It's coming.

Whether you favor the new construction on the Island just as it has been proposed, with modifications or not at all, it's coming. Thursday's RIOC Board meeting made that clear. Despite the fact that the community is united in its opposition to the minischool/condominium conversion like no other issue on the Island. Despite the fact that Board members (specifically Mr. Fullington, a resident, and Dr. Dawson, a long-time Board member) were able to list as many reasons to oppose the project as to support it, this Board approved Diane Wilson's folly with the addition of an amendment from Leo Kayser requiring evidence of financing before final approval. We may have high hopes that this financing will never be forthcoming, but the Board is clearly hot to trot.

Why? Perhaps because boards like to do something. Because they like to have a record of activity (if not accomplishment) to justify their existence. And because the debate on the proper development of Roosevelt Island has gone on for a very long time. These are reasonable and very human motivations.

However, the results of their decisions, the physical buildings that are the end product of their deliberations, will be with us for an even longer time.

This community has too much invested in the results of the RIOC Board's negotiations to accept a rush to development. Our view: The process should take as long as it takes to hear every viewpoint, examine and debate every facet of every developer's plan for excellence and for compliance with the GDP, and to negotiate the very best deal for future Island revenue.

There is clearly a fundamental dichotomy between these two approaches, and it won't go away. And this is why self-governance for Roosevelt Island is so essential. The basic American yearning for representative government may be the core of our desire to control our future. But this clear and present difference in goals between the community and the State-appointed Board that runs our lives should be the goad motivating our efforts to obtain this control. And the clock is ticking.

The only way to reconcile the RIOC Board and the community is if the Board is us. If the present Board is the final arbiter of Southtown, Southpoint, the minischools, the eldercare facility and Octagon Park, then the influence of any subsequent, Island-elected, board will be moot. It's hard to argue with tons of concrete, rebar and steel.

The Grannis self-governance legislation is locked in both Assembly and Senate committees and we have not been led to believe that the State Legislature will vote on it any time soon. The likelihood of litigation sponsored by Island residents and organizations preventing or delaying unwanted or inappropriate development of the Island is limited by the horrendous costs involved. Our last best hope of determining our future is found in having the courage to take responsibility for that future. And the first steam shovels get closer every day.

Tick tock.