Your last issue of The WIRE, brimful of news, facts, and theories about the woeful status of Roosevelt Island, proves without a shadow of doubt that the domino theory, to which our nearsighted management has subscribed since at last the late ’90s, has taken over lock, stock, and barrel, ad infinitum, in the endless Cold War between the still behind-the-scenes powers-that-be and our poor, suffering, Lilliputian public.

Most recently, and seemingly without warning, overnight capitulation of the totally defenseless Fresh Fish Store was the last (to date!) in the domino series of falling Little Retailers on Main Street. The poor owners probably didn’t even know at first what was hitting them, for the Brobdingnags forgot to bring along interpreters. Now we’re all forced to fish elsewhere.

Before that domino fell, it was the friendly Pizza Parlor, with its quaint old wicker chairs, and once convenient, adjacent space where one could get a great pasta carbonara, not to mention sizzling hot-dogs and pizza when on the run, that was struck down. And some time before that cruel day of the domino, there befell the demise of the Little Bakery, which once offered an amazing array of fresh-baked breads, cakes, flans, and auxiliary coffees and sweets when Trellis was too busy to pour, or didn’t care. Maybe they needed a Don Quixote referee? (Note the possible ethnic overtones in each of these topplings.)

Years ago, when I first landed on this historic Island, there was even a tiny Shoe Repair store to smell up the street. (Was it the first domino to fall?) So we were deprived of that convenient nook and now have to voyage to Queens or the Lower East Side for that lowly service. More recently, there was the scare over the card shop (still another ethnicity?). By some miracle, it has so far escaped the deluge, but will it be next? Or will that honor go to the quaint hardware/video potpourri emporium across the street, where one – with a little guidance and patience, to be sure – can find almost anything. Questioned about a possible pending debacle there, too, the poor Korean mistress of that pyramidal space could not hide her anxiety.

So one wonders. Why were these small, feisty enterprises denied occasional supportive loans or little subsidies when they were so needed, but that Gulliver-sized monster, Gristede’s, was granted two years’ tax abatement? For, as our Cassandra-voiced Ellen Polivy has pointed out in your worthy gazette, "the residents of this Island are captives to the Decision Makers."

One could go on and explore the domino theory in reverse as it applies to the incremental rise of one new construction site after another, gobbling up ball fields, tennis courts, children’s playgrounds, heavenly greenery, and surreptitious squirrel refuges: selfish enterprises granted scandalous bargain deals to erect huge, demonic dominos – octagons, hexagons, and flagrant trapezoids which, once filled, will so overpopulate this poor little Island that we’ll have to swim to Manhattan.

But I leave that all to the prescient spirit of Jonathan Swift. Consult his Tale of a Tub.

Maurice Edwards
a/k/a Dr. Samuel Johnson
& Mr. Houyhnhnm

Walking down the broken Roosevelt Island subway station escalator this weekend, I observed an elderly woman just starting up the second of the six flights of stairs between the mezzanine level and the street, hunched over, slowly pulling herself up one step at a time with both hands on the handrail. I called to her to go back down and take the elevator because all of the escalators were out of service. Grateful for the heads-up, she started back down slowly, one step at a time.

For decades I have taken the escalator up to the office where I bank – amazingly, not once has it been out of service. Other than upgrades, do you remember the escalators ever being broken in Macy’s? Bloomingdale’s? One of the joys of visiting the Marriott Marquis Hotel is taking either the glass elevators or the escalators up to the main reception area on the seventh floor. Of all the times that I have done this, I have never had to walk. Even the escalators at LaGuardia and JFK Airports always work.

As I continued walking down the steps, I was thinking what an aberration all those other escalators were – because the fact that the escalators on Roosevelt Island were not working is the norm, not an exception, to the point that now I am only surprised when they are working.

I personally would like to thank the Community Board 8 Transportation Committee for recognizing that we on Roosevelt Island are citizens of New York City and have the simple need, in case of emergency when all our facilities are shut down, to be able to leave the Island other than by swimming across the river.

I have lived on the Island for 30 years and for well over 45 years had businesses on the north side 59th Street, also on First Avenue and 62nd, and again on 63rd and Second Ave. I am thoroughly familiar with this wonderful island and the concerns of Community Board 8.

