RIOC’s negligence towards residents’ and tourists’ toilet needs highlights its self-serving agenda—while prioritizing tourist Tram access, it denies basic facilities, proving it’s all talk, no action.
by David Stone
The Roosevelt Island Daily News
UPDATE, DECEMBER 18TH, 2024: Yesterday, RIOC Communications Director Bryant Daniels offered a solution. “The westside Sportspark bathrooms near the main entrance are open for the general public to use while the Tram station bathrooms are offline,” he told The Daily. “It’ll be available during Sportspark’s operating hours during the day.”
How will visitors know? “Bryant made signs for the kiosk and bathroom doors” in the Tram station, according to Judith Berdy who has lead the charge for answering tourists toilet needs. The Sportspark bathrooms are available for residents as well.
END OF UPDATE
“RIOC has never been good at accommodating the toilet needs of visitors or residents,” Judy Berdy wrote. She was addressing the obvious. Years of appeals have not budged RIOC off its toilet position.
Making the stress even worse is RIOC’s fierce commitment to priority boarding for tourists at both Tram plazas. That commitment is not reinforced by its refusal to give them a little relief when they land.
In the end, RIOC is all about RIOC, not anyone or anything else. Not residents. Not visitors. What’s best for RIOC is the governing value. For the rest, the state agency that never gets it wrong gives the minimum it can get away with.
Toilet Needs, Plus
When Berdy got after RIOC, the upcoming holiday closing of the Cornell Tech café inspired her. Good neighbors, Cornell Tech has allowed the needy to use convenient and safe facilities in their building.
But later this week, they will shut down until after January 1st. RIOC, Berdy believes, should step up and do its job.
For reasons the state agency does not disclose, it denies anyone, except Tram employees, access to a pair of toilets in the Roosevelt Island Tram plaza. A few years back, it also let Hudson-Related off the hook for a facility it promised at Firefighters Field. RIOC took cash instead.
So, RIOC bends over backwards getting tourists on the Tram but refuses minimal support once they arrive. Outdated wayfinding signs offer sparse useful directions.
At a distance, RIOC maintains toilet facilities in Southpoint Park and Lighthouse Park. Nothing closer. By choice. Both are longish hikes for anyone in need. As with Tram boarding and employment, RIOC ignores the needs of physically challenged individuals. They also overlook the needs of families with small children.
The Appeal
“Please send us your solution Monday or Tuesday,” Berdy asks RIOC’s interim leadership. The Historical Society kiosk at the Tram plaza gets “dozens’ of requests about toilet needs daily. What can RIOC do when the Cornell Tech café’s holiday closing starts?
So far, we have seen no answer, not even an acknowledgment of a message received.
Because RIOC has batted back similar request for years and is currently without leadership, expect more of the same. If it doesn’t help RIOC, it’s almost always a no-go.
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.
