 |
||
|
||
|
To the Editor: We would like readers of The WIRE to know of a wonderful outpouring of generosity on behalf of our family which has taken place among the generation of young people who grew up on Roosevelt Island in the 1980s and 1990s. Our son-in-law, Tim Sheehy, has become the victim of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) and our daughter Katie has been providing total care for him at their home in Brooklyn, as well as for their two-year-old daughter, Frances Rose. Tim and Katie grew up together on this Island, first met here, and were married in 1999. Tim’s set-design company, Composition Workshop, employed many Island young people over the years. In response to this crisis, Tim and Katie’s childhood friends formed a non-profit organization, Project Main Street, and sponsored a benefit on April 17 at the Supper Club in Manhattan. The sold-out event was attended by 350 people, including many current and past Island residents, despite the lack of any mention of the event in The WIRE. As Tim’s condition worsens, Katie has been able to continue to care for him at home, thanks to the generosity of so many people. Those neighbors and friends who want to contribute or to communicate with Tim and Katie should visit the organization’s website: http://www.projectmainst.org/. Project Main Street, which began with this event, is very much a product of the special spirit of the Roosevelt Island community and will continue to host benefits to help similarly afflicted families. The organization is headed by Island native Brad Armstrong and includes many others who were raised on Roosevelt Island. Those who wish to become a part of this organization should contact Brad at Brad.Armstrong@equiscorp.com. Mike and Barbara Cooney
To the Editor: Although I’ve never known him well enough to call him a friend, I’ve known Steve Marcus for several years since I served a brief term on the Common Council. Steve has invariably shown himself to be insightful, well-informed, and passionate about Island issues. I’ve never met anyone who felt differently about him. So, it comes as a great curiosity that his columns reflect a man so different from the one I see on the streets and in the subway. I wonder why one of the many people who know him better than I do doesn’t take him aside and tell him how demeaning attacks that refer to opponents as "jokers" is and how destructive to the dialogue this Island must have with RIOC in order to impact decisions. How can a man this smart mistake disagreement for some strange strain of evil? Two other Island stalwarts I’ve been lucky enough to know are David Kraut and Patrick Stewart, both members of RIOC’s Board and also men who were duly elected to hold the same position in RIRA Steve now holds. Steve tosses these thoughtful, committed Island residents into the bucket as jokers. If you’ve ever met either, you’ll understand how untrue that rings. They’ve simply disagreed with Steve and, so, earned the privilege of being publicly insulted, courtesy of The WIRE. I don’t get it. This public behavior undermines everything Steve and RIRA hope to accomplish and pushes the compromises necessary for achievement further away. When RIRA and the Maple Tree Group complain about not being included in RIOC’s decision-making process, did it ever occur to them that the continuing negativity, now salted with gratuitous insult, may have something to do with it? Herb Berman has no need to float an idea past Steve when he already knows the answer. If RIOC likes an idea, RIRA doesn’t. Case closed. No consideration required. Isn’t it time to stop? What I would give to see Steve Marcus come to his senses, walk over to RIOC’s offices and start working with them in the creative, passionate style he knows. Maybe a fresh column extolling all the great improvements to our environment in recent years would be refreshing. We could all use some sportsmanship. Dave Stone
To the Editor: Your June 17 report on Southtown with its headline "For Developers, Southtown Is Now a Stunning Success Story" fails to focus on the project’s serious "failures." By placing the back of the first building across the existing Main Street, a physical barrier or "wall," 17 stories high, has been created between the existing and new community. The diversion of the existing Main Street at the traffic circle for about 150 feet east towards the Queens side of Southtown also means there is no integration of the two communities. Indeed, very few pedestrians from Northtown will or can be expected to wander that considerable distance out of their way to even take a look at the new Southtown Main Street. Why did this separation of the Island into two distinct parts occur? First and foremost, RIOC, in its desperation and eagerness to accept any developer to build Southtown, refused to insist on a design that conformed to the Island’s shape and intended small-town character; it also refused to spend any money (in a State with a budget of over $100 billion), on basic infrastructure to continue the road from the existing Main Street through Southtown to the Tram. With a wider road, such a continuous path would also have helped cure the too-narrow and canyon-like effect of the existing Main Street in Northtown. Fearful of losing the developers chosen for the resulting project, and proceeding on the basis that just about anything is better than nothing, RIOC then sat by passively and allowed the first two buildings to be located smack in the six acres of parkland that was supposed to separate Southtown from Northtown according to the Island’s General Development Plan (GDP) which is attached to the Lease the State signed with the