RIOC’s December Newsletter, closing out 2023, disappoints in some ways that are awkward and almost painful. We renamed it the “Shelton J. Haynes Gazette” as that fits better than the official subtitle: “COMMUNITY, IDENTITY, CONVERSATIONS & INNOVATIONS,” none of which it has. Let’s take a look.
by David Stone
The Roosevelt Island Daily News
On the cover of the December Newsletter, there’s a picture of the “RIOC Executive Team,” but it varies significantly from one posted just last August. Missing are three members of the August team – shown above – all of them in the bottom row.
Akeem Jamal was disappeared in September. Kevin Brown runs RIOC’s biggest and worst functioning department – PSD or, as it’s mistakenly called later in the newsletter, the “Public Service Department.” He didn’t make the cut, and Assistant Controller Daemon De Stefano fled before summer’s end.
That left President/CEO Haynes towering over five much smaller women plus Assistant Chief Counsel Gerard Ellis, who appears to have been dragged in from outside still wearing his cold weather apparel and even his scarf. Maybe, it was for balance.
Note to RIOC: Huge, blocky paragraphs are newsletter malpractice. They discourage readership and send site visitors scurrying elsewhere. This crime repeats throughout all fourteen burdened and trudging pages.
RIOC’s December Newsletter on the Front End
Appropriately, the first and by far longest item is Letter from the President, the title mirrored for effect. The page is jammed with plump blocky, detail-free paragraphs crowding from margin to margin.
“Just read through this,” one resident remarked. “I wonder who wrote Shelton’s speech…?”
“And, in the words of Stephen Colbert – more Truthiness!”
The big claim…
When the old Sportspark closed, monthly membership stood at a paltry 288 members. Today, we have just over 2,100 paid Sportspark members, a 630% increase that’s far beyond our initial projected goals. The community came flocking back to the complex because of the outstanding work we did to reinvent a once great island staple that had fallen on hard times. As the old adage goes, “if you build it, they will come.”
Attributed to Shelton J. Haynes, RIOC December Newsletter
First of all, “If you build it, they will come,” is not an “old adage.” It’s not, in fact, even an adage.
“If you build it, he will come,” whispered by an unseen Ray Liotta in Field of Dreams, we later learn, means that, if Kevin Costner’s character builds a baseball diamond in his cornfield, his dad and a bunch of old-timers will return from the afterlife for some games.
Whoever crudely misused this famous quote can catch the movie on Amazon Prime or Apple TV for under $5. Or they can run a quick fact check in search. We did. It took under a minute.
288 Members to “over 2,100 paid Sportspark Members”
Let’s forget for now that any new membership happened only after public outrage forced Haynes to back off an original pricing plan that would have been out of reach for many Roosevelt Islanders.
But, if these numbers are true, new members signed up at a average of 10 per day, seven days a week, since the May 19th opening. And, using the probable fees for analysis, that won’t generate revenue to break even. Not even close.
And adding carelessness to nonsense, if the 288 to 2,100 is accurate, that’s not 630%. RIOC still doesn’t have proof readers.
Misinformation Continues
In the December Newsletter, Haynes or his ghostwriter says, “Other ongoing capital projects are continuing on their current pathways, the biggest of which is our paved roadways redesign, which is still tentatively on track for completion in 2025.”
Has anyone heard of the “paved roadways redesign” before? What happened to
- The Traffic Safety Plan Haynes promised over two years ago.
- The East Seawall repair project where engineers say there’s a high risk of catastrophic collapse.
- Repair to The Girl Puzzle where poor original workmanship led to a crumbling foundation.
And those are just the highlights.
From Most Powerful to Most Whiny and Victimized
Left completely out of Haynes’s yearend wrap-up is the single most impactful development involving RIOC, Roosevelt Island and the extended community.
In August City & State crowned Haynes as 91st in a list of Manhattan’s most powerful.
This struck many here as odd because few consider Haynes the most powerful person even on Roosevelt Island. Common sense tells us that powerful people don’t hide from the public.
At the time of the City & State report, we later found, Haynes was on “extended medical leave,” stressed out over an alleged wave of racism targeting him and Chief Counsel Gretchen Robinson. According to a lawsuit filed by the pair, a vast racist conspiracy running from Albany to Main Street left them victims unable to do their jobs effectively.
Their lawsuit is still pending, but it’s, by any account, a far stretch from there to most powerful.
Elsewhere in the December Newsletter
If you read the Shelton J. Haynes Gazette, you’ll find…
- Haynes is “incredibly proud” of the Constituent Service Department – also Constituent Services in the same big lump of a paragraph. But that was started by then-President/Assistant Vice President Akeem Jamal who was later disappeared by RIOC.
- Haynes takes credit for OMNY integration at the Tram when all he did was sit passively and wait for the MTA. “Having OMNY has already made riding to and from Roosevelt Island a lot easier for islanders,” he says. No, it hasn’t. It’s made it easier for tourists. And Team RIOC made no progress toward getting the MTA to renegotiate revenue sharing which currently allows the MTA to take an unearned $100,000 per month away from Roosevelt Island.
- RIOC is “…working on a project to update some of the dated signage on the island, including the wayfinding signage that helps people navigate all the wonderful attractions we offer.” After only four years of pushing it to do something… anything… to ameliorate this embarrassing situation.
Finally, A Note of Clear Incompetence
“On December 7th, the Roosevelt Island Public Service Department hosted its annual awards ceremony
– The Shelton J. Haynes Gazette.
to recognize the outstanding work by officers and supervisors throughout the year. Congratulations to all of this year’s awards recipients and thank you to all of our wonderful PSD officers for keeping us safe every day!”
Questions:
- When did we get a Public Service Department?
- If you appreciate the officers so much, why didn’t you list a single name or an award given?
Contrast this with Haynes’s extravagant first page salute to himself.
On naming, neglect, and the quiet work that keeps things standing
About twenty years ago, there was Harbor Police activity near the water, just south of the subway entrance. At the time, no one really thought of it as a pier, though technically there was a small boardwalk there. Of course it wasn’t a pier. A pier implies intention.
3 COMMENTS
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As much as I enjoy your calling out all the issues with this article, the ‘630% increase’ calculation is technically correct (though I doubt the veracity of the actual number – 2100 paying members seems specious, given the total population of Roosevelt Island).
2100/288 ~ 7.3. So, that’s a 7.3X, or a 630% increase
[For example, if you originally had 100 members, and you now have 700 members, that’s a 7X increase, or 600% increase from 100%].
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I do wonder though if the 2100 number is based on just the total number of daily passes that were paid for (which may be stretching the term ‘paid Sportspark members’ as that terms suggests monthly paid members. Just curious if Roosevelt Island daily can report on how crowded (or not) the facilities usually are.
In my experience, it isn’t crowded, especially on weekdays, and that’s confirmed by their staff. On the day I visited, you could’ve shot a cannonball through there without hitting anyone. The 2,100 figure appears ridiculous. Normally, I’d FOIL for better information, but they bury FOIL requests from me.