Like one more leaf falling after you thought they were all gone, another clue over how badly RIOC is broken drifted in. And it was on Wednesday the 13th, just minutes before the state agency kicked off a board meeting that may go down in history as the weirdest of all time. The bad news: The Red Bus system, the one thing RIOC has always done well, is now broken too.
by David Stone
The Roosevelt Island Daily News
What made this intersection so weird was the bubbling chaos revealed in both incidents.
There was President/CEO Shelton J. Haynes, slumped in his chair, heading up a board meeting, looking like he’d already taken a gut punch… and topping up inboxes, the advisory that “due to staffing shortfalls and ongoing maintenance issues” a route was being canceled.
How Badly Is RIOC Broken?
Although not as contentious as previous meetings, the board meeting was bizarre. Haynes – along with VP/Chief Counsel Gretchen Robinson – has sued the very organization he has run for three years. Also, in a classic act of biting the hand that feeds you, he is suing the Governor’s office.
A vast racist conspiracy has lined up against the pair for years, their lawsuit says. Outlandish as that is, it pales for most of us in comparison with the failing Red Bus system.
Canceling the Red Bus Shuttle to Queens Plaza contrasted sharply with everything preceding it.
“This decision will allow us to focus our resources on Main Street during the busy morning commute, where Red Bus service is most needed by the community,” the advisory said.
But there never was and still isn’t any explanation for why they started it in the first place. Now, they make canceling it into a virtue.
In my dictionary, virtue is “behavior showing high moral standards.” Doing the job you’re paid for wouldn’t make it into that category. Coming into work every day when you can stay home in your jammies for the same pay – That’s a virtue.
Then, the other shoe dropped…
Due to a severe shortage of buses, we must cancel this weekend’s regularly scheduled afternoon Red Bus Shuttle service to Manhattan. We apologize for the inconvenience, but with only 2 buses in operation due to maintenance issues, we must focus our resources on Main Street service for island travelers.
RIOC Advisory – Released hours after the canceled service took effect.
Can it get worse? Or has RIOC finally hit rock bottom?
Why the Red Buses Matter
Since the day I moved to Roosevelt Island, thirty years ago – and long before that – the Red Bus system always worked well. You could set your clock by them.
I remember checking my watch while coming up the subway escalator, calculating whether I’d catch the next bus on time. The circuit was that reliable, and it required routine maintenance and keeping good personnel on staff.
That job, making your way around double-parkers on narrow streets, ever alert for jaywalkers and reckless drivers in cars and on e-bikes, is underrated because our drivers make it look easy. They don’t complain. They work hard.
The inevitable Judy Berdy moment
Fifty Reasons to Love Roosevelt Island was my first contribution to the print news here — an editorial praising the innate beauty of the place and Roosevelt Islanders who contributed so much.
I thought it was a big win, and I was proud of it. But a day after it was printed, I got a dose of reality as only our historian can deliver it.
“He thinks the Island runs by itself,” Berdy shared with a Red Bus driver, loud enough to inform the whole bus.
Her beef was that I hadn’t mentioned RIOC or any of its hardworking staff, and she was right. RIOC, then, especially with the buses, did its work so well that you hardly noticed. When there was a mistake, they fixed it, fast.
I didn’t know her well, then, but many Judy Berdy moments would follow.
The takeaway…
When the Red Bus system begins breaking down, RIOC is at rock bottom. There’s nothing more to ruin.
During the pandemic, while most of RIOC snuggled under blankets with hot cocoa, the bus drivers were like stitches keeping the Roosevelt Island fabric together. One of the few not isolating because journalists were spared, I got into giving them clenched fist salutes while mouthing, “Thank you,” as they drove by.
They kept those 15-minute schedules. Our community still had its foundation.
A quick salute to Transportation Director Cy Opperman, one of the best managers anywhere. Who else could’ve kept those drivers going during the worst crises?
Why Is RIOC Broken?
Years of mismanagement take their toll. One by one, reliable functions within the state agency have failed.
No one could have predicted the lethargic failures of the Public Safety Department that Jack McManus built so well out of inherited wreckage.
After years of thorough community communications with Alonza Robertson and Terrance McCauley, who thought the advisory system would tumble into incoherent dribs and drabs of often illiterate messaging?
Who thought RIIOC’s community board members would gradually become hapless bobbleheads? Or that treasured events like Fall for Arts and Roosevelt Island Day would shrink by half?
Not many of us probably, but when the Red Bus system goes bad, it’s hard to imagine much else left to break.
Emergency Without Urgency
When government invokes the word “emergency,” normal process changes. Timelines accelerate. Environmental review can narrow. Procurement pathways can shift.
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