Or, Let’s talk about something else…
“Try not to fall off your chairs laughing at this survey, most notable for MANY THINGS IT IS NOT asking about…” as one longtime resident said. It’s quite a list. Think of RIOC’s new survey as akin to what Republicans are doing right now, that is, hiding out with big money donors while avoiding contact with voters.
by David Stone, Editor Emeritus and European Bureau Chief
The Big Question
So, why run a rigidly limited survey when the arrival of a new CEO signals the immediate need for a town hall? Town halls, a fixture on Roosevelt Island before Hudson Related took control, ended after the community came out in support of the Roosevelt Island Youth Program. Because RIOC wanted to hand the Youth Center over to a perpetually disgruntled employee, thus shutting her up for a while, it rigged the deal. When the community, especially parents, rebelled in a town hall, RIOC junked that kind of community outreach.
Guess why.
Republicans are dodging town halls as if they’re poison darts because Americans are pissed over Trump’s ugly Big, Beautiful Bill. Locally, Team Hochul, known here as the Roosevelt island Operating Corporation, doesn’t wanna hear it either. In this case, it starts with the Tram. But there’s a lot more, and Team Hochul doesn’t wanna hear about that either.
Consideration for the New Guy
As CEO, B. J. Jones is the new guy at RIOC. Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt. After all, he hasn’t broken through as an executive even on his own operation’s website yet. Probably, he hasn’t dug his way through enough of the subterfuge to understand the tangled mess that’s been happening on the Island… And, as importantly, what’s not happening.
Undoubtedly set up by RIOC’s Swiss Army Knife, Bryant Daniels, the survey is fine as far as it goes. It asks open ended questions about services like the Red Bus and safety. But that’s as far as it goes. It’s so distant from comprehensive, it supports a better snooze than an Eric Adams rally.
So, let’s give Mr. Jones a respectful primer on Roosevelt Island.
What’s Missing?
Transparency
You’ve got a better chance of seeing dumped cars at the murky bottom of the East River than you have of viewing RIOC’s inner mechanics. You can’t blame the managers in place. In a case of extreme irony, largely hired or molded by ex-CEO Shelton Haynes, the group at the top has been top notch, given what they have to work with.
But you can blame Governor Hochul’s Executive Chamber and RIOC’s hapless Board of Enablers Directors. Without even giving up a name, the Chamber, at Hochul’s behest, runs RIOC on a day to day basis. It’s remote control from Albany funneled through Board Chair and classic political tool, RuthAnne Visnauskas.
Local management does the work, but Albany keeps up with daily conference calls making sure Hochul’s mission is kept. That mission, just so you know, is not keeping residents who pay almost all the bills happy or served. More clarity later.
Accountability
See above. If you can’t even name them, how can you demand their accountability?
In a rare period of unwanted exposure, a flurry of lawsuits between 2020 and 2023 exposed the names of some of Hochul’s operatives. Fleeting glances at names you’re never heard before or after point at who’s running the show… and who never catches blame. Just dump the guilt on Susan or Shelton or Gretchen or whoever was foolish enough to trust the Chamber.
The Gorillas in the Room
Just as an untreated sickness spreads, RIOC has spread gorillas all along its two mile strip of responsibility.
1) The Tram
Let’s not wax nostalgic about the Tram and how it used to be. That’s the stuff of nostalgia while today is the stuff of cowardly obedience to the needs of real estate developers.
Every time a cabin full of tourists sails over the river, it’s an advertisement for real estate on Roosevelt Island. Rents and sale prices have skyrocketed. It’s hard to find any long term resident who hasn’t watched friends leave after being priced out of once affordable apartments.
This explains why the state’s brain trust can’t find a single way to help residents use the Tram without risk of trampling. Surprisingly, Hochul’s RIOC doesn’t even make a pretense of helping physically challenged riders. You’d at least expect them to fake it.
But the tourists first approach feeds the politicians main objective: pleasing real estate developers, especially Hudson Related locally. Take a look at Hochul’s biggest campaign contributors. Or consider Mayor Adams’s “I am real estate.” Who’s looking out for residents?
No hands raised.
Even so, it gets worse. Much worse.
Because the Tram, more advertising icon than transport option, bleeds money. Every ride is taken for a loss because operations, insurance and upkeep cost far exceed potential revenue. Partly this is because RIOC is restricted by contract on fares – they can’t exceed subway charges – but the big wound came when it decided to market the Tram as a tourist attraction. Like other things handled by managers, the downstream effects – huge insurance increases for one, an unreliable sole source contractor in Leitner POMA were never considered.
The Tram is a self-inflicted wound that RIOC can’t fix on its own. It hasn’t the resource, and only an unlike cash infusion from Albany can help.
Bottom line: although shoved out of routine access, Roosevelt Islanders must cover the costs of RIOC’s major mistake.
2) The AVAC
Once upon a time, the innovative trash removal system handed bragging rights over to Roosevelt Island, but there’s a reason why no other community has adopted it. Installation is costly, prohibitively in established areas, and ongoing maintenance is absolutely necessary.
It’s the latter where RIOC failed, but the initial plan carries too much baggage.
a) The vacuum tubes at the heart of the AVAC run through building foundations. Changes and repairs would require ripping up foundations and long periods of shutdown.
b) Routine maintenance over the AVAC’s lifetime would have helped, but RIOC treated it like a once and done. Routine maintenance was scant and best, and the numerous shutdowns and failures in recent years show it. Blame residents – without evidence – for doing everything but using the tubes for go carts won’t fix anything. Shifting blame is nothing more than that alone.
Nobody wants to hear this, but in due time, RIOC will have to abandon the AVAC. They can’t afford to replace it and waited too long for a fix. Actually, no fix is even on the table for consideration.
The handwriting is on the wall.
Infrastructure in General
If the now decade old warning that the east seawall is in danger of “catastrophic collapse” with the arrival of any major storm doesn’t make your hair stand on end, consider that RIOC hasn’t been able to fix Eleanor’s Pier in two long years.
RIOC lacks the wherewithal and funding to fix its infrastructure. It’s budget, where you’d hope revenue gets aside for capital projects, is a disaster. Not only does the Tram lose gobs of cash, so does Sportspark. RIOC’s budget lives on borrowing from its future, making it just as shaky as the past.
But if you’re looking to get angry, consider Motorgate. To please real estate interests selling off claims of cheap parking, rates are set at about 40% of that charged in comparable lots in nearby Queens. Here again, a majority of residents who do not own cars are forced to subsidize the minority – many in Hudson Related developments – who do.
There are millions to be had in revenue at Motorgate, but RIOC isn’t willing to ask the well off to pay their fare share.
Why a Town Hall Matters
In taking over RIOC, B. J. Jones may know some or all of this. What he doesn’t know is that Roosevelt Islanders have been cut out of the decision-making process for years – even though they pay for nearly all of running the place.
This can’t go on.
Before all hell breaks loose, RIOC’s new CEO has a golden opportunity to engage with an enlist community support. Tear down the existing barriers and invite residents to a series of town halls. Bring the community in from the cold. Others did it until the Hochul interference got so great even the local executives couldn’t fake their way through it.
Jones has a strong history of doing things the right way. If he brings that to Roosevelt Island, there’s hope for better days ahead.
The Committee Man
Committees are supposed to be where outcomes are shaped. They are meant to be the place where questions slow decisions down, where competing interests surface, and where public responsibility is exercised before anything reaches a formal vote.
