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June 16, 2007 |
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Last weekend was Roosevelt Island Day and it was another humdinger! How does Doryne Isley consistently arrange for those sunny days? The black tee-shirts went like hotcakes and I was glad to get mine early. The juice, coffee, and bagels also went like hotcakes at the RIRA breakfast stand, fueling all the volunteers for their morning’s exertions. Didn’t the Island look spruced up after all those flowers were planted! The kids had a ball and I was sorely tempted to try my luck dunking Mike Moreo of RIOC or René Bryan of Public Safety in the dunking pool. The Motown band was fine but I especially wanted to hear all those young guitarists who regaled us prior to the main event. There’s major talent in this community!
June 9 was the culmination of the RIRA/CERT blood drive as well. This was an endeavor I had committed to last September, months before I was elected to another term as RIRA president, and marks our second and last blood drive for 2007. Our efforts over four weeks of soliciting donor pledges at the Farmers Market paid off, with 68 Islanders promising to donate blood. Of those, we lost 27 to attrition (the New York Blood Center must disqualify some folks for a variety of reasons) leaving 41 donors giving 42 pints of the red stuff (y’see, one donor gave packed red cells, which qualifies as two donations). Thanks to all you bleeders; that half-hour you spent at the Senior Center spelled life for many New Yorkers. Every one of you will receive two Mets tickets in the mail as well as a voucher for a gratis espresso or cappuccino at Angels Restaurant. And two lucky donors, Silvia Kramar and Carlos Ramos, won dinner for two at the selfsame Angels. Buon appetito!
Also, my thanks go to those intrepid RIRA and CERT members who spent hours at the Saturday Farmer’s Market importuning one and all to part with a pint. They include: Marty Dinerstein, Frank Farance, Georganna Galateau, Linda Heimer, Sherie Helstien, Jonathan Kalkin, Gail Montague, Howard Polivy, Zlatko (Ziggy) Ramljak, George Reither, Ronnie Rigos, Gwen Ryals, Margie Smith, Erik Stocker and Julie White. Parting with a portion of what is often a day off takes commitment and these folks give it time and again. And finally, thank you to Dolores Green and the Senior Center for the use of the hall.
On June 3, the Senior Association celebrated the 25th anniversary of Senior Day as well as 30 years of activity on Roosevelt Island. Many of our local politicians attended. It was a gala event; the Senior Center has the best parties in town! I dropped a downer into the proceedings by mentioning that, given the Eastwood privatization agreements, the Senior and Disabled Associations were likely to wither and disappear over the next few years as those apartments become available and are rented to fair-market, non-senior tenants. This would dramatically change the face of this planned community and I hope our elected representatives will make preventing this tragedy a priority.
Assemblymember Micah Kellner has promised to bring our concerns to the attention of the Governor and, in fact, when Governor Spitzer called to congratulate Micah on his election, our newest Assemblyman was ready to pitch our issues. Kellner received 61% of the vote throughout the district and 86.3% on Roosevelt Island. Clearly, we recognize and respond to the attention of public officials and offer them our votes in return when they support us. Thank you, Micah, and best of luck as you fight for your district in Albany!
Today is the Senior Association’s Latin Festival and you will pass it up at your peril. I’ve enjoyed every Senior Center event that Dolores Green has invited me to, and I’m sure this fiesta will be no exception. Great food, great music, and terrific folks are guaranteed. ¡Bienvenido y muchas gracias, a los viejes!
Stuffed in today’s WIRE you will find a brochure produced by the Department of Transportation’s public relations company. It lays out the timeline for the Roosevelt Island Bridge reconstruction project, giving details as to the specifics of the work to be done. My thanks to Eric Deutsch of Zetlin Strategic Communications for agreeing to my request for 5,000 of these brochures. It’s my goal to keep you in the loop as the work commences and progresses.
I don’t always read the City and Metro sections of the Sunday Times but I did last weekend, and found some interesting stuff that I’d like to share. We have been plagued by the Public Authorities Act, passed last year, that apparently stymies any incentive RIOC might have to fill the vacant stores on Main Street and to accommodate the agreements negotiated by the tenant associations of Island House and Westview with the buildings’ owners. In an editorial entitled Two More Weeks, the Times notes some issues that must be "untangled before legislators pack up for the year." Among them was the following: "Reform of the phantom authorities system is so basic and so necessary that it should be done right away. That means giving some independent oversight, allowing the comptroller to vet contracts and making directors promise to do their duties to uphold the public mission of their authorities." For far too long, all we’ve heard from RIOC and its Board of Directors is that they need guidance in applying this egregious law. Since no precedents exist, sooner or later RIOC will have to take the bull by the horns and test this statute so as to comply with their responsibilities as a public-benefit corporation. We suggest sooner.
On the same page was an Op-Ed article by our Borough President and friend, Scott Stringer. In it, he suggests that Community Board members, who are appointed to this lowest rung of City government, should be chosen by a merit-based process. In RIRA’s efforts to create an election process for the RIOC Board of Directors, surely we will need to keep in mind the specific expertise required by these Directors. But Scott goes on to say that the Community Boards "…need to focus on training. To that end, we [the Manhattan Borough President’s office] are offering tutorials for new Board members on the basics of land use and zoning law. We also have started a program that assigns students studying urban planning to each Manhattan Community Board. Each Board receives the benefit of working with a graduate fellow, and the student receives a priceless education in the realities of urban planning." What a smart, synergistic way of improving government service!
Here’s the part that applies to us: "In addition to general training sessions co-sponsored with the mayor, my [Stringer’s] office offers workshops for Community Board members on the City budget process, resolution writing, parliamentary procedure, and conflicts of interest." Wouldn’t this be appropriate for members of the RIOC Board as well? The Public Authorities Reform Act requires Board Members who serve on Audit and Governance Committees to have some background in those committees’ business. Why not teach these volunteers, drawn from the community and already aware of the issues and needs of their neighbors, the nuts and bolts of Board function and procedure?
President Stringer ended with the following words, which I ask you to consider in light of the RIOC Board: "We are fortunate that an earlier generation of New York City leaders had the foresight to establish Community Boards and ensure that local residents had a role in development discussions. It’s our job now to cultivate these Boards so that they deliver the full measure of their promise."
RIRA is endeavoring to create, from scratch, an election process that will provide the best-qualified Island residents to lead us into Roosevelt Island’s future. It will be RIOC’s responsibility to ensure that these elected Directors know what they need to know to get the job done. Mr. Shane and Ms. VanAmerongen, are you listening?