Reading the face of events can be dangerous. What seems obvious may not be truth.

But there’s a reliable old rule when reading the actions of politically-motivated people and governmental bodies: Don’t ignore the obvious. So this column will now read the face of events and reach an obvious conclusion. Reader heed, buyer beware.

For some time, RIOC and DHCR appear to have been driving hard toward critical steps on two very controversial development projects – the SSJ Hotel towers on Southpoint parkland, and second-story expansion of the Manhattan-side minischools. Both projects are dreaded by a large number of residents, favored by a tiny handful, and considered by a significant chunk of the Island community only with weary apathy.

Events:

The regularly-scheduled RIOC Board meeting scheduled for Thursday, April 8, was postponed – at the very last minute. Lack of a quorum was the reason given, but...

Read the face of the event: Most likely, the votes weren’t quite assured to go ahead on either of the projects. The announced replacement date was Wednesday (April 21) of this week.

Then Frank Angelino called a meeting of the RIOC Advisory Committee he chairs – the one that gets to give non-binding advice to the RIOC Board of Directors – the one that has had its resident members wondering: Will we vote on these projects? Will our advice actually count for anything? Angelino called the meeting for this past Monday evening, outside the range of days previously agreed to by the committee as convenient for its members.

Read the face of the event: It’s obvious RIOC and DHCR wanted a supportive vote by this committee – or at least a neutral tie vote – in time for Wednesday morning’s RIOC Board meeting. In fact, one committee member who had to leave the meeting early was assured that any vote would be taken while he was still present.

As it turned out, there were enough votes at the advisory committee meeting to vote a recommendation against the project. Angelino announced early in the meeting, "We won’t be taking any vote tonight," a contradiction of what he’d earlier led its members to believe. Later, he was asked why there would be no vote. "Well, for one reason, there are some people missing," he said. Right: The missing members were the ones who would have produced a go-ahead vote, or at least a tie vote.

Read the face of the event: No vote was taken because there has been a judgment within DHCR that – if at all possible – the Southpoint and minicondo matters should move forward only with some appearance of backing, or at least neutrality, on the part of this advisory committee.

In fact, nothing substantive was accomplished in the advisory committee meeting – unless you count the precedent set by Angelino in deciding not to take a vote because people were absent.

Read the face of the event: The only real purpose of the meeting was to produce political cover for a go-ahead vote by the RIOC Board.

Then, late Tuesday, after dozens of residents had made plans to stay on-Island, some skipping work for the purpose, RIOC posted a last-minute notice that Wednesday morning’s RIOC Board meeting was cancelled. Too late, of course, to spread the word, but...

Read the face of the event: The RIOC meeting was cancelled because RIOC and DHCR had failed to maneuver Angelino’s advisory committee into producing political cover for a go-ahead vote by the RIOC Board.

Early Thursday morning, RIOC told a WIRE reporter that its May 13 evening meeting would instead be held at 11:00 a.m. On a follow-up call to check, the change of time was confirmed, and in response to a question about the reason for the time change, RIOC supplied only a "No comment."

By noon, DHCR Commissioner Joe Lynch had overruled RIOC and put the meeting back to 7:00 p.m. But...

Read the face of the event: RIOC wanted a morning meeting to make it easier for RIOC Board members to vote yes on controversial development; they might find it more difficult with hundreds of residents looking on.

Now, step back from the immediate events. View the big picture painted in Day-Glo colors over the past two years.

For RIOC President Jerome Blue, development – any development, whether it complies with the overall idea of Roosevelt Island or not – any development has been his whole reason for being. Should he fail to deliver up the Southpoint parkland and (perhaps to a lesser extent) the minicondos, his stormy tenure here will have been for nothing. The people in the political structure around the Governor will have studiously ignored Blue’s overall incompetence, the steady deterioration of the State’s investment here, and the potentially explosive resident anger over Blue, without getting any productive result for all their bearing up, hunkering down, and pushing on.

In the breeze, one can almost hear a conversation between Jerry Blue and DHCR Commissioner Joe Lynch, Blue saying, "Ignore the damned residents. Take the vote, take the heat, and get on with it," and then Lynch deciding: "There is a better way: We can deliver for the Governor without producing politically dangerous flak. Be patient, Jerome. Sooner or later, the residents will tire of the fight. Their leadership will be lulled, and we’ll have an opening. Be patient."

Such imagined conversations are highly speculative, of course. On the other hand...

Read the face of the events.

DL