I am sure you know that, for many years, there was a car elevator and staircase to the island – the only access other than a small ferry at the north end. This elevator did not interfere with the flow of the traffic lanes, and definitely would not interfere with it now, as it would exit onto the side roadway, which is rarely used for car traffic, and could easily convert to a pedestrian walkway and a bicycle path.

I know from experience that Board 8 gets things accomplished, so a great big "Bravo."

I’m looking forward to your assistance to us on Roosevelt Island.

As President of the Roosevelt Island Disabled Community, and a resident of Eastwood apartments, I have been made aware that the new owners of Eastwood are not keeping apartments that, for the last 30 years, have been set aside for disabled people. It seems that, as a disabled person either dies or leaves an apartment, the apartment is no longer rented specifically to a disabled person. The apartment undergoes a change to a regular apartment and is rented as a fair market apartment.

I was one of the disabled people who gave insight to the former owners as to what changes had to be made for a apartment to be made accessible. I was one of the disabled persons given a specifically adapted apartment and finally left the dreary hospital ward for my very own apartment. This has given me independence and joy and made me feel accepted by the Roosevelt Island community.

The new owners need to leave the apartments designed for the handicapped, and continue to make them available to disabled tenants.

I oppose the building of the proposed stairway to Roosevelt Island from the Queensboro Bridge. While it may sound like a good idea, in reality it would be impractical, inefficient, and absurdly costly. My main reasons for opposition are:

• It provides little emergency egress. At best, it might handle 100-150 people an hour for a community of 12,000-20,000 – assuming no one has a heart attack while climbing 15 flights of stairs.

• Judging by the timing and capacity of the subway elevator, the inclusion of an elevator would move only 24-36 wheelchairs an hour, out of a population of hundreds. That means 20-30 hours of evacuation, assuming no breakdowns.

• Such an evacuation would likely result in a mob scene that blocks street traffic.

• It is unlikely to reduce subway crowding because few people are fit enough or inclined to use stairs. If they were, they’d be using the stairs in their high-rise homes instead of the elevator. Even athletes wouldn’t save time on their commute.

I welcome amenities for Roosevelt Island. But this is an expensive one that could possibly divert State and City funds from more worthwhile projects.

Instead, I make the following practical recommendations:

• Prior to a hurricane, contract with the Circle Line for emergency evacuation. It could move 100-300 people per hour. It would be similar to the Office of Emergency Management’s contract with Bay Crane for emergency crane service. Jessica Lappin is interested in improving the docks for a water taxi; that funding could address the docking of larger boats.

• Hire a competent transit planner to determine the Island’s options.

• Extend Q service from 57th Street to Queensbridge 21st Street. I have presented this plan to Lappin and she is supportive.

• Increase morning F train service from Queens. The system can accommodate trains every 2-3 minutes, and the MTA already helps Brooklyn riders with more northbound F trains during the morning rush, more southbound in the evening – We and Queens riders should get the same level of service as Brooklyn.

• Investigate hollowing out the ventilation shaft on Roosevelt Island for the N-R 60th Street line. In addition to creating a new station, it could serve as a transfer point for F-Q-N-R-tram customers, a boon to the City.

• Request that the City OEM develop and test a solid hurricane evacuation plan.

• Have an independent third party evaluate RIOC’s secret emergency plan, which the public has never seen. RIOC should assert in writing that their plan is comprehensive and has been tested; we don’t need a repeat of last year’s Tramway disaster.

• Request that RIOC and Public Safety coordinate and train with Roosevelt Island’s CERT.

• Ask RIOC to provide a list of the kinds of emergencies they plan on responding to. For example, the delivery of food and water, while essential in an emergency, is not necessarily on their agenda.

• Investigate the possibility of a reliable "gravity-drop" method of closing the Roosevelt Island Bridge; in the event of a power failure, it would immediately make way for emergency vehicles.

• All analyses of transportation should have metrics, e.g., how many people are expected to be moved per hour, per day, etc. This, to me, seems obvious.

Frank Farance