"Southpoint goes forward over my dead body."

Applause broke out at Tuesday night's Town Meeting when Gifford Miller, Roosevelt Island's City Councilmember, stated his position on a plan to put a hotel and condominium towers on parkland at Southpoint.

"I believe that Southpoint is the worst example of the wrongheaded way RIOC has gone about promoting development on the Island," Miller said, adding, "I have problems with the way the current administration has done most everything on this Island."

Miller warned residents that the community needs a legal fund to fight unwanted commercialization of the Island.   He said he intends to ask for legal help from City Council's attorneys, but can't be certain they'll take on the case.   In any case, he said, residents should have their own representation.

"Some people have spoken to me, and I gave them the advice that I have given others.   I have seen other groups be successful in taking on City, State, and developers.   Those groups have been most successful when they retain their own counsel, for a number of reasons - principally because you can raise different issues than you can as an elected official.   They're responsible to you."

He continued, "The other thing that is successful about groups that retain their own counsel is that they have a very clear agenda."

Residents were asked to contribute to a legal fund late in the Town Meeting agenda, and although a third of the audience had left by then, over $10,000 was received in checks and pledges.   Pledge forms distributed at the meeting suggest a pledge equivalent to one month's rent.   (See editorial.) Miller came down hard on the State and the Pataki administration: "Why do you say, 'how can you make money with this piece of land?' To me, that is absurd.   The whole purpose of this community is to be a planned community.   RIOC (the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation) should sit down with residents and citizens.   Southpoint is a jewel which is there to benefit the residents of the Island, of the City, and the people of the world."

The Councilmember also dealt briefly with Mitchell-Lama buy-outs, the other topic of Tuesday night's meeting.   Under the housing law, owners of Mitchell-Lama apartment buildings can pay off their State-backed mortgages, exit the Mitchell-Lama system, and charge market-rate rents.   Miller expressed his opposition to buy-outs that could drive tenants from their homes, but pointed out that the City Council has no say in the matter.   "Whatever can be done at the City level," he said, "I'm prepared to do, but there's not a lot.   I'll be pushing DHCR to do that."

During the course of the Town Meeting, Residents Association President Patrick Stewart introduced guest speakers on the Mitchell-Lama problem.  Ari Goodman, of the Borough President's Task Force, told of resident-sponsored legal battles to prevent rent hikes of 300 percent to 700 percent.  Goodman was a guest on a recent WBAI radio program hosted by Roosevelt Island's Al "Grandpa Munster" Lewis.

Judy Berdy, a member of the Residents Association Common Council, told residents near the end of the Town Meeting, "We have tried in vain for three years to protect our community from unplanned and illegal development.   We still have the Southpoint, Eldercare, and Mini-school plans dangling before our eyes."   She urged residents to contribute to the community's legal action fund, saying, "Our war chest must be filled and ready to be called into action on a moment's notice."