A New York Sun Columnist Calls Tramway “Redundant,” Drawing a Firm andImmediate Response From Islanders – Roughly, “Get Lost”

Shortly after the April 18 Tram stranding, The New York Sun published a column by Davidson Goldin, calling the Tramway a "money-losing tourist attraction, operated by a state authority," and called it "obsolete and unsafe," "outdated and unreliable," further asserting, "It became redundant when the MTA opened a subway station on the Island two decades ago. Those shiny red gondolas are long overdue for a museum. Or a trash heap." Islanders responded with a blizzard of e-mail and letters, some of which were shared with The WIRE. Here, we reprint a few. All the letters will be available in the future with this issue of The WIRE on Website NYC10044 at nyc10044.com.

To the Editor, New York Sun:

Well, well, well, shame on Mr. Goldin for his attack on the Roosevelt Island Tramway, which is not an amusement park ride but, rather, the main source of daily public, barrier-free, fully accessible transportation for a significant number of Roosevelt Island residents, students and employees.

Yes, there are tourists, and seasonal visitors, but the majority of Tramway users are residents of long standing.

Yes, this incident happened during rush hour, but let’s be grateful that it was a school vacation week, when many students and their families were on vacation, and when many other rush-hour users were on vacation as well. Let’s be grateful, yes, that the weather was good. Let’s be grateful that the rescuers did take all the necessary time needed to make sure the rescue could be executed safely, which is what the Tramway employees as well as the Fire Department and Police Department train for. The fact that this was the first (and let’s hope the only) actual rescue in nearly 30 years of operation does speak volumes about it’s workhorse capability.

If anything, most of the Tramway’s users, who are taxpayers and voters, are pretty frustrated by the lack of financial support and the large amount of inattention paid by the Governor (and his appointees) to the Tramway, which, as public transportation, is a lot safer than some of the buses and trains taking folks around the City. Considering its age – nearly 30 years old – and over one million trips – I’d say the Tram is worth the support in every way possible. But we should not overlook the State of New York’s and the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation’s responsibility to provide us with the best and safest possible Tramway service.

It surely seems that The New York Sun has it in for the Island, as this is the second incredibly negative piece to be published this month. Perhaps if Mr. Gardner (The Island New York Forgot, April 6) and now Mr. Goldin would visit the Island, talk with the residents who make it work, and lighten up a little, these letters to the editor might not be necessary.

The Roosevelt Island Tram carries about 1,000 persons per hour during morning rush hours, which are three hours in length, and the same amount returning every evening for a four-hour rush-hour period.

These are not tourists. They are taxpaying New Yorkers. Tourists come seasonally and are an added benefit to the Tram. The Tram lost $300,000 last year. That is a better deal than any other mass transit system in the country.

The State of New York refuses to spend a cent on Roosevelt Island, so all improvements must be made at the Island’s expense. How much does the State spend on Thruways, bus systems, the Long Island Rail Road, and Metro North, to name a few of the subsidized mass transit systems? We get zilch.

Considering that the system has run for 29 years and 11 months to the day, it has a good safety record. I would put it up against any other mass transit system in the United States. We are proud of our Tram and most Islanders will be back on it the morning that service resumes.

In regards to your remarks about shutting down the Tram at Roosevelt Island, I have to disagree, as a disabled person who uses the Tram to get to Manhattan, as I cannot use my mobility scooter on the subway and if I could I would have to exit at a stop that is accessible to the disabled. Not all subway stops are.

I could take a bus or two to get to Manhattan and then would have to cross at the Queensboro Bridge roadway and get a bus to Manhattan. By the way, a friend did this one day and the round trip from traveling only was a very long – four hours – as several buses had broken wheelchair lifts. Both the elderly and the disabled community are serviced by the Tram – not perfect but better then anything else we have to choose. If you want, I can lend you a wheelchair and let you experience what several hundred of us experience as a daily way of life.

Please try in the future to think of all the people in our great City and include those of us who have special needs.

