To the Editor:

My name is Om Bhandari from Bhutan and I studied in the Roosevelt Island school (1982 to 1984) in grades 1, 2, and 3. I want to contact old friends through the Internet. Could you help me?

I still remember one Ms.DeAnnentes (spelling?).

Om Bhandari
tyonten@druknet.net.bt

To the Editor:

The one thing I find lacking on our Island is a glee club or chorus. When I went off-Island every week to sing in a chorus I felt that it easily was as stress-reducing, as harmonious in effect, as psychiatry. What we need, of course, is a conductor. Any volunteers? If so, tell Ms. Ng at the Senior Center. She will provide the room.

Frances Salten

To the Editor:

In your last edition but one you ran a Letter to the Editor from the Steering Committee of Roosevelt Islanders for Responsible Southtown Development (RIRSD). It was a long letter decrying any number of aspects of the plans for Southtown, but focusing primarily on the ground-rental income RIOC will receive, and comparing it to - of all things - Manhattan Park, a market-rate complex. Clearly the authors have once again imperfectly and hastily read a set of documents, and once again decided that a rousing speech full of polemics is better than the sober facts.

They have entirely overlooked the fact that the ground rents they are complaining about are for affordable middle-income housing, although the documents they refer to clearly spell that out. The ground rent rates are, in fact, about twice what each of the authors' own middle-income buildings pay, and of course those buildings were built, and the ground rents set, over 25 years ago. The documents clearly state that the ground-rental rates are a concession made by the state for affordable housing, and "affordable" is quite narrowly defined in the General Development Plan. (The income levels are about the same as Mitchell-Lama qualifying incomes.)

Roughly half of Southtown is committed to be middle-income housing, as the GDP requires it to be, yet even with half a story, these people can't get it right.What is RIRSD saying here? Are they complaining that the state won't get enough income from affordable housing? Are they saying they want the affordable housing to be market-rate instead? Are they complaining when the projected new apartment rentals are pretty much the same as a new rental in Island House or Westview today? Are they saying that the state should be charging more for middle-income housing?

The only clarity I can find in their letter is the part where they once again apply to their neighbors for additional financial support. That part is very clear. Personally, I like my facts up front.

Patrick Stewart