Usually, we report the highlights of RIOC’s board and board committee meetings. But Thursday’s REDAC meeting had such a unique and rowdy vibe we’re covering it differently. Longtime board member and committee chair Howard Polivy stuck with his promise of inclusion for all, unusual for RIOC. The results were impressive. Here is an overview. Detailed analysis will follow.

by David Stone

The Roosevelt Island Daily News

REDAC with a Rowdy Vive

I want to congratulate you on last night’s meeting.  I’m vocal enough when I don’t like the way these things are handled, so I want to be just as vocal when they’re handled as well as they were last night.

I sincerely hope it will continue this way, and all indications are that it will.

Nice job…

Margie Smith in a follow up email to Howard Polivy

I doubt that anyone who attended disagrees, except possibly a RIOC manager unaccustomed to transparency.

Z-Brick Patchwork

Deputy General Counsel and Interim Co-Leader Gerrald Ellis emphasized RIOC’s commitment to improve the conditions on Main Street paved with Z-bricks. That commitment notwithstanding, no solution has been found yet.

As presented by RIOC at February 15th REDAC meeting….

It’s not so much the Z-bricks but the lack of support beneath, all sand and building infrastructure. It’s insufficient especially with the huge increases in traffic since original design and construction.

Resurfacing requires shutting down whole sections of Main Street. Patches won’t work. Where does the traffic go when the street is shut down?

It’s a dilemma RIOC’s faced – and looked away from – for years, but it’s at a tipping point now and must be handled.

Speaking for the physically challenged community, Nancy Brown explained that conditions are difficult to impossible now. Bulging and sinking sections make wheelchair passage hopeless in places, an unacceptable circumstance for the values in this community.

Brown suggested constructing raised crosswalks that would not be subject to the streets potholes and drop-offs.

The situation is obvious and unacceptable, but solutions are elusive. There is, though, among the interim RIOC leadership, a commitment to getting something done. This may not sound like much, but it’s a refreshing step up after years of talk and no action.

An Urban Forest for Southpoint

iDig2Learn founder Christina Delfico came prepared with an already funded project for evolving an idle section of Southpoint Park into an urban forest. The location would be adjacent to the Strecker Laboratory historic site.

She handled questions about upkeep and long term care with well-thought out answers.

Then, the Rowdy Vibe Kicked In

Showing how much has changed with RIOC, Ellis disclosed plans for an increase in Motorgate parking fees. Just a year ago, the Haynes administration just announced increases without any discussions, leading to an uproar of complaints and adjustments downward.

Profitability at Motorgate matters because, we learned, that income funds free Red Buses. Surprisingly, no complaints about fairness came up, but the rowdy vibe rose in objections.

Ben Fhala, who has labored at uprooting standard operating procedures at RIOC, asked detailed questions about justification for the increases. Of specific concern is a “draconian” 100% increase for people with disabilities.

Until a year ago, those drivers always parked free.

CFO Amin answered multiple questions about how revenue came in by category, i.e. resident parkers, nonresidents and one off parkers.

Fhala advocated taking a long look at the numbers and making a more considered decision on charges, especially as the money is used to finance a vital free service disproportionately used by the community.

Via email, the conversation continues into this week.

Among the things we learned…

• Manhattan Park is responsible for 40% of Motorgate, which the complex had built in the interest of improving rental values in their buildings.
• Revenues are shared between Manhattan Park at about that same division: 60/40.
• Manhattan Park wants rates higher than those being considered.

Master Lease 2068 Considerations

Unexpected details from early discussions concerning extending New York’s lease with the City over Roosevelt Island spiked the rowdy vibe higher.

Including Roosevelt Island’s City Council Member Julie Menin, talks have begun, a fact new to everyone present except RIOC. Even given the history of ignoring the Roosevelt Island community’s interests, it was startling.

Ellis explained that the talks involved extending the lease for 32 years – not the original 100 year term – to 2100. He offered no rationale, but the proposal was probably inspired by real estate developers with financing concerns.

But Roosevelt Islanders present didn’t take being shoved aside again lightly.

Who says, for example, that continuing with New York State/RIOC after their lease expired is automatically part of our future? Current conditions are good – temporarily – but Governor Hochul could end the brief Halcyon days in a heartbeat.

Roosevelt Islanders do not trust the governing Albany crowd with good reason. History is instructive, and patronage, not democracy, has always come out on top.

Margie Smith insisted that any continuation of the lease must include resident voting rights for RIOC’s board, a condition staunchly resisted by Hochul as well as predecessor Andrew Cuomo.

Roosevelt Island must have democratic rights like other American communities or it might as well go back to the city. State control offers little advantage, especially in recent years. Rather the opposite.

The Dreaded Palace of Versailles Bike Ramp

Of any proposal floated by RIOC in the last decade, none is worse or more hated than the bike ramp and accompanying lane.

As far as we can tell, the only person who ever loved this awful idea was its originator, Prince Shah, but although he’s gone, it refuses to go with him. Bad ideas sometimes have in explicable staying power.

We’ll cover this in a future article in detail, but for the record, these are the objections raised at REDAC.

• First and foremost, it’s ridiculously expensive. The cost/value ratio defies explanation.
• It replaces, at enormous cost, a viable plan developed by Cornell Tech.
• Bicyclists hate the winding, helix design, especially relative to alternatives.
• Bikers are forced to cross two lanes of car traffic with poor sight lines, a danger never experienced before.
• It requires destroying a healthy grove of crabapples trees.
• $7.3 million for a quarter-mile bike lane? Really?
• It ends safe access to the promenade for disabled people.
• Although disguised in the rendering, the bike lane runs straight through the east section of Firefighters Field with no proposal for how it gets through the ferry landing or under the Queensborough Bridge.

“A mess” barely covers it.

The Girl Puzzle More Than Puzzles, Driving the Rowdy Vibe

Then, the ribbon-cutting ceremony in December 2021

And today…

Less than two years after the internally acclaimed opening of Amanda Matthews’s The Girl Puzzle in Lighthouse Park, it’s a wreck.

The foundation around it failed almost immediately, and RIOC has not been able to fix it.

“Amanda’s ready to load it on a truck and take it back,” historian/activist Judith Berdy said.

“That is awful…” another added by email after seeing the above photo. “I really had no idea it was in such a bad state.”

Matthews herself said, “I want them to be enthusiastic about the incredible reception The Girl Puzzle has received from people all over the world but wasn’t getting much response at all from anyone at RIOC… I am hoping to revisit some earlier requests and work with them to clean up and promote the monument.”

We’ll expand on this in a separate article.

Finally…

Before the rowdy vibe subsided and everyone went home after two hours of genuine sharing, Laura Hussey, a RIVAA artist, raised the issue of Public Purpose Grants. Once a key element of open exchange between RIOC and Roosevelt Islanders, it’s impact and visibility withered after RIOC handed off administration to outsiders.

By law, the state agency can disburse 3% of its operating budget to local nonprofits. That means over $1 million in grants to the community that pays RIOC’s bills. Instead, they hand over a paltry $150,000, leaving over $850,000 in the tank while needy agencies struggle. Multiple RIOC executives earn more than that – without considering world class benefits.

The balance is way off, and making matters uglier, much of what gets distributed goes straight back to RIOC in rent.

And excluding resident input on distribution, the question of fairness further undermines the intent.

Margie Smith, a former RIOC board member, played a pivotal role in pushing the grant total up to $150K from $100K, but explaining the inexplicable is impossible.

Why is RIOC, the collector of funds, so much more generous with itself and its staff, few if any are residents, than it is toward the needs of those who live and contribute here?