My theme for today is courtesy.  Specifically, the difference between superficial courtesy and legitimate courtesy, and the courtesy that has been shown to me as this community's representative.

I'm writing this column on the Tuesday before you read it, and the crisis over the curtailing of Tram service has just resolved itself.  As you know, we discovered last Saturday that the Tram would be closed for some 70 hours to accommodate a film company.  Hourly bus service into Manhattan was to replace our quarter-hour Tram facility, and little thought was given to our kids returning home from school at 3:00 p.m., or the evening rush hour, or the difficulties of an elderly or wheelchair-bound resident waiting on a Manhattan street corner at midnight.  While the negotiations with Columbia Pictures were ongoing into last weekend, they started eight months ago without a word to the community or even the resident members of the RIOC Board of Directors.  I pulled together an emergency Town Meeting Monday night, and Rob Antonich and Brad Harlan of RIOC faced the ire of a community that felt it had been blind-sided.  By Tuesday afternoon, RIOC and the film people had agreed to halve the hours the Tram would be closed and double the bus coverage.  The short-term issues are solved but, as I said in a letter to some of the participants in the incident, "As to the long-term problem, that of creating and maintaining avenues of communication that will anticipate and prevent these crises, only time will tell.  I hope those who are the decision-makers and final arbiters of policy will use the lessons learned from this Tram incident to anticipate community impact and response in the future."

In the last issue of The WIRE I mentioned my pending meeting with DHCR Deputy Commissioner and RIOC Board Chair Mary Beth Labate, and RIOC President Robert Ryan.  This meeting took place at DHCR headquarters on April 26.  That was two days before the notices of filming on the Tram were posted.  Did Rob Ryan give me the courtesy of a "heads up" on the loss of service or the plans for alternative bus service?  Nope.  I thought the days of secrecy and sneak attacks ended with Dr. Blue.

Regarding what was discussed at this meeting, I must report my disappointment to you.  The meeting was superficially most cordial, but the concerns I brought, mentioned in my last column, were left unresolved.

I requested that RIOC Board meetings include the opportunity for a dialogue with the community before the day's (or evening's) agenda items are voted on.  Ms. Labate was quite clear that items were not brought to a vote unless the outcomes were foreordained.  She said that action items were thoroughly discussed by the Board prior to meeting, and therefore, community input was unlikely to influence their votes.  Therefore, a series of bi-monthly evening meetings in which Roosevelt Islanders could discuss topics of general interest (with those Board members willing to remain after the Board meeting was adjourned) was sufficient to our needs, and far more than a public benefit corporation was required to provide a community.  Does this sound to you like a nice way of saying that we shouldn't expect to have any influence over Board votes?  Me too.  Ms. Labate was unenthusiastic about my request for meaningful exchanges with the RIOC Board, but said she would consider the idea.

My other concern was to include a community representative on the RIOC Public Safety Advisory Committee, chaired by Board member Dr. Joan Dawson.  By community representative, I mean someone elected by the community to represent the community such as RIRA First Vice President Byron Gaspard.  The Island residents currently on this committee were chosen to represent the RIOC Board or housing, not the community.  We know from past experience that RIOC advisory committees have no power to influence Board voting, but it is simple courtesy to include a RIRA rep in any discussion of community safety.  Or, to put it another way, it is an affront to this community not to include someone who participates solely by virtue of representing all of us.  Again, Ms. Labate said she would discuss additions to the committee with Dr. Dawson.

Finally, Ms. Labate noted that she and Mr. Ryan were always accessible to community members who have complaints or need information.  I reminded her that Rob is not a voting member of the Board and that she is only one of nine voting members.  I asked for the e-mail addresses and/or phone numbers of all the Board members, but she demurred, reminding me that these volunteers had real lives to lead. It occurred to me that when these folks come to Roosevelt Island on Board business, they come as public servants, and should be as available to us as is the RIOC Chair and President.

The struggle to be noticed, to be informed, to be included, is ongoing and requires determination and perseverance from all of us.  The RIOC Board is scheduled to meet the evening of May 10, followed by a dialogue with us Islanders at approximately 7:30.  This is a chance to share your concerns with RIOC and its Board of Directors.  RIOC is a carpetbagger corporation, nominally controlled by a carpetbagger Board.  I know there are people of good will there, including Rob Ryan and Mary Beth Labate.  But the system is intrinsically flawed.  We have been denied local government and all the good will in the world from people who don't live here is insufficient and unacceptable.  It's hard to sustain the levels of courtesy I expect from public officials when they don't require our elective endorsement to stay in power.