Roosevelt Islanders pay 4 million dollars for Public Safety on demand, but the results are spotty at best, disturbing at worst. It’s a not well-known fact that the State of New York contributes not a dime for local operations. The vast majority comes out of residents’ pockets by way of the hidden RIOC tax.
By David Stone
The Roosevelt Island Daily News
Is this the best we can expect?
Another interesting fact: although money never comes this way out of Albany, Roosevelt Island’s subservient managers are controlled by the governor. Micromanaged, in fact.
After one appeal after another for controlling bike safety, we still find motorized bikes running the Island without interference.
As we see from these video, taken by Roosevelt Islanders, conditions approach life-threatening.
First, you see a man with his cart forced out of the crosswalk by a thoughtlessly parked motorbike in front of Foodtown. Passing motorists ignore rules regarding people in crosswalks.
“8/20/2021 12:45-1pm,” our reader noted. “No PSD walked or drove by. Should I have called them? So frustrating.”
Then, it got worse.
A women using a crutch is forced to hobble around the cyclist while he stands there fiddling with it.
Then, even worse…
Now, a wheelchair must maneuver around this goof.
4 million dollars for public safety…
And not a single officer in sight in the middle of the day.
But for two reasons, don’t assume the presence of a PSD officer would certainly make a difference.
This is the standard RIOC’s Public Safety Department set soon after Chief Jack McManus retired, as we’ve reported many times.
Proof?
Here’s a video from the middle of town with public safety officers present, including one following a motor scooter running a stop sign and doing absolutely nothing about it.
Watch to the end for the full picture of what’s acceptable on Roosevelt Island, these days.
Where does it end?
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What the Promenade Remembers
The light on the East River in the early morning is different from the light anywhere else on the Island. It comes in low and sideways, catching the water in long, uneven flashes. On certain days it makes the promenade feel less like a walkway and more like a corridor someone once meant to finish but never quite did. When I was younger I found the suggestion to stop and look at it faintly ridiculous.
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