RIOC’s apathetic handling of the Tram crisis reveals a shameful disregard for disabled residents and more, exposing a culture of lies and indifference amidst mounting community frustration.
by David Stone
The Roosevelt Island Daily News
After the board meeting, RIOC escalated the Tram crisis. Early this week, they physically blocked off Tram access to and from the elevators. It was a quantum leap from refusing to help and lying about it to rubbing indifference in disabled individuals’ faces.
In the final board meeting for 2024, RIOC’s Tram crisis stole the show. It wasn’t even an official part of the meeting. Resident after resident took the podium, reciting personal experiences along with hopes that RIOC would do something, anything, that might alleviate the pain.
For the most part, though, the members sat like bags of warm water waiting for the wind to go away. But two exceptions made it clear that the state agency that always gets it right had a strategy. That is, instead of defending their positions, they’d lie about them.
Like a gym bag filled with old socks, they zipped it up and moved on. The big agenda item was the annual budget, which revealed enough holes and deceptions it needed a gym bag all its own.
The Tram Crisis in Two Parts
Disabled Access
Long time senior advocate Louella Streitz, among others, pleaded for help with the impassive board. Nice isn’t enough to move the bags of tepid water resting on wooden chairs. With legal requirements for accommodating physically challenged Tram riders routinely ignored, the board sat silent. Neither Streitz nor others got through.
But one member of RIOC’s interim leadership team tossed them an out, bolstering their indifference.
“They,” can get help from public safety officers, claimed CFO Dhruvika Amin. By “they,” she meant people with physical challenges hoping to board the Tram. She repeated the claim, gesturing to board member for emphasis.
That was a lie. The only questions are…
- Did Amin know it was a lie or was she just repeating hogwash she’d been fed by others?
- That said, could it have been a lie from ignorance?
- Why did COO Mary Cunneen sit silent in the front row, letting her fellow interim leader take a hit?
- But most significantly, why was Amin lying at all? Why not simply defend RIOC’s actual position? That is, we don’t care enough to do the right thing, but we know what we should do.
It’s been reported enough times. There were almost never any PSOs ready to help on the 2nd Avenue side and rarely on the Island.
Note: Since facing fierce criticism after the board meeting, RIOC inaugurated a new system for assisting seniors and disabled hoping to get on the Tram. There has been no announcement, though, nor any details.
The Problem They Don’t want You to Know
When RIOC still had effective leadership under Associate General Counsel Gerrald Ellis, we learned something. A major obstacle to RIOC’s stepping up platform assistance is its own contractor.
Leitner POMA is a union shop. In their contract with RIOC, they are obliged to employ a station manager. His or her job is to assure boarding is safe, legal and appropriate for all passengers. No discrimination allowed. Although POMA almost never does this, their union objects to anyone else, including RIOC, doing it.
It’s as much a convenient excuse as it is a frustration. In the end, the neediest passengers get the short end of the stick. This results, apparently, in RIOC lying about it to save face.
The Tram Crisis Over Priority Boarding
Led by Community Board 8 member Paul Krikler, an advocacy group has collected thousands of signatures on a petition demanding priority boarding for Roosevelt Island residents and workers.
Having heard numerous speakers plead with RIOC on behalf of that position, a board member finally spoke up. Southtown resident board member Conway Ekpo said, “We’re with you,” although there wasn’t the slightest sign of it.
But he wanted residents to understand the difficulties RIOC must face in meeting their demands. First of all, he said, they’d have to change the law that prohibits priority boarding. That’s patently untrue. The common carrier law to which he referred clearly allows priority boarding. The only condition is that it not be “undue” or “unreasonable.”
After scratching your head, wondering Why the hell are they doing this? consider: Like with fixing years of ADA violations, are they just too lazy? Or is it indifference? Not enough caring within the RIOC family tree?
Why, if they believe priority boarding for residents and workers is “unreasonable,” don’t they explain their thinking? Silence may be golden for RIOC, but it’s also cowardly.
RIOC is, in practice, a closed off clique to whom most resident concerns amount to no more than farts in a windstorm. It’s an inward leaning cluster that has never fully embraced community membership. In other words, RIOC is all about RIOC. There have been exceptions, but not enough to break the protective shell.
Margie Smith’s New Wrinkle
The final public speaker, former board member Margie Smith, tossed in a curve. Maybe more of a knuckleball.
Why, she wondered, is the board so focused on Section 102 of the common carrier law? (That’s the place where RIOC misinterprets priority boarding restrictions as universal denials.) Why aren’t they equally in love with Section 101…?
“No common carrier shall, directly or indirectly, by any special rate, rebate, drawback, or other device or method, charge, demand, collect or receive from any person or corporation a greater or less compensation for any service rendered or to be rendered in the transportation of passengers or property, except as authorized in this chapter, than it charges, demands, collects or receives from any other person or corporation for doing a like and contemporaneous service in the transportation of a like kind of traffic under the same or substantially similar circumstances and conditions.”
By way of the hidden RIOC Tax, RIOC pulls money out of every resident to cover Tram revenue shortfalls of at least $3 million. Ride the Tram or not, every man, woman and child is assessed.
That is, residents are forced to subsidize a tourist thrill ride.
When Margie Smith asked why, there was no answer.
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.
