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December 16, 2006 |
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Your Residents Association Common Council held its first meeting on December 6 and it was déjà vu all over again for me. I guess chairing a meeting is like riding a bike; you never really lose the knack once learned.
We hit the ground running, just as I had hoped. We’ve elected all pertinent officers and committee chairs and, just by coincidence, they represent every building complex on Roosevelt Island including, I’m glad to say, our newest neighbors in Southtown and Octagon Apartments. Key officers include Geoff Kerr as Auditor (not a Common Council position, by the way) and Lynn Chambers and Sherie Helstien reprising their roles as Treasurer and Secretary of the Council respectively. Much of the business of the Council is conducted through RIRA committees and the newly-elected chairs will have several weeks to recruit members and start to think about issues and projects to take up in 2007.
Two motions were considered at the meeting. The first was to address an untenable situation in 455 Main Street, the Riverwalk condo, whose management has prevented the door-to-door distribution of this newspaper; a service provided in every other residential building on the Island. An intrinsic part of the cultural, social and civic life of this community is receiving, at one’s door and on the issue date, our newspaper of record. Forcing The WIRE to mail copies to subscribers, possibly days late and at great expense, just doesn’t cut it. A resolution was drafted urging management to reconsider. It passed unanimously.
Newly re-elected Government Relations Committee chair Margie Smith offered a letter containing issues that RIRA considers critical to be presented to Governor-Elect Spitzer. There was a lively discussion regarding issues to be included or deleted, their order of priority and the language in which they should be couched. The committee will continue to work on the document before presenting it for a vote of approval by the Common Council.
I was greatly pleased to see the level of knowledge and eagerness to participate evinced by the new group. I think the median age has dropped ten years from prior Councils and this bodes well for the future of RIRA. We greybeards (in my case, literally) must give way to new representation as the Island’s demographics change. I’m looking forward to handing the gavel off to a new generation in two years, assuming I can find my old gavel.
As you read in the last issue, the RIOC Board of Directors gave Paul Mas of Jones, Lang LaSalle a new contract for a six-month period and only covering the work necessary to achieve ground-lease extensions for Island House and Westview. This was a critical step in the privatization efforts of these two Northtown buildings and the Board’s failure to accomplish this probably would have spelled curtains for this tenant effort. The patience of both owners and residents has been sorely tested by the recalcitrance of RIOC and their sales representative to bring this negotiation to a successful conclusion. RIRA urges this RIOC Board and this DHCR Commissioner to oversee and expedite the process while they are still in office. If they drop the ball, it will be months before new Spitzer appointees will be able to pick up the pieces. Let’s go fellas, time’s a-wastin’!
Last Tuesday I attended the NYHC/NHC (New York Housing Conference/National Housing Conference) Annual Awards Luncheon at the invitation of Herb Berman along with several RIOC and RIOC Board members. Seventy-five years of advocacy of affordable housing was lauded while an audience of well over a thousand put away a nice cold lunch. Many friends in City government were present, among them our own City Council Member, Jessica Lappin, and Council Speaker, Christine Quinn, was one of the speakers. I found it curious that, with the exception of outgoing DHCR Commissioner Judith Calogero, I didn’t recognize any of our State pols in attendance. I got to say "hi" to City Comptroller Bill Thompson, who oversees the Master Lease between the City and the State for Roosevelt Island, and Richard Ravitch, who received a lifetime achievement award and whose participation in the privatization of the Waterside Plaza Mitchell-Lama development we all observed with interest.
By and large, I watched people I didn’t know give awards to other people I didn’t know. What I found very interesting, however, were all the high-powered banks and lending institutions that acted as corporate sponsors, benefactors and patrons of the event. Make no mistake, affordable and public housing is big business, in New York City and around the country. It makes you wonder why the affordable housing stock in this City hasn’t kept up with demand and whether, as the City grows to nine million souls (as predicted by Sean Donovan, NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development Commissioner) the vast audience of housing experts that surrounded me will rectify the situation.
This is my last column until mid-January and so I’d like to wish everyone a Happy Chanukah, a Merry Christmas, a good Kwanzaa and to all, a good Winter Solstice, marking the lengthening of daylight hours. Can spring be far behind? (Well, yes, as a matter of fact, it can.) Nevertheless, I shall continue to sing and play George Harrison’s "Here Comes the Sun" in hopes of an early spring.
It occurs to me that, by the time I next address you in these pages there will have been a sea change in the U.S. Congress and in the New York State "second floor," i.e. the Governor’s office. This calls for a dandy quote, don’cha think? Here goes:
A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to its true principles.
–Thomas Jefferson, 1798, after the passage of the Sedition Act.