To the Editor:

Regarding Red Bus service:

Each morning this week I have stood at the bus stop by the Church with my young son and we have watched the Octagon Express fly by. Often it’s actually half empty and he asks why the bus doesn’t stop for us. I have no answer.

I do have a question. Is the Octagon paying RIOC funds to support these runs? Nothing breeds contempt faster than seeing a bus pass you by and wondering if they got it for free.

It also seems that whoever schedules the bus runs is allowing the buses to get bunched up in the morning. There are times while standing at that stop that we see three buses heading North within a minute of each other, which can’t be planned.

Eric Schwartzman

To the Editor:

I was away from Roosevelt Island for three weeks. When I returned, I was so surprised to see Main Street full of litter and debris. It is our only street and we live in a community that people wish to visit and give "a look-see" via the Tram. We should keep our neighborhood clean to represent the wonderful and upstanding citizens who live here. Anything less is a shame on us.

Marlene Flom

To the Editor:

On the night of the last RIOC Board meeting (November 30), I took a Red Bus from Motorgate. The lighting at the stop is poor. The driver had a large passenger paying his fare, blocking his view of a small older woman. The driver was under so much pressure to keep his schedule that he started to pull out, closing the door on the woman’s hand.

I immediately informed RIOC Vice President Catherine Johnson, who was at the RIOC meeting. It wasn’t the driver’s fault. In my view, the incident happened because of the position into which RIOC has put the drivers.

Cathy responded the next day (see below). Again, she just doesn’t get it and should never have been put in charge of transportation. I wanted to make it clear that, even after they’re all gone, they will be held accountable for any injuries or deaths resulting from their negligence in dealing with Island transportation (e.g., removing stop signs on Main Street).

Raye Schwartz

Catherine Johnson responded:

I followed up on the information you provided to me at the Board meeting last night. I have confirmed that a woman’s coat was caught in the door when the driver closed the door. However, she was already boarded on the bus. A new driver was being trained and he did not check to see if anyone was boarding behind the person inserting cash into the cash box and closed the door prematurely. This was a very unfortunate incident. The Bus Supervisor was on the bus and witnessed the incident and the driver was corrected. Again, this was a first time driver being supervised.

We recently added a fifth bus to rush-hour service to eliminate the need for any driver to have to rush. We are monitoring the buses daily and will shortly be installing tracking software into the buses so they can also be monitored from the bus garage.

I understand how upsetting this was to you. I sent a message last night to the Director of Operations as soon as you reported the incident to me and asked for a full report. We take this very seriously and will continue to supervise new drivers one-on-one until we are confident they can properly manage the bus.

Thank you for bringing this to my attention.

Catherine Johnson

Cathy,

Thank you for getting back to me. However, you do not have all the facts correct.

There was no supervisor on this particular bus, so there may have been several incidents, with various drivers.

The problem is that these drivers are under so much pressure to meet their unrealistic, extended schedules that they must pull out before everyone is safely on board. This is not the first time I’ve witnessed situations since the bus route was extended. You (RIOC, not necessarily you personally) are obviously not aware of or are not paying attention to the fact that there are tons of senior citizens or even partially disabled residents who simply cannot move as fast as we would expect yuppies to move going to work. The bus drivers are under so much pressure to keep to their schedules, even during non-rush hours, that they pull out of stops before passengers are safely seated or holding on to the straps or columns. Further, the incident I described last night reflects the fact that at Motorgate, the lighting is so bad, and the view partially blocked by the kiosk as well as tall people who create shadows, that the driver simply could not verify that it was safe to pull out.

FYI, the driver in question has been here for a while. This was not his fault and he should not be called to task. If there was a supervisor on board, which I highly doubt (there were two Manhattan Park uniformed employees), he was not at the front of the bus or anywhere where he could have observed the incident. If you were told there was a supervisor on board, he may have told you that to cover. I was in the seat closest to the door. There were also several people who ran to try to catch this bus who were pounding on the door, but the driver didn’t open the door as he was trying to pull out.

