passage of the legislation that will provide us with a RIOC president who is a trained, experienced community manager, who is dependent upon the approval of an elected RIOC Board for his or her job.  Only then will there be the incentive to seek projects that conform to the Johnson/Burgee plan for Roosevelt Island.  Until that happens, our choices are all Hobson's choices, conforming to outsiders' agendas and not our own. 

You must decide.