RIOC’s half-fast crackdown on abandoned bikes strewn around Roosevelt Island stepped up into action following our report. One area was cleared — after just 2 1/2 years — but another eyesore lives on.
Credit where credit’s due. It came over 2 1/2 years after we first reported, but RIOC finally fulfilled a promise. They cleared the garden of rusted and abandoned bikes under the Roosevelt Island Bridge helix.
That was one helluva good start, but when I checked on the unsightly bike dumps in Southtown, it failed at the finish.
RIOC’s half-fast crackdown on abandoned bikes petered out before getting are enough south…
Two ugly stacks of junked bikes, eyesores near the Island’s primary transit center. RIOC’s half-fast crackdown didn’t go far enough south.
And it was another promise broken.
A tag dangling from one of the abandoned bikes carried a two-week old date. But RIOC promised removal “within 48 hours.”
Once again, RIOC said one thing and did another.
How long will Southtown residents, friends, visitors and subway riders witness this unsightly mess every time they reach Main Street?
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Stack Work Advances While Answers Do Not
On June 17 and 18, HPD told the first meeting of the Roosevelt Island Steam Plant Demolition Community Advisory Group that smokestack demolition had no projected start date. Residents and the CAG would receive at least five business days’ advance notice once a date was set. Scaffolding around the stacks could not proceed until soil removal and backfill were complete and the area stabilized.
