To RIOC:

From the RIOC website regarding the Tram outage:

"We appreciate the continued patience and cooperation of Island residents."

I just walked into my apartment. My patience is exhausted, and if cooperating means keeping my mouth shut and not complaining, then call me uncooperative!

On Saturday, May 27, I arrived at the bus stop on East 60th Street at 4:15 p.m. The Red Bus is supposedly scheduled to leave Manhattan on the half hour. There were already a number of people at the bus stop, including several elderly people, and one woman who was using a cane. It was 85 degrees in the sun, and there was no place to sit.

The Red Bus never showed up. I phoned the bus depot and kept getting an answering machine. I phoned Public Safety and they couldn’t reach the bus supervisor either. There was very little traffic on the 59th Street bridge, and it was moving quickly in both directions, so the bus was not running late due to traffic. It simply wasn’t running.

At 4:50, a few of us took taxis back to the Island.

This is the second time it has happened to me in two weeks. You can’t tell me that the bus left because it was full, which was the answer I got about the previous incident at rush hour. This time, the bus didn’t leave without us... it simply never showed up. If we had waited, the next scheduled bus, if there was a driver or if it was indeed running, would not leave until 5:30 p.m. Do you think we can have much patience if we have to wait in the blazing sun for over an hour?

Both times I have had to spend $9.50 plus a tip to take a taxi home. If this keeps up I will file a claim to be reimbursed, and I will encourage other Island residents to "cooperate" this way as well.

As for not having enough drivers to run three or four buses during rush hour and extending service until midnight, at least on weekends, if the RIOC budget was not wasted on $80,000 worth of red garbage pails (some of which are already chipped), perhaps there would be a monetary incentive to give the bus drivers some extra or bonus pay.

In the meantime, we have to face a whole summer of this. First you said the Tram would be back by August. The latest notice on the RIOC website states "we expect the Tram to be back in operation by the Fall." I hope you mean early Fall, as in the beginning of September.

In the meantime, don’t expect a lot of "patience and cooperation from Island residents"!

Raye Schwartz

To the Editor:

I was the "elderly lady with a walker who could not hear well" who was, unfortunately, on the Tram when it shut down April 18. My car was the one headed to the Island. The scary part, for me, was when I had to make the transfer from the cabin to the rescue cage. I have to commend the two policeman who held me while the two in the cage just grabbed me and pulled me up. You can be sure I didn’t look down during the transfer over the few-foot gap between the two.

I just read the article in the May 20 Wire and learned that it was the Fire Department that figured how to get me down from the cage without using the ladder. They tried several devices and, finally, lowered me with a rope. All this took what seemed to me like a half hour.

My point is this: During that time, the cage could not go back to get the other people who were stranded. During rescue training, why wasn’t the fact that there could be disabled people to be evacuated taken into account? Luckily, I was the only one. Suppose there had been quadrepedic passengers in wheel chairs? How would that have affected the rescue operation? There is much to be learned from this fiacso. However, I look forward to the Tram service being restored and, rest assured, I will be among the first to use it!

Louise Maniloff

For the first time, I, a 72-year old senior citizen, decided to take my bike to Central Park. I checked with the toll-booth person on the Roosevelt Island side and she assured me that the elevator was working at the Lexington Station. That was not true.

I got down to the lowest level at the Lexington Station but could not get up without taking the escalator. A rather dangerous proposition, but I had no choice.

I went to the park, had a lovely time biking until it began to rain. I asked several taxis if they would take me and my bike to Roosevelt Island. They would not. I then remembered we had a Red Bus. I waited half an hour for the 2:30 p.m. bus. The driver refused, saying it was against rules. I told him about the misinformation about the elevator and pleaded with him to call the dispatcher to request special permission. No dice.

I think it is unconscionable for the Roosevelt Island toll-booth attendant to readily give out wrong information. In fact, I think that, as part of the job, s/he should post notices. When one escalator is out, s/he should make sure that the other two are going in opposite directions (not both in the same direction as so often happens). S/he should take out a placard when either the up or down escalator is not working and should also keep in communication with the Lexington Station. This is an Island with a large number of seniors, like myself, as well as many handicapped persons. I think that there should be some flexibility in rules when both the Tram and the subway escalators don’t work.

