Since 2011, Cy Opperman kept the buses running along Roosevelt Island’s Main Street, not stopping for COVID, Superstorms or an aging fleet. Yesterday, RIOC staff and residents threw a farewell party for this much-admired, retiring gentleman, although he’ll be around for a while.
by David Stone
The Roosevelt Island Daily News
Cover Photo: Bryant Daniels, RIOC
Hello & Goodbye (Not Quite) Cy Opperman
Back in 2011, Dick Lutz, editor at the Main Street WIRE, hailed RIOC’s new transportation director as a “real New Yawker,” complete with the accent and years of experience with the MTA.
“It started out as a five-year job,” Cy told an upbeat crowd of co-workers and residents. “Now, thirteen years…”
For two reasons – one illustrated above – Cy is not really retiring. He’s leaving his full-time position at RIOC to become a caregiver for his growing family.
The second reason is that, as board member Fay Christian warmly noted, he’s staying on as a consultant. His experience is invaluable, and he’ll help his successor, Eddie Perez, over the inevitable rough patches and rougher Roosevelt Island roads.
Speaking for the corporation at the party, Deputy Chief Counsel Gerrald Ellis talked about his Roosevelt Island initiation, a history-animated tour from Lighthouse to FDR. Along with being a gifted manager of men and machines, Cy has a flair for history.
If not for that tour, Ellis said, “I wouldn’t know that there was once an elevator that brought cars from the bridge down to Roosevelt Island,” a fact unknown to most residents.
Every new RIOC hire, it seems, gets the Cy Opperman orientation tour.
Finally…
For thirteen years, Cy Opperman marched on through snow, tropical storms, cranky buses, crankier residents and management overhauls. He’s been RIOC’s steadiest hand.
On a personal level, my fondest memory of his tenure goes back to the COVID shutdowns. As a journalist, I was not locked down and got out as much as possible to report what it was like for our neighbors stuck inside.
What struck me then was how Cy’s bus drivers unfailingly kept to their schedules in perilous times. Cy wasn’t behind the wheel, but he was behind everything else – the commitment, the caring and the determination to always do the right thing.
Don’t be a stranger, Cy.
You Can FOIL* It
On April 15, at the Steam Plant Demolition Town Hall, a simple exchange revealed something far more consequential than anything formally presented that evening.
