As subscribers to The WIRE’s e-mail bulletins know, The Staten Island Advance did it again. "Roosevelt Island has its subway connection," wrote an errant editorialist, "so the Tram is a non-essential ride for a privileged few." Large numbers snapped back in defense of not just the Tram – as important a symbol of Roosevelt Island as Lady Liberty is of the City as a whole – but also in defense of the many disabled riders who depend on the Tramway because the subway system is hostile to them: hostile to many powered chairs, hostile with elevators unpredictably down, hostile with token-booth attendants who don’t think to post a notice when escalators are out.

Last time around, we printed many of the Islander letters; this time, we’re letting that go in favor of using The WIRE’s news space for something other than upbraiding another newspaper for failing to become familiar with the facts.

But, just in case it comes up, these are some critical facts: The Tramway has served for 30 years without a death and with only one serious incident of injury that had nothing to do with the Tram itself (a crane smacked it) and only one time that rescue procedures had to be used (April 18). The Tram hasn’t paid its own way, but it hasn’t had a tax subsidy for nearly ten years, either; its subsidy comes out of your rents, via ground rents building owners pay to RIOC. Most important, Roosevelt Islanders need more transportation options, not fewer. As Lillian Picchione points out in her commentary (page 11), we’re on the way to a 35-50% increase in population, and the subway already fails us in the morning rush. On weekends like this one, too, when there’s service in only one direction.

The $15 million New York State may be about to spend to renew this 30-year-old gem is a solid investment. Tell that to your friends who question its value. It’s a good investment because it works, almost always works reliably, and it’s something special about New York, New York, a commuter Tramway that symbolizes us and the City around the world.

Nothing’s perfect, especially nothing run by RIOC. But the Tram was an excellent idea on Day One, and it remains an excellent idea today. Roosevelt Islanders – old-timers and newcomers – need to stick together on this one.

While we’re at it, we think RIOC should pull out all the stops to have the Tram ready for the crowds coming on the Fourth of July. We haven’t yet heard, on the 46th day it’s out of service, what the complications are in getting the Tramway back on line pronto. Let’s stop waiting, and start working.

There’s a temptation to congratulate RIOC for the deal on Southtown 5-9. It looks good, from what we’ve been told, but we have to reserve judgment until all the shoes have dropped, and we sense there is more to be learned, with time.

Meantime, we wish RIOC would remember, all the time, that it’s engaged in the people’s business, too much of which it conducts behind closed doors when the discussion should be out in the open. As we’ve said before: Consult and communicate. It’s not Judith Calogero’s private sandbox. She needs to heed her own words, uttered at the last Board meeting: "I remind Board members that Board business is to be conducted in the open."

DL