To the Editor:

When I took the F train last week, late one afternoon, no less than 5 escalators were shut down and not working. Everybody had to climb those long steps.

Some of the escalators have yellow gates across them, which obviously means they’re under repair, but others are just off all the time, which means the station clerks have to call somebody special to swing by with a special key to restart them – which takes hours.

I’ve always wanted to know: Why don’t they have that "special" key in the station so they can re-start the escalators anytime this happens? And who’s responsible for this chronic problem? It’s totally unacceptable

Kurt Wittman

 

To the MTA:

I am no doubt joining others in complaining about the dismal and disgraceful condition of the many escalators in the 63rd/Lexington and Roosevelt Island F train stations.

I know these escalators have been scandalously in poor shape since the stations opened, another testament to corruption and incompetence in MTA contracting. But the escalators have reached new levels of dysfunction.

I’m pretty sure any escalator can be reversed in direction, but I am told by station employees that certain ones can "only go in one direction, down" while passengers wheeze and stumble up the stairs. To add insult to injury, when an escalator breaks down, I notice that the non-moving stairs are now cordoned off, so that the weary passengers must now trudge to alternate stairs/escalators to trudge up or down. This has the appearance of insult to the riders! Are we not capable of using non-moving stairs?

The overall management of these escalators has been a disgrace from day one, but has gotten noticeably worse in the last month. As a Roosevelt Island resident, I am now trying to ride the recently repaired Tram whenever possible, in both directions, just to avoid the disgrace.

A pitiful job all around, to be sure.

Dave Miller

 

Editor’s note: A canned reply from the MTA included this suggestion: "When planning your next trip, you may find it convenient to call 800-734-6772 for up-to-date information regarding the accessibility status of elevators and escalators. If you have further transit-related concerns, including reports of escalator and elevator outages, please contact Customer Services at 718-330-3322, Monday through Friday, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., or write to Customer Services at 2 Broadway, Room A11.146, New York, NY 10004."

 

To the Editor:

The Isadora Duncan dance event at Lighthouse Park on September 6 was absolutely magical.

I want to thank the wonderful dancers who danced their hearts out and Leandra Ramm for singing her heart out for us.

I want to thank the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation and the Roosevelt Island Residents Association for sponsoring the evening and Mike Acevedo for the perfect sound.

I hope we can continue to do wonderful events on our wonderful Island.

Vicki Feinme

 

To Jennifer Jones,
Island House Manager:

Another fire in Island House? That’s just unbelievable news to hear. How many fires do we have to experience before people start to take this problem seriously?

We need fire extinguishers on every floor, accessible to everybody on each floor, put in place by management.

We appreciate the smoke detectors you installed on floor 12 following the fire in our avac room a few months ago after a careless smoker disposed of their cigarettes, placed among flammable recyclable materials but, as we told you then and repeat here today, that does nothing to stop a fire once started or help anybody else on any other floors. There are 19 floors in this building and all need the same protective measures.

Please don’t take this the wrong way, but we’ve heard nothing but excuses, especially from our super.

Your door-drop letter is appreciated and informative, but instructing residents to change the batteries in their smoke detectors and to get their own fire extinguishers will do little to convince or force people to take action. Maybe if you made it mandatory and added the cost of the fire extinguishers to our rent or acted as a middle man and billed us separately or something along those lines as incentive, then you would be dealing directly with the problem.

I’ll tell you right now, few people know where to buy fire extinguishers and nobody wants to carry them home, so assuming any of our neighbors will take your advice is just wishful thinking. Our elderly neighbors who rarely leave the building need them most, but they aren’t going to go buy them without some assistance with either purchasing them or getting them home. We need your help to make this happen.

If I can do anything to help, please let me know. This is no time for complacency by management or residents. Anybody who puts this on the back burner is making a huge mistake.

Truth be told, we saw the first fire that filled our hallway with smoke and it scared us pretty good. We could all be homeless tomorrow if action isn’t taken immediately. We just don’t want to see the building burn down.

Kurt Wittman

 

Dear Mr. Wittman:

I agree that we should not be complacent about this. Legally, we cannot force people to get fire extinguishers and add it on their rent. Leaving fire extinguishers unsupervised in the hallways or AVAC rooms also poses problems pertaining to vandalism.

The IHTA Board President would like to meet to discuss what options might be available to us as tenants and management. One thought might be to have a committee, made up of residents, go door to door and collect for the extinguishers. Once they money is collected Management could assist the committee with purchasing the extinguishers in bulk and at a discount. I will discuss this with the Board. Hopefully, we can count on your help.

Jennifer Jones