Says the Space Cadet: “…and the Sheldon J. Haynes Parking Area remains empty while righteous residents drive around looking for spaces.”
The Roosevelt Island Daily News
“Please be advised, as New York City prepares for the remnants of tropical storm Ida, which has been downgraded to a depression, RIOC will be monitoring its progress and providing the community with any pertinent updates regarding transportation services and facility closures on the island.”
That’s the breathless run-on sentence RIOC pitched on Tuesday afternoon, but follow through was weak and incomplete. Tasks are immeasurably hard to complete when nobody’s around to do them.
It served as a reminder of the summer afternoon when Haynes’s predecessor, Leslie Torres, hightailed it for a vacation as a hurricane bore down on Roosevelt Island.
Anyway, the only update from RIOC thereafter was a note, late in the evening after hours of heavy rain and powerful winds, that the F Train was shut down. But even that was not followed up by any notice that it returned to service before 5:00 a.m.
So, Islanders on either side of the East River were left to assume that the Tram continued operating as 60 mile per hour winds raked the city and lightning bolts cut jagged lines under the clouds… And that MTA buses were on schedule.
They were not.
And completing the portrait of negligence, RIOC never relayed Mayor Bill de Blasio’s citywide State of Emergency declaration restricting vehicle travel to emergencies only.
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Can You Hear Us?
In earlier meetings, a bright light behind Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation Vice President and General Counsel Gretchen Robinson had left her face nearly invisible. On July 2, 2020, with Susan Rosenthal gone and a new administration forming, Gretchen appeared fully lit.
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