City. (Appeals to the courts to require the State to adhere to that full six-acre park commons failed when, although the idea was not even presented by any of the litigants, the court counted some acreage in front of Rivercross to make up for the required six acres.) Another design failure was to allow the first three buildings to attach eight-story wings that leave almost no space between them, thus creating still another high wall blocking views east to west. Compounding those design failures, the developers, again with RIOC’s passive OK, left the two roads in Southtown intact. That means there are four lanes for traffic circling the residential buildings; this on an Island that was supposed to have limited vehicular movement! I have not even mentioned the negative visual impact the massive building number 1 has on the historic Blackwell House farmstead. Indeed, by the time the nine buildings of the current plan are finished, Southtown will look a lot like mid-town Manhattan with a high wall and diverted Main Street blocking views and access from Northtown, with minimal open space between its nine buildings, with no six-acre commons, and with massive, dense structures. I represented Island residents who fully supported the building of Southtown (a position not always understood by others) but who believed it should be built in a different way, and that the State had to exert its power over the developers to be sure they conformed their plans to the Island’s shape and General Development Plan. Our committee, called the "Alternative Southtown Design Committee" to emphasize it supported an alternative "design" of Southtown, retained the professional architectural and urban planning firm of Thoresen and Linard. These architectural experts, an award winning experienced firm, studied the Island and in a few week’s time designed a Southtown with the same number of housing units that continued the Main Street and widened it, integrated the two communities in a continuous path, retained a six-acre commons park, and restrained traffic by replacing the two roads with four lanes to one widened one with only two lanes. Instead of considering this alternative design, the developers succeeded in persuading RIOC to go along with their massive one that cuts this Island in two. Why? Because the developers care little about design; they simply want to maximize their profit by building the biggest, most dense structures next to one another. And for the developers and State, it was cheaper to keep the two roads with four lanes of traffic and not build a new continuation of Main Street. Some money was also saved by placing the first two buildings closest to the existing town’s AVAC, electrical and gas systems, despite being in the very space that was supposed to be a six-acre park. Former RIOC president Robert Ryan remarked to me when I pointed out the 17-story wall created by the first building, "You’ll get used to it." Indeed, when I point this out to some Island residents they ask me "what 17-story wall?" which goes to show that Ryan was right: many people not only get used to whatever is built around them but some don’t even care or lack the imagination to even think there can be an alternative. But, our Committee of residents believe that neither RIOC nor the developers should be allowed to forget that they had one of the most unique opportunities in this City to create a beautiful integrated small town along the 19-acre waterfront site from the Tram to Northtown, with a six-acre park, and instead, due to their greed and ultimately RIOC’s view that just about "anything" is better than leaving the Southtown site as is, the developers got away with dividing the site into two parts and physically separating the two communities. Incidentally, while patting themselves on the back for their "stunning success," it should be noted that the developers call their creation "Riverwalk;" indeed, in their sales brochures and the model in their onsite sales office you would never know there was any other community on this Island. They will make their "bucks" (and RIOC will get its share), but in our view, neither served this Island well. If anyone thinks Southtown is a "stunning success story," they simply mean it has and will make money for the developers, not that it has been designed well to serve the entire community or future generations. Robert Chira The writer, a long time resident and Manhattan attorney, was counsel to the Alternative Southtown Design Committee, which fully supported the development of Southtown but in a different way.
To the Editor: I need to bring to your attention another issue concerning me and fellow Island House residents. Almost every other night, at midnight or past midnight, the courtyard inside Island House gets full of very noisy people (usually teens and young adults) who scream, shout, play loud music, and are disturbing residents trying to sleep. I am already a regular at the Public Safety office, because I always call them and ask them to remove those disturbing individuals. I know that this bothers a lot more people than me, because once the Public Safety officer told me that somebody else called ahead of me and they already sent somebody out there. The problem is that the slow-moving officer who gets dispatched to the scene does nothing other than ask those people to leave. Usually they do, but next night they are back. While Public Safety has no problem issuing parking violation tickets, they seem to have a problem in issuing some sort of tickets/penalties to those noisy people, so they can (hopefully) learn something and stop behaving like animals in the middle of the night. Mircea Nicolescu
|
||
