If you’re new to Roosevelt Island or you don’t walk Main Street much, you might have missed it. Last month, RIOC broke the 50 year-old Z-Brick pattern that symbolized the mellow difference of the original, imagined town.
by David Stone
The Roosevelt Island Daily News
Breaking the Z-Brick Pattern
Thirty years ago, when I served on the Residents Association Common Council, then-President David Kraut was concerned about preserving the historic Z-Brick pattern that distinctively marked Roosevelt Island. RIOC pulled some up for a repair project but promised a return. Kraut was skeptical. We all were at the time, but the state agency came through. The pattern was restored.
That was decades ago, though, and many traditions have been lost here. That’s not always bad. Cornell Tech overturned a tradition of institutional focus, and The Girl Puzzle flipped Lighthouse Park from a sleepy retreat to an international art destination.
When RIOC backed off the driving restrictions on Main Street, allowing unlimited buses, trucks, cars and mopeds, the tradition was bound to fail.
Roosevelt Island is a slice of Manhattan schist topped off with some soil. Building foundations perch of solid rock. Otherwise, the rippling shifts force uneven surfaces because the soil, fueled by rain and gravity, heads downhill towards the sea.
It’s there, but not always even. You can see it on the promenades. Nobody built effective underpinnings for that or thought it through when cars took precedence over pedestrians.
Was This the Right Way?
Because we’re never going back, the troubling thing about this Z-Brick replacement project is the absence of any community discussion or, it appears, any consideration of alternatives.
This week, freshly back from vacation and knee-deep in emails, RIOC Acting Chief Operating Officer Mary Cunneen broke another tradition, this time a good one. She replied openly and honestly to a media request.
After apologizing for a slow response because of a vacation pile up – “I’m catching up on 500 emails.” – she wrote this…
“The area around the grating had become too much of a trip and fall liability and led to a couple of lawsuits. Z-bricks surrounding grating often become uneven or pitched incorrectly, and the repairs to those issues are very costly and time consuming. The decision was made to remove the z-bricks in those areas and replace them with a longer-lasting solution that is better for pedestrians and people in wheelchairs. There should also be less maintenance and upkeep with the new concrete walkway, which is a big plus for our operations.”
Was it Inevitable?
Cunneen’s explanation made sense. Sometimes, taking a gut punch is what you must do because it’s inevitable. In this case, it’s physics. Soil erosion under 50-year-old Z-Bricks can’t be reversed. Eventually, the impact will force repairs all over the place. In fact, Cunneen shared that there’s another trouble spot near Gallery RIVAA that needs addressing.
But here’s the thing. Cunneen did not respond to an ask about alternatives considered, leading us to suspect that none were. More significantly, the community was never consulted before the Z-Brick pattern was permanently broken.
“That’s correct,” she conceded, “no one was consulted on this particular project as it was an operational decision to repair.”
Candor from RIOC is a rare and wonderful thing, but that went down hard. The state agency still has a way to go with transparency, but they’ve improved accountability. It’s a powerful move in the right direction.
“I am looking forward to the z-bricks roadways meeting next week and hearing the opinions of the community,” Cunneen added. It should have happened sooner, but that it’s happening at all marks some change we need from one end of Main Street to the other.
Priced Out of the Air. Priced Out of Safety.
I want to begin with a person, not a policy.A life, not a headline.
