In Tuesday Election, Change in
Albany and on Roosevelt Island
RIRA Seeks a United “Yes” on Six Ballot Questions

What You’ll Need to Vote on Tuesday All Roosevelt Island residents over 18 are eligible to vote in the Residents Association election Tuesday at PS/IS 217, regardless of their country of citizenship. Bring photo ID that shows your Roosevelt Island address. If you are a new resident and your photo ID has not yet been updated, bring other documentation of residency, such as your lease or some correspondence (like a phone bill) that establishes your residency in your building. (While Island buildings provide a list of residents for use in the election, experience shows that some residents may not be listed.) Note that PS/IS 217 is also a polling place for the General Election (in a different part of the building). To vote in that election, you must be a citizen of the United States.

Four candidates have emerged seeking the Presidency of the Roosevelt Island Residents Association (RIRA). In addition to past-President Matthew Katz, who announced early in October, the election committee has received nomination papers for Raj Kumar and Ian Sundwal-Byers, both of 30 River Road, and James Whalen of 2 River Road, who currently represents that building. All three are also running for RIRA Common Council seats.

Statements by the candidates appear on page 16, along with a listing of candidates running for Common Council seats. Mark Chipman is unopposed in his bid for the organization’s Vice Presidency.

The RIRA election is Tuesday, by paper ballot, at PS/IS 217. The General Election, held the same day, also has a voting location in the school, though in different quarters. Polls are open from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.

Referendum Questions

The RIRA Council is also seeking a united resident voice on several referendum questions, each phrased so that a "yes" vote agrees with the majority view of the current Common Council. The issues, detailed in the October 7 issue of The WIRE (that issue and other back issues are available on Website NYC10044 at nyc10044.com), are, in the order they will appear on the ballot:

• Replacement of the Governor-appointed Board of the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation (RIOC) with a mostly locally elected Board. While current law calls for five members to be Roosevelt Island residents (and six currently are), legislation proposed by Assemblymember Pete Grannis and State Senator José Serrano provides for residents to elect fellow residents to those posts. The Board would also be empowered to hire and fire the President of RIOC. While the Board already has that power, past and current Boards have never conducted a search for qualified candidates and have simply ratified the Governor’s appointee.

• Reserve parkland and open space for parks. This referendum question is a response to what RIRA leadership sees as the loss or diversion of Island parkland during the Pataki administration, and to a current "RFIP" (Request for Initial Proposals) put out by RIOC seeking developer ideas for a parcel of land at the northern end of Southpoint Park. While the legislature passed a law that was, at the time, believed to protect open space, a suit against the Octagon Park Apartments project failed when the judge interpreted the law as allowing construction of an apartment building as a trade-off for creation of a park in what would then remain of the original Octagon Park.

• Control of storefronts and Motorgate. This question arose both because RIOC has failed to find merchants to replace what residents consider essential services and because RIOC’s real-estate consultant, Paul Mas, proposed to package Island storefronts to be managed by a single entity, the way shopping centers are populated with businesses. That effort was the subject of another RFIP.

The RIRA Council feels that control should remain with an Island entity, and that resident needs should be considered, instead of simply focusing on what profit can be made by renting storefronts to the highest bidders.

The Motorgate part of the question has to do with a Mas plan to sell RIOC’s interest in the Motorgate parking monopoly to a private entity. RIRA is concerned that one result might be a lack of control over parking rates.

• Call for an expert review of transportation. RIRA points to subway overcrowding, particularly in the morning rush period, traffic jams on Main Street, and continuing problems with Red Bus service. The most recent Red Bus problems appear to have arisen from the extension of service to the Octagon Park Apartments, with rush-hour buses arriving full at mid-Island stops, as well as bus-bunching caused by failure to establish a rigid schedule, which results in long periods, between bunches, without service.

• Public review of emergency plans. The RIRA Common Council wants a look at emergency plans, which have been kept under wraps. Some members express doubt that officialdom has provided adequate means for evacuating the Island, should that be required. While officials have responded that there would be adequate time after a warning of certain kinds of flooding storms, questions remain about other emergencies; the preamble to the question on the ballot speaks of chlorine deliveries twice a week, by truck, to the water tunnel just south of the Octagon Apartments complex.

• Preservation of power generation potential at the Steam Plant. The steam plant east of the Tram station provides energy for the two buildings of Coler-Goldwater Hospital, but has the potential for generating low-cost electric power for use by Island buildings, according to resident experts. RIOC has offered up that parcel of land, along with the land occupied by the tennis bubbles, in another RFIP. This referendum question proposes a comprehensive review of options for taking advantage of the plant’s potential before allowing its destruction or diversion to other uses. The experts point out that a 50 percent increase in electricity costs is expected, saying that smart use of the Steam Plant’s generating capacity could reduce power costs, even below current rates.

None of the referendum questions will produce a binding result, because the Residents Association has no power under law. But the Common Council seeks a united "yes" vote to give it the power of public opinion and credibility with officials and government agencies.