Why is everybody taking cheap shots at Roosevelt Island these days? Yes, the thirty-year-old Tram had an electrical breakdown but no one was killed (no one ever has been) or even hurt. Can the (State-subsidized) hundred-year-old subway make the same claim or the even older (State-subsidized) Staten Island Ferry? The Tram receives not one thin dime from government and operates on revenues raised solely on-Island. And yet the vultures are calling for an end to this essential component of the Roosevelt Island commuter web. In a mean-spirited jab, Mark Adams [It Happened Last Week/Intelligencer, May 1] opined that riders must have "…rued their decision to visit Roosevelt Island even more thoroughly than every other visitor." Apparently the catty Mr. Adams is unaware that there are waiting lists for Roosevelt Island apartments and that, during these spring days when the cherry blossoms are blooming here, our riverside promenades are crowded with bike riders, parents with strollers, customers at our Saturday Farmer’s Market, and visitors from around the world eager to take in our world-class views. Why don’t you actually come out here (on the Tram when it starts up again), Mr. Adams, and see for yourself. And when you leave, don’t let the door hit you in the behind.

You have been receiving letters of outrage from members of the Roosevelt Island Residents Association over the Tram issue.

One of these letters spoke of RIRA’s concern for the residents of our City hospitals on the Island, many of whom have been here for years.

What the writer did not tell you is that the patients are not allowed to be members of the Association which claims to represent them, no matter how long they have been here, because they are not "residents." So here we have an elected organization pretending to be the voice of Roosevelt Island but who refuses to let some 2,000 citizens of this Island a voice in their own community.

I will not bother to go into the absence of minorities in the Association. That is obvious when you attend one of their "meetings."

What is also unknown is the plot by members of the Association to become the People’s Republic of Roosevelt Island with their own socialist government to be funded by the taxpayers of New York City.

So please continue to expose this organization and their demand for a Tram to carry the people they do not consider "one of us."

I’m sure you’ve already received a number of letters from Roosevelt Islanders who object to your description of our Tram as unnecessary. The Tram is necessary, a combination of an expanding Island population (a 33% increase in the number of apartments in the past two years) and our stretched transportation infrastructure (as the last subway stop before Manhattan on one of the City’s busier lines, Islanders are regularly unable to board during rush hour). The fact that it has become a signature of the Island makes it dear to us, but doesn’t take away from the fact that we rely on it.

And note that the Tram is self-financed – ground rents from our Island apartment buildings subsidize the operating expenses, not taxpayers.

I wrote an article about these issues a few months ago for the Roosevelt Island paper, The Main Street WIRE. See http://nyc10044.com/wire/2606/transit.html for the article or http://nyc10044.com/wire/2606/wire2606.html for the whole issue.

Compounding our need for the Tram is the fact that, as Staten Islanders know, redundancy in transportation is a necessary part of Island life. Case in point: One day during the summer of 2004 while the Tram was out for annual maintenance, Roosevelt Island’s bridge to Queens got stuck in the lift position. And wouldn’t you know it, the F line went down. Islanders were without a way to get on or off the Island for hours. It’s enough to make you buy an inflatable boat.

I have no objection to your characterization of the Authority system. What Roosevelt Island really needs is for the Board of our Authority, RIOC, to be locally elected, rather than appointed by the Governor. Locally elected management would refocus RIOC from real-estate development to ensuring that our transportation system can handle our exploding growth. In the short term, we need a moratorium on new development while the City and State figures out a coordinated plan for transportation infrastructure.

The Roosevelt Island Tramway is an icon that ranks alongside places to see and things to do in New York with the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, Central Park, Rockefeller Center, Macy’s, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, The Metropolitan Museum, The Museum of Modern Art, the Brooklyn Bridge, and the 59th Street Bridge, to name a scant few.

From the moment the Tram opened, it was no mere conveyance to and from. It was an immediate hit. It was an addition to the quality of life in our City.

A City with no lack of cultural and intellectual offerings. Think of it.

Look at it...an aerial Tramway in the heart of New York City.

What a ride. The views, the exhilaration of being able to watch the City in action while traveling across the East River to an experiment in City living that has made Roosevelt Island one of the most desirable places to live and raise a family that I know of. I have listened to and participated in more conversations that have been started by total strangers riding on the Tram than I can count – sometimes when it was not even my native language.

Imagine New York City without the Tram.

Let there be no doubt about it. We have to make sure that what happened last week never, ever happens again. It can be done. The engineering fundamentals are already in place that ensure safe, reliable transportation for residents, Island workers and visitors. What is sorely needed now is a dependable backup system that works and the trained personnel available on-site, to run the back-up should it ever again become necessary.

Why is it that people who don’t live on Roosevelt Island always want to run our lives?

With all due respect, you should mind your own business when it comes to our mode of transportation.

