Members of the Residents Association (RIRA) Common Council spent part of their summer weeks gearing up for legal action against the twin-tower hotel proposed for Southpoint.  The specifics of their planning are necessarily confidential, of course, but...

...But we do know that a legal challenge to the current Southpoint planning is not viable until the Board of Directors of the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation (RIOC) takes certain specific actions along the approvals path.  That means it's a waiting game for residents (who nonetheless must be prepared).

And from the interview with RIOC President Robert Ryan published in this issue of The WIRE, we learn that RIOC intends to see that proposal through to acceptance or rejection before any other idea for the use of Southpoint is given official consideration.  The SSJ hotel proposal will, in short, be the only game in town for some time to come.

This set of circumstances makes it virtually impossible for interested parties to put together a financial package to build the FDR Memorial at Southpoint - or make serious plans for some other use of the land.  Few sources of potential funding, especially the Federal government, will commit budget for a park and memorial on property which isn't officially available.

So RIRA must wait to mount a legal challenge.  And no matter how good an idea may be put forth, it can't make a serious claim for the land.  Meanwhile, the SSJ proposal will have to be considered on its own merits, without regard to competing ideas, no matter how good they may be.

And since legal challenges can drag on for years, this state of affairs probably means nothing more than fireworks viewing will happen at Southpoint for a very long time.

The situation is part of Jerome Blue's legacy, of course.  It illustrates firmly and conclusively why RIOC should have worked with RIRA on that Request for Proposals that Blue put out.  It's no fault of RIRA.  Elected Common Council members were given no standing at all by Blue, who stumbled along without considering residents' perspective on anything.  Blue has thus left Ryan with a series of toublesome development proposals that must be seen through to a legal ashcan before ideas more suited to the nature of Roosevelt Island can have a chance.

The legal action will cost money, much of it yet to be raised.  The delays may deny a generation any meaningful use of that marvelous plot of land at the tip of the Island.

An Island under the governance of an elected RIOC Board of Residents would never have blundered so badly, of course, so this mess makes an excellent case for professional management working under the policy guidance of a resident Board.  But even that Board would probably have to find its way through the existing proposals before creating or considering better ideas.  It might do so more expeditiously, of course, and that makes a strong case for moving quickly on self-governance - which presumes, in turn, that all the parties to that effort can work together - and, we might dare to hope, soon.

DL