We the undersigned represent the tenants of Westview.

We declare that the present schedule for Red Buses carrying residents home from the subway station is not tenable because it causes extreme hardship to a large number of residents. Especially affected are the elderly, people with small children, people carrying bundles and luggage, and those in general who have difficulty walking up the hill to where the subway station bus stop has been moved.

The alternative of taking the Red Bus to the Tram, waiting there for the Tram to arrive, and then going home by a longer bus route may add 15 minutes to the trip. This is unacceptable.

The population of Roosevelt Island has become much larger. More intelligent decisions regarding transportation are necessary. Services to the residents who have been here a long time have been curtailed too often. This latest change – eliminating the subway bus stop – must be reversed.

Sandra Zwerling
and 17 more Westview residents

As a practical and ADA-compliant solution to the current Main Street bus problem, I propose the following route change for southbound RIOC buses:

Southbound buses turn left at the Blackwell House traffic circle and head south to pick up and discharge passengers at the hill-top buildings. From there, the buses can go directly to the Tram to pick up and discharge Tram passengers.

Since the bus is, at this point, headed directly toward the West Service Road, there is no need for a turnaround, and the bus can continue on its way to the subway station, where it can discharge subway passengers and pick up passengers for Main Street destinations – including special-needs passengers.

This route makes efficient and compliant use of existing RIOC transit facilities, and can benefit all concerned.

Has any thought been given to constructing an additional subway exit facing the new Red Bus stop? This might at least reduce the roundabout walk to the new bus stop from the subway exit.

Also, I believe the Q102 bus stop has not been similarly repositioned at the new Red Bus stop at the subway station. I was wondering if a "turnaround" behind the Goldwater steam plant – at the first available transverse road, perhaps by the tennis club – could be worked out, so that the Red Bus could still head north on Main Street West and continue to stop at the original subway Red Bus stop. It would mean a couple of extra turns for the driver after the Tram stop, but it would be a great convenience for subway riders who could then continue to wait at one stop for either the Q102 or Red Bus.

You have tried to improve our bus schedule, but the new arrangements have made it worse. While your new schedule does offer express service to the Octagon, it destroys two of the most important elements of the previous system:

1. Knowing that a bus would always be waiting at the Tram for all arrivals, day and night.

2. Being able to catch a Red Bus, heading north, just outside the subway station.

While you may not think these are important, consider the discomfort and inconvenience when rain, snow, ice, and even hot weather cause elderly and handicapped residents to walk across the street (in the case of the subway station), travel in the wrong direction, sit and wait for the Tram, and then start the journey home (if lucky enough to catch a local bus).

After hours, Island residents who cannot walk long distances have no choice but to wait for a bus, sometimes up to 30 minutes, at the Tram – or, in the case of the subway, hike up the hill to a lonely spot across the street from Southtown.

We think this can be fixed.

We recognize that you have lost the bus turnaround at the Tram. One possible solution is to have the buses meeting each Tram make a right turn and pass to the south of Sportspark to return and make a stop at the subway.

Another solution is to have the buses run on continuous circles heading in opposite directions, with stops on each side of the street at the Tram and the subway. While this wouldn’t necessarily fix the problem of a bus meeting each Tram, it would double the opportunities to catch a bus at the Tram heading in either direction. It would reduce after-hours waiting time at the Tram.

Please reconsider the routing, restore the northbound stop at the subway, and give us the opportunity to catch a bus at both the subway and the Tram.

Thanks for considering an approach to improved Island transportation.

I have read with curiosity the countless articles in The WIRE devoted to resident concerns, but for me the only issue of interest is getting to and from Manhattan via the transportation we have available (Red Bus, Tram, and subway). Since my time here, I have noticed that decisions made by RIOC have only made transportation worse, not better. The sense of apathy that I see around me for the deplorable conditions I experience on a daily basis makes me write this letter. I hope that it might spark some thought and dialogue about why things are the way they are and how to make things better.

First, and most importantly, is the sense of entitlement that Tram riders have of expecting to never have to wait for a Red Bus. Apparently, a Tram rider’s 25-cent Red Bus fare is worth more than everyone else’s. Far more people depart and arrive on the Island every day using the subway than the Tram. So why does the Red Bus then stop and wait at the Tram while subway riders are piling up at the subway station? And why should a subway rider have to wait for a Tram rider to arrive before a bus shows up? Am I, as a subway rider, a second-class citizen? Is my 25-cent fare worth less than a Tram rider’s? Why not keep the bus in constant motion in a loop? Eventually everyone, including the Tram riders, will get picked up. But at least everyone will have equal access to the bus service.

Second, on weekends, the MTA routinely shuts down subway service at the subway station for service in one or both directions. However, when the subway does not run, the Tram and Bus do not run on a rush-hour schedule to make up for the lack of transportation. This results in overcrowding on the Tram on weekends and a terrible beginning and end to every weekend. Why can’t the Tram and bus just keep running continuously on weekends, especially when service on the subway is disrupted? The Tram and bus operators get paid no matter if the Tram or bus runs or not. The bus simply idles at the Tram, wasting expensive fuel while the Tram simply stops as passengers pile up who would normally use the subway. Why are we wasting these scarce resources and allowing overcrowding on the Tram during service disruptions when the answer is staring us in the face?