If you’d done your homework, you would have discovered that the Tram is a very convenient and very safe means of transportation. Those people who don’t feel comfortable taking it don’t.

The F train is overcrowded in the morning rush-hour commute, which results in wait time, sometimes up to three trains in order to get on.

And again, homework: the Tram is regularly maintained. On weekends the F train is often not running into Manhattan; the Tram is both a pleasure and a convenience. And 1 in 30 years is not a bad rating.

I do agree that RIOC needs to do a lot more to reassure the public that the Tram is safe; maybe getting the backup generator fixed would be a good beginning. They too, don’t live here. I think that if they did, they would be more apt to take better care of their customers.

Comments on your recent column:

Roosevelt Island’s Tram is outdated... Oh? I recently rode the glittering one in Singapore. It had an advantage over ours: They make money selling souvenirs celebrating it, which fly out of the huge gift shop there.

...and unreliable. Compared to what? It’s been far more reliable than the subway. Twice this week I couldn’t get directly home on the F train – had to go way out to Roosevelt Avenue in Queens and come all the way back.

It became redundant when the MTA opened a subway station on the Island two decades ago. So which other duplicated system shall we eliminate, the bus or the train that go over so many of the same routes? Redundancy is your only hope in a high tech world. It’s good city planning. During the rush hours, you can’t get on the first packed train or two that comes. The Tram relieves that.

May I invite you over for a cup of tea? When you take the Tram in the morning, you will look back on Manhattan, a pink City made rosy by the morning sun. When you come in the evening, you will see each of New York’s signature skyscrapers amid all the others, lights twinkling, a magical City. It lifts your heart. The subway can’t.

May I ask you to put on your reporter’s hat and dig into the story of why all the backup, fail-safe systems failed? A Boy Scout earning a merit badge would have gotten it right.

You don’t live on Roosevelt Island, so you don’t know that the Tram is our lifeline. We have lived here for 30 years, and the banks, schools, stores, and hospitals we use are in the vicinity of Second Avenue. A great many of us work at the U.N., and the Tram makes living here pleasant. If we had to use the F train, we would have to walk from 63rd and Lexington to 42nd and First Avenue and back each day. From the Tram, it is a short and enjoyable walk down Second Avenue. The convenience of the Tram is the main reason why we moved here. The buildings are converting to co-ops. Who do you think will buy these apartments if the only way of getting off the Island is the F Train?

Think again, before you meddle into something that you don’t understand and which is not really your business.

The only thing that should be shut down because it is outdated and does not work properly is you. Journalists should report the news based on fact and you obviously don’t know them regarding the Roosevelt Island Tram.

• The subway platform is dangerously overcrowded at rush hour(s) every day, with a high proportion of the riders being young children.

• The population continues to grow as new buildings are erected each year.

• The Tram draws tourists to the Island which helps its economy.

• Major films include the Tram almost every year.

• The safety of the Tram is certified periodically by qualified engineers.

• No one has ever incurred an injury due to the operation of the Tram.

• The subway elevators are usually not operational, which leaves the Tram as the only method of transportation for residents and hospital patients who use wheelchairs.

You need to be in another line of work where responsibility is not a requirement.

Who the hell is he to make this outrageous statement! If Davidson Goldin feels so strongly about the subway he should ride it every morning and every night.

The Tram is actually more reliable and faster than the subway. You’ve heard very little about Tram accidents because there have been so few. Most of the Tram’s problems have been related to lack of maintenance, not reliability.

What is unreliable is the present administration of the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation and its inability or interest in implementing proper maintenance, upgrades and emergency preparedness.

As for redundancy, there is nothing redundant about people in wheelchairs getting stuck on a subway platform ten stories below the ground at the Roosevelt Island subway station because the MTA won’t maintain or upgrade their elevators and escalators. Next thing we know, Mr. Goldin will call for Roosevelt Island’s disabled community to add their walkers and wheelchairs to the trash heap or send them to a museum. Obviously he will find them redundant, too!

Davidson Goldin, in calling for the permanent shutdown of the Roosevelt Island Tram, shows his lack of understanding of the Tram’s purpose. It is far more than the "money-losing tourist attraction" that he describes, and was not made "redundant" when subway service was introduced. The Tram is a vital transportation service for the Island’s 10,000 residents.

