“The Comfort Station at Lighthouse Park will be out of service due to a water break,” RIOC advised. Another incident of toilets out. Years of infrastructure neglect hamper Roosevelt Island, and toilets may not be the worst of it.
by David Stone
The Roosevelt Island Daily News
Typically with RIOC, more was unsaid than said in their announcement. Let’s start with a fact we reported months ago but they never addressed: Of three toilets in the facility near the Lighthouse Park entrance, only one was unlocked.
Why? Who knows?
Well, RIOC probably, but as usual, they weren’t talking.
While on the grand scale of things, this is a minor concern, it joins a legion of other infrastructure issues RIOC struggles with amid a shortage of resources – also the result of neglect.
Leading the Way: Toilets Out
Long before the water loss in Lighthouse Park, the only other public toilet north of Southpoint Park went out. The plumbing at the Tram Plaza, also without explanation, has been down for at least a year.
As Visitor Center manager Judith Berdy notes in an email to RIOC executives, “The situation is unbearable. The tram staff has to use a portable bathroom. Visitors cannot be asked to use portable facilities in the 80-degree heat.
“This whole situation,” she continued, “has been going on for years and it is about time that RIOC fixed the plumbing.”
If only it stopped with the toilets…
At RIOC, the interim management team deals with infrastructure failures covering most of Roosevelt Island. The flaws are theirs, even though they played little to no role in creating them.
For one, Main Street has been so bad for so long that residents wax nostalgic about crossing without fear of tripping into a deep pothole or riding without bone-jarring ruts. Wheelchairs can no longer safely navigate key crosswalks.
You’d expect better in Lighthouse Park where installation of The Girl Puzzle stirred international attention, but you wouldn’t find it. A poorly poured foundation has gone for years without a solution, rendering the sculpture far less than its designers expected.
Perhaps the worst concern is the east seawall where the city also abandoned a steam tunnel that once served Coler. “A looming hazard for over a decade, inspectors pegged it as in danger of “catastrophic collapse”… in 2014.
But a bigger shocker may be that, after millions spent on renovations at Sportspark, the roof leaks. It’s estimated that millions more will be needed to fix it.
Next…?
The Five Amendments That Sold Out Roosevelt Island
Roosevelt Island did not lose control of its southern waterfront in a single deal. It happened in five quiet steps. Five amendments. Five missed chances to renegotiate.