There is no humanity... no flexibility... no common sense. Is this the society we want? What are MTA, RIOC, and Berman doing? Are they proud of this state of affairs?

In continuation of our phone conversation of May 24, I would like to bring to your attention that RIOC is posting notices that contain false and misleading information regarding the schedule of Red Bus service to and from Manhattan.

The posted "Bus Advisory" is false. There is no schedule but chaos. The buses run at random, each day there is a different "schedule," and catching a bus is like playing roulette.

According to RIOC’s "Bus Advisory," on weekdays at non-rush hour times and on weekends, the bus supposedly leaves from Roosevelt Island on the hour and from Manhattan on the half hour. Following this schedule, on four different occasions, the bus was not there:

• On Monday May 22, leaving from Manhattan, there was no bus at 9:30 p.m.; at about 9:40 I went to the subway. In the phone conversation we had on May 24, you explained that presumably some unexpected event caused the delay.

• On Wednesday May 24, leaving from Manhattan there was no bus at 10:30 p.m.; this time I decided to wait, trying in vain to call RIOC’s phone numbers, including leaving you a message about the faulty schedule. The bus finally arrived at about 10:50 p.m. and the driver explained that the "Bus Advisory" is incorrect and that in the evening the non-rush hour schedule from Manhattan is at 10:00 and 11:00 p.m.

• On Sunday, May 28, leaving from the Island there was no bus at 8:00 p.m. The driver explained that the "Bus Advisory" is incorrect and that, on the weekend, the bus leaves from the Island on the half-hour.

• Today, May 31, leaving from Manhattan in the rush hour, there was no bus at 9:00 p.m. I called the hotline number. It plays a misleading recorded message stating that the rush-hour service is between "3:30-9:00 p.m." The bus finally arrived at 9:18 p.m. and the driver explained again that the "Bus Advisory" is incorrect and, in fact, the bus leaves from Manhattan at 9:30 and 10:30.

I ask for the following corrective actions:

• Issue a detailed time schedule for Roosevelt Island and Manhattan for both weekdays and weekends. This schedule should also include a phone number of the bus depot at Roosevelt Island, and for Public Safety, so passengers can call these numbers to find what is the reason for the "change" in schedule.

• Post the detailed schedule with the emergency phone numbers on the bus stop signs at the Island and in Manhattan.

• Post the detailed schedule with the emergency phone numbers in the surface buses, on RIOC’s web site and publish it in The WIRE.

• The bus drivers are public servants. They should have a name tag or ID number on their uniforms. This would enable the passengers to better monitor the drivers’ performance.

Thank you very much for your attention to these matters.

In the last issue, Ron Mullins mentions in passing in his funny Garden of My Discontent that there has been cat-poisoning by some members of the Roosevelt Island Garden Club. Poisoning cats is a felony in New York State, punishable by two years in prison and/or a $5000 fine. In addition, a $1000 reward is offered by Neighborhood Cats (212-662-5761) for information leading to the conviction of cat poisoners.

I am writing on behalf of the Roosevelt Island Community Garden which got somewhat of a bad rap in a recent WIRE article. While one can sympathize with the writer’s trials and tribulations as an urban gardener, the fact is that the gardens are lovely. We have nearly 300 members working hard on the 140 plots, the perimeter landscaping, and our jewel of a rose garden.

Flowers bloom from February when the first purple and yellow crocuses peek up through the snow until Thanksgiving when the orange and gold of the crysanthymums finally fade away. At the moment the roses and peonies are in bloom and are as lovely as those found in any of the botanical gardens around New York. Our gardeners may be amateurs in that they are not paid, but their dedication and greens thumbs are the equal of the professionals.

Come see the show. Visitors are welcome on weekends when gardeners are there to unlock the gate. Those wishing to join the Garden Club should contact us at PO Box 127, NYC 10044.

Nancy Cruickshank
President, R.I. Garden Club