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October 21, 2006 |
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With the election of a new Governor a mere fortnight away, the message I’d like to leave with Island residents is to get involved in your community and to vote in State, local, and RIRA elections. You do not have to be a citizen or registered voter to participate in the RIRA elections – just a resident of Roosevelt Island over the age of 18.
Why is this important? Just look at how the bunglers at RIOC have harmed your quality of life: the Tram down for five months because Berman and crew were too lazy to keep the generators in proper condition; Red Bus service completely mismanaged because the Governor’s appointed hacks don’t care enough to make even the most rudimentary efforts to adopt common sense solutions; storefronts closed for months or years even though there are numerous reputable merchants willing to pay high rents to open stores here.
It is up to us to make it clear to the next Governor that we are fed up with this sort of ineptitude, that we want a much larger say in our own affairs, and that we want competent and involved leadership at RIOC. I urge you to vote yes on every one of the RIRA referendum qustions. The spirit of each of these items is that we want the right to elect the people who serve our community, we want them to work at managing our affairs – not to pawn the job off to the highest bidder, and we want them to formulate coherent policies on the affairs that are important to us. In short, we want what pretty much every other community in America has.
I hope that, regardless who our next Governor is, the RIOC President will be replaced, and any new administration will be considerably more responsive and cooperative with the Residents Association. That’s another reason why your participation is important – someone might actually start listening to residents again.
I want to extend very warm congratulations to Opher Pail and the Westview Task Force for their very hard work and apparent success at getting a deal that lets residents of that building remain renters at affordable rates or become owners, if that is their preference. I hope
that Island House, as well, can reach a speedy agreement that will permit those folks to remain in their homes on terms they can afford.
The next hurdle to jump is to get ground lease extensions from RIOC. This is something that both buildings have been seeking for months on end, but RIOC has decided not to offer any extension at this time, apparently – to paraphrase RIOC President Herb Berman’s column – because they can’t figure out how to allow tenants ownership and preserve the "affordable housing" requirements in the General Development Plan (GDP).
Berman’s sudden concern with the GDP is laughable. RIOC is always willing to move heaven and earth to accommodate outside interests. When they chose to violate the General Development Plan to build on parkland for Southtown and Octagon, they spent over half a million dollars on outside lawyers. The GDP also requires that a significant part of Southtown be affordable – so Berman and Company inexplicably decided that the first two buildings – used by hospitals, had filled that requirement, even though RIOC has no idea, nor could care less, how the hospitals utilize this space. Incidentally, when residents tried to keep the open spaces protected by the GDP, the court said that they actually had no standing to sue – a point that Berman’s high-priced lawyers obviously told him, which make his numerous proclamations about the "sanctity" of the GDP that much harder to believe. Seems like the GDP is only "sacrosanct" when the residents want ground leases that will actually enable them to keep a middle-income presence on the Island. But, when Berman wants to do something that patently violates the plan, such as using a sixth of Southpoint Park for commercial development, we can throw the GDP out the window.
And while discussing Mr. Berman’s columns, the next laughable item is his explanation of why RIOC can’t rent out the pizza or bakery stores, even to potential tenants with bona fide credentials. Seems that Berman and his lawyers are also flummoxed by the intent of the Public Authorities Act, which requires that agencies like RIOC maximize income when offering public contracts. What Berman really wants to do it unload the whole of Main Street, including the parking garage, to a private company. That way, he and his whole staff don’t have to do anything except collect hefty paychecks and worry about when the grass gets mowed. My point, again, is that instead of all this sanctimonious hand-wringing about a legislative act with so many loopholes, why not rent out these properties quickly, just like RIOC has under past Governors, and let the lawyers easily handle the minor hurdles this bill presents.
I was also entertained by Mr. Berman’s constant self-congratulation on his "fiscal responsibility." Here’s a guy who’s taken a $25,000 salary increase in two years, now up to $140,000 per year, who has failed the Island in every way possible. The RIOC board already pays $350,000 to Hill International, essentially for the services of one engineer. That’s evidently not enough of a giveaway, so the Board just approved another whopping outlay for a second guy. One Board member asked why RIOC doesn’t just hire an engineer for $100,000, but "fiscally responsible" Berman would prefer just to offload the whole thing for twice as much to an influential company with lots of other Pataki contracts.
Berman also crows about how his wonderful policies allowed RIOC to give the Island Kids organization a $75,000 grant – never noting that the money comes from public purpose funds, paid by builders of Manhattan Park, that RIOC appropriated several years ago. It is these funds that have been used to provide "seed money" for so many of our community’s worthy causes. (Berman never once thought about getting this fund replenished in his giveaways to developers at Southtown and Octagon – but, by my reckoning about $400,000 remains). "Mr. Fiscal Responsibility" also has no problem shipping $80,000 of our money this year to a private events planner. The events have barely been publicized, and seem to me to consist of four or five music ensembles next to the subway. One event that is well publicized is the Fall for Arts festival, perhaps too much, since we don’t need giant banners hammered into the historic church brickface). To RIOC’s credit, this is initiated by one of its own employees, whose job it is to put on community events. This has little to do with the event planner, who’s being paid to organize and run these events, and more to do with Islanders who are donating their time and talents.
It was also announced at that meeting that RIOC is moving to the former Lilies School. This brings to conclusion the entire sorry saga of how RIOC screwed the Youth Center out of a $2 million grant because they refused to give them any part of the long-vacant Lilies school. Although many petitioned RIOC to relent and offer the center this space, they were always rebuffed on the grounds that the space was too commercially valuable to give away. At that time, I correctly predicted that RIOC would take the space for its own use. Now, we are told that the area is being renovated for "temporary use," that RIOC will move into the site, renovate their old offices at Westview and then move back to their old premises when work is done. Here’s another prediction: "Fiscally responsible" Berman will spend a bunch more of our money so he has a nice office at the Lilies site and will never move back. It will be up to us to see that he is moved off the Island entirely.
I apologize to any new residents who have gotten this far in my column and are, no doubt, aghast at the insulting and quite impolitic tone that the President of your Residents Association has taken. Most veteran observers of Island affairs know that my facts are right, and that barely a month goes by without the upper management at RIOC making another blunder that frequently has permanent consequences. In my weak defense, I have spent a frustrating term trying to have a rational discourse with these folks, and I think you deserve my unvarnished assessment of their performance. Of course, Mr. Berman is, for the most part just a figurehead, an artifact of the patronage system directly carrying out the orders of his bosses at the DHCR, and indirectly from the Governor’s office. The RIOC Board, composed with few exceptions of sycophants, opportunists, or ciphers, is also to blame for the serious decline in our quality of life on the Island. But this is our home, and we need to keep fighting to make it the best we can. I’m sure that the next RIRA President will set a more seemly tone, hopefully in a much more receptive environment, and I encourage you to be a part of it.
If you are interested in being a building representative to the RIRA Common Council, there are forms and drop boxes in many of the building lobbies, in Trellis, or at www.rira-council.org (where you can e-mail the completed form to me). The last date for nominations is Friday, October 27. There will be a "Meet the Candidates" night on Thursday, November 2, at 8:00 p.m. at the Good Shepherd Community Center, on the lower level. Hope to see you there.