If you simply split the routes at all times you will not have these problems. You simply need more buses and two routes, even during non-rush hours. I’m fearful that won’t happen until someone gets seriously hurt or killed. And guess what...even after the changing of the guard, this RIOC regime has been warned, begged, and cajoled numerous times and will be held accountable. Yes, I’m furious, and no, you can’t place the blame on the driver.

Raye Schwartz

Catherine Johnson responds further:

You are correct. I had my fact wrong. It was the Supervisor driving the bus while training a new driver. You are further correct that this particular supervisor has been with RIOC for many, many years. He is in charge of all the buses and is a valued and outstanding employee.

There is a perception among many residents that, because the route was extended to Octagon, drivers need to rush to make the schedule at the Tram. This is simply not the case. The buses have adequate time without rushing. The only impact has been a reduction in the wait at the Tram.

The staff at RIOC agree with you – we certainly do recognize that we have many residents who must take their time when boarding and de-boarding a bus. We have many residents who carry packages from Gristedes to their home, making the stop at Gristedes a very important stop – some residents have suggested that it be eliminated. We have residents who use walkers or are in wheelchairs and need to cross in crosswalks slowly.

There has been much discussion in this paper recently about the Red Bus service. In spite of how this paper may portray RIOC staff and what some residents may think, the staff at RIOC do our best to provide a high level of service to residents. We attempt to be responsive to the changing needs of the Island. Is it always perfect? No. Do we get it right every time? No. Many of the staff at RIOC have worked on this Island for over 15 years and some more than 25, and some staff are also Island residents and this is their home. They are committed to the service they provide, whether it is bus service, maintaining the many parks, buildings owned by RIOC, sidewalks, ball fields, tennis courts, and open areas of the Island. They take pride in the work they do and they know many, many residents personally.

There are many things that impact on our ability to provide consistent bus service. Some people chuckle that there is only one road on the Island – how hard is it to provide bus service? But the fact that there is only one road and no alternate routes is one of the many factors that impacts on a bus schedule. If there is a delivery truck double-parked on Main Street and traffic in the opposite direction, the buses will be slowed. If there is construction going on that buses must go around, buses will be slowed. We have had a problem with the fuel injectors on the new hybrid buses; if they fail mid-route, it will cause a slowdown. There are many things that cause the buses to "bunch."

So, what are we doing to improve this? We have taken several steps:

• School buses have been re-routed in the morning and afternoon to eliminate the idling that was occurring on Main Street. In January, the buses will be diverted to an area that will eliminate their travel on Main Street in the afternoon altogether, and improve the safety of the pick-up for students.

• Some stop signs have been replaced with yield signs to improve traffic flow. The number of bus stops, crosswalks, and stop signs in the 1/8 mile of Main Street brought traffic to a crawl.

• In instances where it was possible, bus stops and stop signs have been aligned to eliminate a stop at a bus stop and 30 feet forward of a bus stop.

• Double-parking on Main Street during morning rush hour is no longer permitted.

• Street cleaning has been rescheduled to occur later in the day on cleaning days.

• A fifth bus was added to the route for rush hour and four buses service the Island during morning and evening rush hour.

RIOC is open to all suggestions and we welcome resident input. Please visit our website at www.rioc.com and click on Ask Cathy to offer comments. We will continue to look at ways to improve all our services to residents. We would ask that residents be patient with changes in service and recognize that the service will not always meet the specific need of every individual resident. Rather, we will strive to meet the overall needs of all Island residents.

Catherine Johnson

Hon. Eliot Spitzer
Governor-Elect
330 Madison Avenue, 19th Floor
New York, NY 10017
Dear Governor-Elect Spitzer:

Let me congratulate you on your landslide victory. Your message of bringing real reform and transparency to State government resonated with me as it did with so many New Yorkers because I believe you can and will deliver the change in direction our State so desperately needs. One place truly in need of a new course, where your choice in policy will have a more direct impact on the lives of New Yorkers than anywhere else in the State is Roosevelt Island, which is located in my district. I believe this is a critical crossroads in the history of Roosevelt Island and I want to insure that my friends and neighbors from the Island are not forgotten.