Mr. Goldin should visit the subway station on a weekday morning during rush hour, when Island commuters often must wait for several packed F trains to go by before they can squeeze onto one. Or he could stop by on one of the many weekends over the past few months when there has been no subway service because the MTA is doing track work. And the overcrowding on the subway will only get worse as thousands more come to live on the Island in the new housing that is being built or is planned. Since neither the State nor the City made plans for better subway service to the Island to accommodate the population increase, the Tram is a necessary alternative.

Mr. Goldin undoubtedly has other options if the subway service in his neighborhood is unavailable. He can probably walk a short distance to another subway line, or take a nearby bus. Lacking the Tram, Roosevelt Islanders’ only option is a bus to Long Island City to connect to another subway line, resulting in an enormous increase in travel time.

Roosevelt Island also is home to many people with disabilities, who have a terrible time trying to navigate the subways. The Tram is far more accessible for people who use wheelchairs or who have difficulty walking.

As for the Tram being a money-losing proposition, what transportation service isn’t? The deficit for the Tram is nothing compared to the MTA’s various operations, and the City even runs the Staten Island Ferry for free.

The Tram is far more than something for "tram fanatics" to "gawk at". Certainly there are such people, but they may be as ignorant as Mr. Goldin appears to be of the Tram’s important function. He correctly describes all the things that could have gone wrong that night that could have resulted in injuries or worse. But that means there should be better maintenance and better staff training, not an abandonment of the system. If Mr. Goldin were a doctor, he might prescribe
cutting off his patient’s head to cure a cold. The modern power supply and modern rescue plan that he predicts for the proposed Tram to Governor’s Island is the answer for the Roosevelt Island Tram as well.

Julian Stein

Even if Davidson Goldin doesn’t care for the commuters of Roosevelt Island and the fact that, even prior to the Tram’s suspension, it was almost impossible to squeeze on the subway during the morning commute, he might spare a thought for the developers who’ve sunk hundreds of millions of dollars into new developments on the Island.

Specifically, Hudson-Related and Becker and Becker are in the process of building, selling, and leasing hundreds of new condo/apartment units here, based on the accessibility to all the City has to offer. They must be recoiling in horror at the possibility that anyone in authority might heed his call to end Tram service to the Island.

There’s nothing quaint or touristy about the Tram. Thousands of regular commuters use it every day, and it’s an increasingly essential element in our City’s mass transit. The F line subway is already massively over capacity and without the gondolas "in the air," the current residents of Roosevelt Island, let alone the thousands of new ones, will lose one of the key reasons to live here: reliable and fast access to Manhattan. We need to get it fixed and running as soon as possible.

I invite Mr. Goldin to visit Roosevelt Island to see for himself why ending Tram service would be such a disastrous idea.

Graham Cannon, Vice-Chair

To Davidson Goldin:

Do you live on Roosevelt Island? Have you ever taken the Tram? Where did you get the absurd idea that the Tram needs to be shut down?

First of all, it is of great necessity to the residents; secondly, do you really believe that everything over 35 years old is obsolete?

I grew up in Italy and we used Trams like this to go up the mountains every winter. As a matter of fact, we still do. Some of them are even older, but we maintain them properly and bless them for they are of great use to us, as is the Roosevelt Island Tram.

Maybe the technicians should undergo a more rigorous training, and more funds should be allocated to a mode of transportation that makes us Islanders proud – and has taken us to work safely for years.

Should older skyscrapers be destroyed because they undergo sporadic black-outs? Should subway trains be tossed out because they need good and careful maintenance?

Should a journalist over 35 be retired because be comes up with insane and completely shortsighted ideas?

Silvia Kramar
Island House Tenants Association

Dear Mr. Goldin:

You obviously are not a resident of Roosevelt Island and have no idea how strongly we feel about our Tram.

Although we do have a subway, are you aware of how often the elevators and escalators are out of order? Why that is so important to us is that there are many disabled and elderly who live on the Island, and the elevators cannot be relied on. You figure out how someone in a wheelchair can get down to the train without an elevator. How about getting off the train and then finding out you can’t get up to the street level? I’ve seen it happen, and neighbors have to carry them up the stairs or escalators. Not only that, our train platform and trains are not flush, so that someone in a powered wheelchair cannot easily get onto the train.

Have you been at our train station during rush hour? On most mornings most of us have to wait for three trains to go by before we can board. The Tram at least alleviates some of the heavy train usage. Are you aware that our population is almost doubling within the next few years?

