Will residents have the opportunity, on November 7, to express their sentiments about the Island's future?

In any other community in America, the question would be absurdly incongruous.  The answer would be, Of course they get to decide.  They live in a democracy.

But democracy is the very question proposed for the November 7 ballot:

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Should this Island be managed democratically, like every other community in the country? The irony is that it's only advisory.  It's a chance, if given by the RIRA Common Council, for residents to express their collective view that the State of New York's politically-appointed RIOC Board and President should give way to a locally–elected RIOC Board empowered to hire professional civic management for Roosevelt Island.

Why would RIRA, even for a moment, refuse to allow residents an opportunity to register an advisory vote in favor of democracy?

The answer is fear.

RIRA President Patrick Stewart has expressed the fear that if residents say Yes to democracy and State government responds by granting it, the State may then stop giving Roosevelt Island a financial subsidy.  But (Hello?!?) State support ended over three years ago when George Pataki's administration cavalierly declared Roosevelt Island economically "self-sufficient," and stopped the flow of State funds to the Island.

Residents here don't see even a dime's worth of services from their State taxes.  Islanders are cheated, even of that.

A democratically-elected RIOC Board of Directors would continue to manage this Island, but through a professional civic manager working for the elected Board and, therefore, for the people.  RIOC would continue as a public benefit corporation.  The key difference would be that professional management would clearly identify the Island's needs, make that information public, and an effort could then be mounted (rather than suppressed) to seek the funds the Island needs and – under the Lease between City and State – deserves.

What's more, Senator Olga Mendez and Assemblymember Pete Grannis have agreed that legislation granting locally-elected democratic rule to Roosevelt Island must contain a financial safety net – a specific figure above which the State will be required to cover extraordinarily high funding needs.

What about an alternative notion – getting the City to get the State to let the City take back Roosevelt Island? The problem is that it is merely a notion, and the long stretch of time that would be required to get that idea even past the 50- yard line would be enough time for Roosevelt Island to be further ruined by truly bad and unresponsive management.  What's more, it's an idea that can still be explored – and more freely and effectively – once a democratically-elected RIOC Board is in place.

In the real-world present, then, let's do the right democratic thing: Let the people express their will at the ballot box.

In one word: Yes.  But a Common Council meeting reported in this issue of The WIRE might lead one to wonder.

A handful of members of the Common Council of the Residents Association felt wholly justified in spending the better part of an hour putting down Joyce Mincheff.  In response to two brief interruptions, they squandered valuable time by piling on excessively when simple parliamentary procedure, properly used, would have controlled the situation.

Actually, Common Councilors interrupt one another a lot, and Patrick Stewart, who chairs the meetings by virtue of his position as RIRA President, allows it.  Even the transcript of last week's session shows it.  Mincheff actually got skewered largely for "attitude" observed in past meetings.

Control of the proceedings is the responsibility of the Chair.  Stewart has given up on Mincheff, but also makes no effort to restrain others who throw in friendly interjections and sometimes escalate their non-parliamentary exchanges into shouting matches.  That sets a pattern.

The Chair must set the standard, and then enforce it even- handedly.

RIRA is worth saving, despite abandoned intentions and meetings that are too often allowed to degenerate into titanic debacles, because RIRA is all the democracy Roosevelt Islanders have.  And when locally-elected democratic management one day becomes a reality, a small elected RIOC Board will need RIRA's pulse of the community – the kind of broad feedback that gives life to democracy.

DL