The Eastwood Building Committee has retained an attorney to bring its concerns about building security to the upcoming rent determination conference conducted by the State Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR).

The co-chairs of the committee, Fay and Ronald T. Vass and Harry C. De Vine, say that public safety is Topic No. 1 among residents at all of their meetings.  Residents complain of intruders who destroy and deface property, urinate in elevators, mess up the stairwells, deal drugs and generally create an aura of menace in public areas of the Eastwood complex, a sprawling 1,003-unit apartment building whose nine main entry points are not monitored by concierges or other staff people in the manner of the other dwellings on Roosevelt Island.

The Vasses and De Vine say that Eastwood tenants are tired of the wide-open atmosphere.  They contend that they're paying $1,047 per day for the services of the Island's Public Safety Department, but are not getting their money's worth.  They want to move some Public Safety officers off the streets and into the building, where they could function as a sort of quality-of-life patrol to make Eastwood as humane and livable a place as the more upscale buildings.  The streets, they say, should be the responsibility of the New York City Police Department.

To accomplish this goal, Eastwood has hired a Manhattan attorney, Jay Itkowitz, specifically to deal with the policing question at the rent conference, a meeting with the building's owners that is devoted primarily to determining the rent for the next two years. DHCR has not set a date.  But the Eastwood representatives consider the rent determination meeting as a point of maximum leverage.  Ultimately, they hope to redo the Public Safety contract between the housing company and the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation (RIOC).

The Vasses (510 Main Street, #462) and De Vine (546, #742) are asking for $10 donations from all Islanders to support their cause.  They started last month with the idea of enlisting Rivercross, Island House and Westview - fellow Mitchell-Lama developments that help pay for Public Safety - in the effort.  (An Eastwood flier said: "Maybe we can influence the future of who runs Roosevelt Island - in unity there is strength.") They've since resolved to go it alone, if they have to.  But they're disappointed by the lack of cooperation thus far from Island House and Westview, which they say share some of the same security and "desecration" problems.

"The rent hearings would be and are the best platform for united effort by the three rental buildings," Vass said.  "There is not a better platform or audience for the three buildings, because you've got all the ears: the management, the State of New York, everybody who is philosophically and politically involved.  Not to bring this up is political ignorance.

"We need more indoor protection and we want the police of the streets of New York on the streets of Roosevelt Island," Vass added.

"The problems are not recognized, the problems are not responded to," he said.  "The statistics, which are given out by Public Safety, are what make us void of ample police protection, so in essence they don't do the job, and they're keeping the police who could do the job off the streets.  We're being punished two ways."  In other words, Vass contends, the City police force is not being given a true picture of what is happening on the Island.

Jim Fry, Director of Public Safety, disagreed with Vass' assessment of the situation.  He said his officers have patrolled Eastwood and other buildings, and have issued summonses for loitering and other offenses.  As for changing the contract itself, he referred the question to RIOC President Robert H. Ryan, who had not responded to a phone message at press time.

Fay Vass said, "The majority of our tenants here, they will call Public Safety, and we have stressed this endlessly: 'If you have a problem, call the 114th Precinct [instead].' But they don't."

The Vasses have been at Eastwood since 1978, and De Vine is coming up on his 24th year.  They have their ears to the ground but have not engaged in any systematic collection of crime data.  They concede that much of their information is anecdotal - based on reports from fellow tenants, and from their own observations.

But that has not deterred them from pushing this campaign.  "It's not unheard of, and has taken place more so at Eastwood," Vass said, "that when we get good and angry, and I'm not threatening it yet, there is something known as a rent strike, where we stop the flow of cash completely, until we get them to their knees."  The Vasses said they have won four or five of these tussles already, and can count on a core of at least 150 Eastwood apartments to back them up.  How many people on Roosevelt Island know how to run an official rent strike? The Vasses and De Vine repeated that they were not making threats, but do want the "powers that be" to consider their request.

The Eastwood representatives praised the Roosevelt Island Management Corporation. They said that the porters who go to work in the morning are doing a good job of cleaning the building's public spaces.  Indeed, anyone who walks the halls of Eastwood during the day will be impressed by its cleanliness and by the building's architecture, which makes it a spacious, airy, well-lit place.

No, the Vasses' complaint is not with Eastwood's staff and crew.  All they want is to upset the Island's applecart and change the way it is policed.