No volume of complaints changes RIOC. Nor do promises. PSD Tram Assistance, boldly announced, is less visible than a ghost. Ghosts, as many attest, actually materialize once in a while.
by David Stone
The Roosevelt Island Daily News
So, Where Is the Alleged PSD Tram Assistance?
The sign, while ham-handed*, is admittedly there. It demands that “elderly or disabled” people call themselves out to a “PSD officer.” Yesterday, late in the afternoon with ridership at its peak, we faced the usual dilemma:
“Where the hell are you gonna find one?“
(*Wouldn’t a simple, “Please contact a PSD officer if you need assistance boarding the Tram” be enough? Of course, you still wouldn’t find one anywhere in sight, but it would be more sensitive.)
Plenty of people bunched up around the Tram elevators late Sunday afternoon, but none were PSD officers.
Despite numerous pledges of improvement from RIOC‘s management, this was far from the first time. Neither the badly misnamed Public Safety Department nor Tram contractor Leitner-POMA pay much attention to what the bosses say.
RIOC Deputy General Counsel Gerrald Ellis complained that, “We’re not getting what we’re paying for” from Leitner-POMA. But that has no credibility while PSD is again let off the hook. Their disregard for standards is worse because they are insiders who also don’t care.
The “We” in “We’re not getting…” includes Roosevelt Islanders stuck paying for public safety malpractice.
But it doesn’t stop there…
Upstairs at the platform level, a Leitner-POMA worker hustled away from the crowd for places unknown. Cigarette break? A nearby toilet? Who knows?
We pay for a station manager who is rarely there or functional when he or she is. That allows for all the tourist crowding, pushing and shoving.
But on Sunday, there was a twist. The station manager’s booth was occupied. Behind the darkened glass, a PSD Officer idled, cut off from the crowd, well away from any location where a needy passenger might need help.
Rinse and repeat: PSD negligence makes it worse.
Now that so many Roosevelt Islanders, especially the “elderly and disabled,” can’t use the Tram anymore because of situations like these, who will step up? PSD won’t do it, and just as clearly, RIOC executives can’t.
Maybe elected officials or someone on RIOC’s recently revitalized board will help win back the Tram for residents, but probably not. Tram revenue counts for more than common decency or the standards of respect Roosevelt Island once valued.
A community volunteer corps filling in where RIOC and PSD fail may be the answer. Let’s talk about taking back the Island.
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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