Third, RIOC, in its infinite and unchallenged wisdom, has decided to move the Red Bus subway stop from the subway station to an unsheltered and inconvenient stop in front of the Riverwalk buildings! The subway station stop was far better for subway riders to wait for the bus, because it provided a safer, sheltered waiting location for the Red Bus, and was large enough to cover the usually large group of bus riders from the elements. Furthermore, the subway stop was safer, since riders could wait inside the station where a token clerk was in sight. I see no reason why the bus stop was changed other than to discourage subway riders from accessing the Red Bus service by making it inconvenient. Bring back the old northbound subway stop now.

Fourth, the Red Bus stops are too numerous for an efficient operation of the bus. Take, for example how the northbound bus stops twice at Manhattan Park. Those stops are ridiculously close together. Why not consolidate those stops into one stop midway between each existing stop? Can’t people walk anymore?

Fifth, the southbound Red Bus stop at Motorgate does not make any sense to me. Why does it make sense for a southbound bus to make two left-turns, into oncoming traffic, in order to pick up passengers going in a southbound direction? Why can’t the southbound Motorgate/Gristedes customers just cross the street so the bus doesn’t have to waste so much time doing a loop? This would also prevent the daily waste of time I see as Manhattan Park residents run toward the Gristedes stop in dribs and drabs, constantly holding up the bus from resuming its southward trip towards the Tram/subway.

The mark of good government is to use all the resources you have at your disposal in a rational and efficient way. Residents complain that there are not enough resources here. I disagree. There are enough resources. They are simply not being used to their full potential.

Reasonable urban planning dictates that you put a bus stop at a subway station, not 300 feet away. Reasonable urban planning dictates that you keep buses that are meant to run in a loop in constant motion, not parked wasting precious fuel while 99% of the remaining bus stops are not being serviced. Reasonable urban planning dictates rationalizing and consolidating locations of bus stops on a bus route to 1 every 3 blocks, not 1 every 60 feet.

Reasonable urban planning is obviously more than we can expect from RIOC. If you could, the second largest retailer on Roosevelt Island wouldn’t be a thrift store!

On behalf of the New York Blood Center, I would like to thank you for sponsoring a blood drive on June 9.

We are grateful for the opportunity to have worked with you and your organization to produce such a successful drive. The event collected 43 pints of blood, which have since been separated into their components and distributed to patients in hospitals throughout the area.

It is your effort and the commitment of our friends and neighbors that enable us to meet the daily demand for blood products. There is no substitute for caring people who take the time to donate blood so that others may live. Your organization has greatly helped us toward this goal.

Once again, thank you for helping us to fulfill our mission of saving lives. Should anyone have any questions regarding blood donation or wish to make an appointment to donate, please call 1-800-933-BLOOD. You can donate whole blood every 56 days.

Liz Wyeth
New York Blood Center

For quite a while I have felt that the litter situation here has gotten much worse and wished that Public Safety would issue citations with fines. I kinda think they have time to do this. Today I witnessed something that shocked and outraged me, but certainly goes a long way to explain the litter problem.

I saw one of the owners of M&D Deli sweeping the inside of the store when I entered. When I left, he was sweeping all the litter from inside and outside into the curb. This included empty chip bags, coffee cups, straw wrappers, chicken wings, etc. It now falls to RIOC to clean up the Deli’s mess. What is wrong with this picture? One very helpful young man offered, by way of explanation, that the bulk of this trash was too large to fit into our truly useless designer receptacles. Therefore, sweeping it into the curb was the only workable solution.

Why don’t we have fines for littering and signs that say so? And signs inside food service establishments requesting proper disposal of wrappings, etc. After all, it is the stores’ job to patrol their areas. Isn’t it?

Thank you for your April 25th informative talk on how CERT and Public Safety can work together in case of emergency. We appreciated your friendly manner and sense of humor, but most of all, learning the details of what we would actually be doing to assist Public Safety in order to free your officers up for more important tasks.

Many thanks also to Officers Azular, Payne, and Veras for the traffic-control training on May 16. The eight CERT members who attended the training found you and your officers to be very patient and instructive, and we welcomed the hands-on experience the sessions provided.

As you know, a major part of CERT’s mission is to assist first responders, which Public Safety would most likely be for a Roosevelt Island emergency. We hope our assistance will never be needed, but look forward to working with you if and when our community needs help.

Linda Heimer,
Chair CERT Programs & Training Committee

I write as an individual heartbroken and dismayed at the deplorable condition of Eastwood, which worsens exponentially since privatization.

I deplore the fact that, after we disabled/seniors leave/die, it ends affordable and/or disability/senior housing in Eastwood. And presently, building repairs and upkeep are simply not done; forget upgrading, except of course vacated apartments that now ask market-rate rents.

540 has had no intercom/door-buzzer service for six months; elevators are, despite new panels that also don’t work, a shambles. The place is dirty, shabby, delapidated; it looks like a slum. I thought it was bad before, but this is appalling.

Is there any way to restore our Mitchell-Lama status? Or at least mandate the present owners to maintain the Eastwood buildings at a decent level?

Come unannounced one day; walk around.

Sharon Stern