As you know, Roosevelt Island was developed in the early 1970’s as a planned community for the purpose of being an affordable place to live for middle class New Yorkers. The Island is owned by the City of New York and leased to the State of New York. Roosevelt Island is governed by the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation (RIOC), a public benefit corporation constituted in 1984 whose Board members would be appointed by you as Governor and confirmed by the State Senate. Roosevelt Island’s Master Lease includes a General Development Plan (GDP) that stipulates that a certain percentage of units of housing in the Northtown and Southtown sections must be affordable. Only the Mayor of New York and the RIOC Board together can amend the Master Lease and GDP.

RIOC was created to manage Roosevelt Island, oversee its continued development through the Master Plan and allocate State capital funding and operational support. Unfortunately the Pataki Administration distorted RIOC’s purpose over the last twelve years. Governor Pataki turned RIOC into a dumping ground for his political cronies, like Jerome Blue and Robert Ryan, the latter who was ultimately suspended and removed as RIOC President under the cloud of misappropriating RIOC funds.

The original spirit of the GDP was basically invalidated through repeated amendments to the Master Lease. RIOC’s policies under Pataki have begun to decimate much of the affordable housing stock on the Island. Over the last two years several original North Town buildings have left (Eastwood) or are in the process of leaving (Island House, Westview) the Mitchell-Lama program to become market rate, which could possibly be a violation of the Master Lease’s affordability component, but RIOC has ignored this and allowed these deals to proceed. Most recently it was left to Assemblymember Alexander B. Pete Grannis to question whether RY Management was warehousing apartments in Island House and Westview in violation of Mitchell-Lama regulations. RIOC has also put several parcels of land up for sale over the last year, including one that has a building built partially with Federal funds and another piece bordering land that is supposed to be developed into a State park, which has residents worried that the entire plot designated to be park land will be sold to private developers.

With State operational and capital subsidies eliminated in 1995, RIOC’s leadership has proven ill-equipped to essentially be a self-sufficient governing body. What should be simple tasks, like properly scheduling the Island’s Red Bus service to ease the commute of residents, seems to elude those running RIOC. RIOC has continually been unsuccessful at leasing the commercial space on the Island, leaving residents without many of the basic amenities most New Yorkers take for granted, like having a local pizza parlor. And never has RIOC’s administrative incompetence been more prominently on display than in the poor way in which they dealt with the Roosevelt Island Tram being shut down for 5 months in the Spring and Summer of 2006.

When I first brought the issues regarding Roosevelt Island to your campaign’s attention in February, 2006 I was impressed with how engaged and responsive you were. I genuinely appreciated that you acted upon my request to hold a town hall forum on the Island. Your coming out to Roosevelt Island signified to many residents that a new day was dawning on the Island. The only question now is what will that new day look like?

If you believe as I do that RIOC’s intended purpose is to maintain Roosevelt Island as an affordable enclave for the middle class in Manhattan, it is difficult not to conclude that RIOC has become dysfunctional. Worst of all, RIOC has lost credibility amongst those it was meant to govern. Many of the longtime residents of Roosevelt Island that I have spoken with are skeptical about whether RIOC exists for their benefit any longer. A recent referendum placed on the Roosevelt Island Residents Association’s ballot confirms this; by a vote of 934 to 44, 95.5% of residents stated they preferred an elected RIOC Board to its current configuration. I view this as a clear vote of no confidence in the current RIOC leadership and their ability to administer services on the Island. In fact residents of the Rivercross building inform me that the only reason they have not filed to come out of the Mitchell-Lama program is because they have no confidence that RIOC is willing to negotiate a reasonable ground rent and tax position for them. If they file to come out of the Mitchell-Lama program and do not have a tax deal in place, all they have done is put their shareholders at risk of being priced out of their own homes. I do not believe that Roosevelt Island’s problems can be whitewashed over any longer. Main Street will need more than a new coat of paint.