Of all the things to write about. Where have you been? Are you aware that we do not vote for the people who run our Island? The people who run this island are appointed by the Governor. Are you aware of how badly this island has been maintained through the years? Are you aware that our landmarks are crumbling before one’s eyes? Are you aware that our buildings are being forced out of the Mitchell-Lama program and that this community will no longer be affordable? Why not write about something that can help the residents?

Don’t even think about taking away our Tram. You’ve gotten your issues confused.

Who are you to make a recommendation to close down the Tram? You do not live here and you obviously don’t have a clue as to the needs of our residents. Do you know that we have a large population in wheelchairs who depend on the Tram as their means of transportation? Do you know about all the development that is going on here? Do you know how difficult it is to get on the train during rush hours? Do you know that on some weekends the train is not available at certain times? The Tram is a vital part of Roosevelt Island. Why don’t you wait until the investigation is complete before you blow your horn?

When the Tram is up and running again, I will be among the first to ride it. My recommendation is that they fix whatever is wrong and give us back our beloved Tram.

Your column today in the Sun states: Roosevelt Island’s Tram is outdated and unreliable. It became redundant when the MTA opened a subway station on the Island two decades ago. Those shiny red gondolas are long overdue for a museum. Or a trash heap. Anywhere but in the air.

If the Tram is scrapped, how do you propose Roosevelt Island residents get into Manhattan during subway stoppages due to track work? Over these two weekends, F service to or from the Island has been disrupted. Without the Tram, we would have been left with no options.

Currently, Roosevelt Island is going through an apartment base expansion. If you remove the Tram you will be further adding to overcrowded F trains that are already filled to capacity when they get to the Island. There are currently building projects on the Island to add about 5000 residents with plans for more, yet the transportation we have (Tram and F) is overcrowded already.

It’s nice to call for scrapping something you don’t live with but, until you walk in our shoes, you have no right to abolish something which, yes – per design – was supposed to be temporary, but now is a necessity.

How dare you call for the trashing of our beloved Tram? In addition to being our icon, the Tram also provides a very necessary service for our elderly, families with children, and the handicapped. Please research your subject before making such rash statements.

To Davidson Goldin:

The Roosevelt Island Tram has been and continues to be unique and necessary for the people of Roosevelt Island. There are many people in wheelchairs here who can use the Tram to get to Manhattan. You rarely see people in wheelchairs taking the subway. Often, the elevator is broken and the escalators are not working for people who have difficulty with stairs. Shutting down access to the Tram would be a great disservice to people with disabilities and the elderly who rely on the Tram for greater independence and mobility as well as access to local hospitals, doctors, museums, restaurants and cultural events. Furthermore, have you ever taken in the City sights from a ride on the Tram at dusk? Tourists from all countries often ride the Tram for the viewing of the City. Before making a statement about the Tram, I suggest that the larger issues be considered.

To Davidson Goldin:

Who exactly are you to wax enthusiastic about shutting down the Roosevelt Island Tram?

Do you live on Roosevelt Island to talk about transportation options here? Do you or your family have to miss two or three overcrowded subway trains every morning before you can get on one with barely enough room to breathe? If your answer to these questions is no, please go find another ridiculous cause to embrace and keep your misinformed opinions to yourself. Save the ink and the cheap sarcasm; you’ll do your paper a favor!

Thanks for sharing your opinion on the Roosevelt Island Tramway in your newspaper. Not only is there such a thing as "Clueless in Seattle" there is now "Clueless in the New York Sun newspaper". You definitely have similar traits to the Scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz. You’re just another reason to not read The New York Sun.

Keep up the good work. We need people like you to constantly remind us that there are still people like you around, i.e., those who walk around with their head placed where the New York sun doesn’t shine.

I was sorry to read your comments about shutting down the Roosevelt Island Tram. Aside from the great emotional attachment Roosevelt Islanders – even the newest arrivals – have to that unwieldy mode of travel, and the easing the Tram provides for increasingly overcrowded Island transportation as new residential buildings sprout up in this small community, the Tram is a lifeline to the many disabled, wheelchair-bound residents of the Island and its two hospitals who wish to live as independently as possible. They cannot count on destination subway stations to be as disabled-accessible as the F train stop on Roosevelt Island.

The Tram has also made life immensely easier for families and the elderly, since children can travel safely on it to and from school and fearful elderly feel about the tram as many in the City proper feel about buses, which the Tram is comparable to. Come for a ride and visit when the Tram is back up. You might even enjoy yourself.

Jennifer Dunningiskin