| Contents |
June 2, 2007 |
|
Where to begin? The summer season began with a gorgeous Memorial Day weekend and I hope you got to spend some of it outdoors as Sherie and I did. You may have seen us soaking up the rays on the fringe of the Manhattan Park west channel lawn. Both of those lawns are being reseeded and should look spectacular very soon.
You also may have seen me Saturday at the Farmer’s Market at our second sign-up-the-blood-donors effort. Volunteers from both RIRA and CERT, the drive sponsors, have been soliciting and will continue to solicit your donations through the Roosevelt Island Day blood collection at the Senior Center.
In this issue of The WIRE you will find a yellow insert from the New York Blood Center. Before you discard it, please read it. It gives the basic information as to who may donate, where and when you may donate, and how to go about signing up for the June 9 event. We will be at the Farmer’s Market from 10:00 A.M. to 2:00 P.M. today (Saturday, June 2) to take your pledges and to find a time of day that will get you in and out expeditiously on Roosevelt Island Day. Please, don’t leave this duty for others to fulfill. If you’ve never given blood before, now is a good time to start. If you have concerns about your eligibility, call the number on the flyer or simply sign up and have your questions answered by the professionals when you show up to donate.
Continuing on my summer theme, perhaps you intend to barbecue somewhere on the Island during the good weather. There are grills at Lighthouse Park, at the entrance to Octagon Park on the west channel, and adjacent to the soccer field on the west channel. But clearly, these grills are a scarce resource. In past years, their use was first come, first served. I’ve been informed that there will be some procedure for reserving the grills this summer, but I don’t know what that procedure will be or, for that matter, how it will be enforced. When I know, you’ll know.
Several years ago, during the community meetings on Octagon Apartments conducted by developer Bruce Becker of Becker & Becker Associates, we were told that the picnic area in the vicinity of the construction site would be removed, but that BBA would replace it bigger, better, and nicer. Sherie and I walked up that way last Sunday and found the area to be gravel and grass with some new and some old trees, but without picnic facilities.
RIOC President Steve Shane has informed me that RIOC will pick up the slack and that "The BBQ stuff is on order." I assume this will include the grills, picnic tables, and benches, as well as trash cans. The good news is that we may expect delivery and installation by the July 4th holiday. I don’t know how the BBA promise became RIOC’s to fulfill but I’m glad they’ve taken responsibility that, again I’m assuming, will include maintenance and cleaning of the area once in place. Thank you, Steve.
Perhaps you’ve followed the planning for a new Southpoint Park over the last six years. I’ve been a part of the conceptual planning process since the beginning and have found it to be exciting and gratifying. Imagine; helping to create a park that generations of New Yorkers will use! On Monday, June 4, the Trust for Public Land will present the next step in the process, the design plan, to the community at a Town Meeting in the Chapel at 7:00 P.M. Please make it your business to attend. After all, this may be the last chance we get to influence the process given that "shovels in the ground" may commence as early as next spring. The State, the City, and RIOC have amassed $12.4 million to build Phase I and, we are told, this sum falls short of what is need by some $3 million. I haven’t seen the spread sheets but, clearly, this is a big project with an impressive amount of government money behind it. If what you see and hear on Monday doesn’t include components that you had expected or hoped to be included (I’m thinking of the Living Library ideas I mentioned in my last column), this would be a good (and possibly the last) time to make a pitch for their inclusion.
Next Tuesday, June 5, marks a special election to fill Pete Grannis’s Assembly seat. I can’t tell you whom to vote for, only that your vote is important. Please read the literature in your mailbox, take note of who visits the Island and his familiarity with our issues, and cast your vote accordingly. Elections are sometimes won or lost based on the apathy of the electorate. Roosevelt Islanders count on the support of our elected officials and we need to be heard at the polls and in force.
Last Sunday’s New York Times included an editorial in the City Section entitled, "New York’s Powerful Ghosts." It posited that "New York State government has two parts, one public and one carefully tucked out of sight." The first is the governor and Legislature, with the "shadow government" being the public authorities. I bring this up because the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation is a public authority and subject to the Public Authorities Act, passed last year. The editorial goes on to say that the authorities were created to expedite government business but that "they are accountable to almost no one." No one even knows how many public authorities there are! God knows, this horrific state of affairs has impacted the mismanagement of Roosevelt Island over the years.
The editorial continues with a report on legislative reforms that are being considered in Albany, concluding with "Mr. Spitzer, a longtime advocate of reining in the authorities, should be able to work with the Legislature to change the law this year [my italics]." RIOC’s Steve Shane has charged this misbegotten law with obfuscating the capacity both to fill commercial space on Main Street and to expedite ground lease extensions for Northtown residential buildings.
RIOC should never have been created as a public authority in the first place. The Public Authorities Act, passed last year and often contradicting RIOC’s role as a public benefit corporation, has frozen RIOC’s ability to act in the best interests of this Island population except, as we saw under the Pataki administration, for sweetheart development deals. The editorial refers to "some very shoddy deals" such as one authority’s effort to sell "…the rights to develop miles of shoreline along the Erie Canal for much less than they were worth." That deal was canceled when it came to light; we have to live with ours.
I’ve been busy reading the bill introduced in Albany as well as the Governor’s Memorandum regarding the intended reforms. Whether Roosevelt Island in ten years will resemble the current community, in demographics or in infrastructure, will largely depend on these reforms and how the dichotomy between RIOC’s responsibilities as a Public Benefit Corporation and those as a Public Authority are interpreted, possibly by the courts. If you find this worrisome, so do I.
The planning for an election of RIOC Directors continues. A week ago Thursday, we met with Mr. Shane and DHCR Commissioner Deborah VanAmerongen to consider some of her concerns. What to call this process is a question. We are not actually electing the Board members, simply presenting the Island’s choices to the Governor for his appointment and the State Senate for their consent. But it’s not just a nominating process; without a guarantee that our choices at the polls will be honored (excluding some dire revelation in the vetting process, of course), RIRA’s participation cannot continue and we will decline the offer. However, this is a problem in semantics, not in process, and we will certainly find language that satisfies all parties.
Another question raised was "What qualifications must these candidates present for consideration as Board Members?" For the twenty-three years of RIOC’s existence, there have been no written qualifications required other than satisfying the Governor that the candidates were competent to hold the position. Should there be qualifications now? I think we came to a meeting of the minds, stipulating that we require the candidates’ credentials to be posted prior to the election and then letting you the electorate decide who should be entrusted with the future of a $20 million corporation and, just incidentally, the future of this community. Interesting stuff, no?
And finally, the new Red Bus route has now been in effect for several weeks. I’ve heard sporadic complaints from both riders and drivers as to long waits at the subway and bus bunching during rush hours. Neighbors, I don’t set bus policy, RIOC does. Please address your comments to Steve Shane; he has asked you to do so and he means it. When I convey your comments they are diluted by virtue of coming from just one resident – me. Even as exemplary and true-blue as I am, a critique that reaches the powers that be from multiple sources will have more clout. Remember the squeaky wheel?