Since I do not pretend to have the solution to Roosevelt Island’s current situation, I am requesting that the candidate selected to serve as your administration’s Commissioner of the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal convene and chair a comprehensive policy summit early next year to determine the role and relevance of RIOC in the future of Roosevelt Island. Preserving the affordable housing stock and creating the best quality of life for residents must be the driving forces behind the policies generated at this conference. All the relevant parties who have a regulatory role, financial or communal stake in the future of Roosevelt Island should be invited to take part. Most of all, nothing should be predetermined or precluded from the outset and every potential option to protect the affordable housing and reform the way the Island is administered must be thoroughly examined. To insure that this process is not undermined before it even begins, except for the ongoing time sensitive real estate negotiations with Island House and Westview, it may be best to request that RIOC abstain from finalizing any other major financial or real estate transactions until this summit makes its policy recommendations.

I want to thank you in advance for considering my proposal. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me at 646-325-6470.

Micah Z. Kellner
Democratic State Committeeman
65th A.D
 

To the Editor:

The debate about whether or not the Fall for Arts festival was successful could be instructive – if we begin by defining "success."

Let’s assume Herb Berman came to RIOC with a list of goals for his administration to accomplish. An educated guess is that improving RIOC’s finances and making essential repairs to Island infrastructure were at the top of the list. But Berman, near the end of his tenure, wants a longer list of accomplishments. So, he began installing new light poles, painting the benches red and the Meditation Steps white, and – of course, ordering new trash containers.

Are Island residents convinced that the trash containers (which are already chipped and beginning to look shabby) are worth about $2,000 each? Could the money have been better spent on supporting worthwhile community organizations?

The answer depends on your definition of "better spent."

To understand why RIOC is angry that not all residents were grateful for Fall for Arts, we have to understand RIOC’s goals for the event. RIOC wanted to have a big budget, to hire an expensive company to promote the event and get it in the media. RIOC wanted to have a long list of community organizations – not necessarily to work with the organizations and respect their needs and wishes, but simply to have a long list of organizations.

I am absolutely certain that when Berman submits his list of 2006 accomplishments to Albany, Fall for Arts will have a prominent place on the list.

If more residents had been asked for their input and the final list of goals for the event had been determined by a joint committee of residents and RIOC staff, it might have been a different event.

Sharon Bermon

 

To the Editor:

I saw the ad in The WIRE about FIOS internet, offered by Verizon. I decided to subscribe.

Surprise – FIOS is not available in Island House. I called RY Management for details, and the answer was that due to current ownership negotiations, the contract with Verizon cannot be signed at this time.

After a few more e-mails with Ms. Jennifer Jones of RY Management and with our own IHTA Board, it turns out that the real reason is different (at least for now). It seems to be an exclusive "sweetheart deal" with RCN, which prevents other carriers from being brought in to the building.

Needless to say, this deal is no longer sweet. Cable service, which I believe was originally $18, is now over $40 in just a few years, not to mention the quality of service and the decreasing number of channels for the money. Also, their Internet offer sucks.

So, I believe this deal/contract should be cancelled and other options should be considered, now, and not in the near (or distant) future.

Competition should be brought in, and tenants should be offered a choice. There are no losers here (in my opinion and with this scenario).

At the last IHTA Board meeting, this issue was briefly discussed, and besides no resolution, it seemed to me that a few of the 10-12 people in the audience seemed to be very interested in this offer, should FIOS become available.

I understand Rivercross is considering this and Octagon already has it.

Why not Island House?

Mircea Nicolescu

 

To RIOC VP Catherine Johnson:

I’m writing to complain about the new express bus service. I’ve already been affected adversely by this new schedule several times and it’s just been put into effect. I’ve chosen to walk (and beaten the "public" Red Bus), but there are many people here who don’t have that option. For instance, those with school children too small to walk quickly have just as much right to make their school bell as the Octagon professionals who want to make it to work on time.

It doesn’t make sense to have a fairly empty bus bypass waiting customers. The route is a short one and stopping for passengers does not take that long. If those who get on first move to the back, it’s even quicker.

If Octagon management promised its tenants superior bus service, they should have to provide it at their own cost and without inconvenience to the rest of the Island inhabitants.

I hope you scrap this experiment immediately because it’s clear to the passengers I’ve spoken to that it’s a failure.

Amy Richmond

Catherine Johnson responds:

Thank you for your e-mail. We are continuing to look at how best to serve all residents. The express bus has significantly reduced the overcrowding for WIRE building residents. We are making adjustments and will contiinue to review.