The RIRA Column

Steve Marcus, President Roosevelt Island Residents Assn. e-mail: SteveAtRIRA@verizon.net

From the Resident Association’s perspective, the big news over the past few weeks, besides the long overdue restoration of Tram service, was the visit of gubernatorial candidate Eliot Spitzer to our fair shores. RIRA has worked long and hard to bring Mr. Spitzer here, and we’ve spent several hours over a number of meetings to educate his staff on the issues and problems he will inherit if elected in November. Our primary goal was to convince him to allow us to elect the RIOC Board, rather than have its members appointed. Mr. Spitzer did make a concession in his opening speech of allowing us to elect a single representative. When pressed if he would support the legislation put forth in the last session by Messrs. Grannis and Serrano, who were standing just a few feet away, Mr. Spitzer acknowledged that he would need "some schooling" on the issues from them.

On the topic of who would manage Roosevelt Island under his administration, Mr. Spitzer repeatedly stressed the need for smart, involved leadership. I thought he was implying that we are lacking this now, leaving hope that we might soon see some changes for the better in RIOC senior management. In the weeks to come, I will try to follow up with the Spitzer folks to see if I can get some additional feedback on the topics discussed at the town hall meeting.

Sadly, we are still saddled with an administration that can do quite a bit more damage before the next Governor replaces it. In Mr. Berman’s last column on these pages, he explained that he can’t lease any commercial space on the Island because his team of lawyers can’t figure out how the Public Authorities law affects them – even though the law went into effect in April, and RIOC has warehoused many of these spaces for years. This law was wisely enacted to prevent the sort of gross abuses that permitted land for the first four buildings of Southtown to be given away for a seventh of its market value, the Child School for $2.50/square foot when the prevailing Island rate is over $30, or Octagon for another fraction of the land’s market value. So Mr. Berman is now using the law that would have properly prevented all the abuses of the past six years to block legitimate and badly needed leases. Why? Berman’s last paragraph provides the motive: "It is our preliminary belief that putting the retail space in private hands would give that firm greater flexibility in attracting the types of retail establishments than would be available to RIOC directly under the Public Authorities Law." This is a blatant attempt to circumvent the spirit of the law. He is publicly stating that the law prohibits RIOC from renting to certain types of retail establishments, so their plan is to put the space in private hands in order to get around these prohibitions. How about just obeying the law and renting to retail establishments that are legitimate instead of sticking a private firm in the middle to get around the intent of the law? Using Berman’s stated approach, any new leasing company chosen by RIOC would have absolutely no responsibility to the community, could use the space in any way it wanted in order to maximize profits, regardless of the noise or smells generated, or the needs of disabled or elderly residents who have no other place to shop. They could put in a strip club, and we’d be powerless to stop it.

I know a real-estate broker living on the Island who, in April, submitted two thoroughly prepared bids to RIOC’s own real-estate consultant for the bakery and the pizza place. Both clients already run highly successful and similar enterprises elsewhere in the City, their bids matched or increased the rental rates mandated by RIOC, and meticulously followed the procedures required to make these offers. Since then, he hasn’t even had the courtesy of a reply, despite repeated inquiries to both RIOC and the leasing agent. It’s inconceivable that anyone could interpret the Public Authorities Act to mean that RIOC couldn’t rent to these reputable concerns willing to pay top dollar after the appropriate bidding process has been followed. How many lawyers does it take to figure out that this is good for the community and good for RIOC?

Another RIOC initiative is to privatize Motorgoate. A private company might implement improvements, but how many of us want to pay Manhattan prices to get them? Today, the garage is a cash cow for RIOC. Why not continue to improve and maintain the facility and keep the cash flow? I thought RIOC was put here to administer and manage the Island, not to sell off its valuable assets every time the task became a little bit complicated. If performing this job is really so difficult, a much better solution would be to replace the administrators with a real management company to handle the Island’s affairs. This company would be under the direct control of the RIOC Board of Directors, who would determine the policy and direction of the Corporation. Does anyone have any doubt that they could do the job twice as well for half the cost?

These privatization plans are unacceptable because they won’t improve our bottom line, and they will remove decisions vital to us from community control. Public Authorities are around to serve the public, not to merely maximize revenues. That’s why we aren’t managed by a giant corporation. RIOC, in its zeal to sell off plums to private operations, and in its misplaced hand-wringing about the Public Authorities law, has again abdicated its responsibility to actually serve us.

On a lighter note, I want to offer warmest thanks to those who worked so hard to organize and publicize the Spitzer Town Hall meeting – including Margie Smith for securing the hall and coordinating the logistics, and Roosevelt Island Housing Management for generously providing and installing the PA system, and our public officials who showed up to lend their support. I won’t list the many who distributed leaflets and printed and put up posters, but you have my gratitude and RIRA’s. And we especially want to thank the community for showing up in such large numbers. That sends a message to all of our politicians that we’re an intelligent, involved group of citizens who are looking for a new era in government to begin with this next election.

Finally, please join us on 9/11 (Monday) at 7:30 p.m. at the memorial plaque, located just behind the Chapel of the Good Shepherd, for a short candlelight service in remembrance of the victims of the World Trade Center tragedy.