Chamber Plans Beautification

The Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation has invited Island merchants to be vendors this year at the Fourth of July viewing of Macy's Fireworks at Southpoint Park.

"This is the first time RIOC is really working with the Chamber of Commerce," said Chamber President Julie Palermo this week. Herb Berman has been very cooperative and willing to help."

Palermo said that her organization is also working with RIOC and the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) to apply for grants to fund a general beautification of Main Street shops with window boxes, awnings, and storefront modifications. She said the Roosevelt Island Visual Art Association (RIVAA) has already come up with some design suggestions.

A good deal of the motivation for the Main Street project comes from a survey of residents started some months back and completed in April. Palermo said that, in survey responses, residents expressed a strong desire for a return of an ice cream parlor (the Bakery, which used to sell cones, has been closed for well over a year). "That was overwhelming," she said. Also on the residents' wish list is "a real drug store," a general upgrading of the shops on Main Street, a bicycle-repair and sales shop, and "a fancy restaurant." There is little sentiment for franchise fast-food, according to Palermo's summary of survey results.

Palermo said that ESDC is also helping with plans to attract tourists to the Island, and that the Chamber intends to assemble an "Economic Task Force" with a limited number of Island organizations planning for a better mercantile environment on Roosevelt Island. She can be reached at 646-331-3445.