To the Editor:

I am the father of the young lady mentioned in your editorial (March 23) – the runaway “rock star” (though how she was going to do this when she sold her guitars to get a bus ticket to LA is still beyond me).  With all of the discussion about the pros and cons of Public Safety, I have to say that, in my 20 years as a newspaperman, I have worked with the police departments of Boston and New York City and never have I encountered a level of dedication and professionalism like the officers at Public Safety.

Without the help of Officer Fernandez specifically, I would not have Katie back now.  He followed up every lead day and night, contacted her friends, and ultimately arranged for her pickup.  He was the ultimate detective and I am in his debt.

The award for dumbest letter to the editor goes to “Name Withheld” for last week’s comment in The WIRE.  The opinionated attack on Charles De Fino was one that was made in haste without really understanding what Mr. De Fino meant by the statement [quoted in the March 9 issue].  As an employee of the Roosevelt Island Youth Program and a resident of Roosevelt Island, I totally understood where Mr. De Fino was coming from with his statements regarding the shooting on February 25.  I also understand because I grew up with the two young men involved in the shooting here on Roosevelt Island.  I know them both personally and they really aren’t bad guys trying to hurt anybody, especially Mr. Walker, whom I can vouch for.  He just got caught up in a bad situation, and made a terrible decision afterward.

To make such a comment about Mr. De Fino’s statement in The WIRE, and not provide your name, is both crass and cowardly.  It just simply implies that you’re afraid to stand behind your opinion that you so strongly state, and that’s a shame.

Mr. Kraut’s review in the March 23 WIRE of the calamities that the Tram has had over its 25-year history was interesting and appreciated.

What struck me was the passivity of RIOC (of which he is a Board Member) in responding to the latest crisis caused in December when the folks at American Tramways cut the haul-rope cable too short by eight feet.  Here is what Mr. Kraut wrote about the matter:

When, after the initial mis-cutting of the cable, Mr. Blomer [the President of American Tramways] first suggested the engineering fix and asked the State to approve it, none of us imagined or recalled that the State might not want to touch it with a 10-foot pole. Personally I’m glad that Mr. Blomer finally decided, on his own, to simply buy a new cable. I’m not surprised that he put it off as long as he did – $30,000 or $40,000 of his company expense was at stake – nor am I surprised that he finally realized his company was going to lose far more if he didn’t take it upon himself to make a decision. I was surprised that the amount of cost was actually so low, if I may use that term, because I had imagined that replacement cable would cost more on the order of several hundred thousand dollars. If we had known the price was so low, we would have insisted that Mr. Blomer bite that particular bullet far sooner. As it was, our patience was running out, and if Mr. Blomer had not gone ahead and purchased new cable, I believe we would have told him to.

This response makes me wonder where RIOC was during this entire puppet show.  Robert Ryan said early on that a new cable would cost over $100,000, and would take over three months to manufacture.  He said it wouldn’t make sense to purchase a backup cable right away, because if the shortened cable could still be salvaged, the backup cable would lose strength if it were stored.

I spent two minutes on the Internet, looked for “Steel Cable Manufacturers” and found 14 companies that make cables, most of them in a close radius to the city (see www.domesticwirerope.org if you don’t believe me!).

The WIRE did a similar inquiry and found that this cable costs less than $30,000, takes far less than three months to produce, and can be stored indefinitely.  If a reporter can make a few phone calls and get the story right, why can’t RIOC?

In fact, just after The WIRE publicized this information through mass e-mails and a posting on its website (www.nyc10044.com), Blomer magically appeared at a RIOC Board meeting to announce that, unbeknownst to RIOC, he had ordered a new cable immediately after the problem occurred and the Tram would be running in a few weeks’ time.

It’s nice to know that the Board’s “patience was running out.“  Left to their own devices, they might have gotten around to telling Blomer to “bite the bullet” around now, and maybe we’d have the Tram up for the Fourth of July.

In RIOC’s just-released financial statement (for the year ending March 2001!) we see that RIOC administration costs us $2,157,312.  Of this, we pay salary and related expenses of over $1.4 million – money that comes from our rents and fees paid on the Island.  These figures don’t include the people that actually do something for us – the groundskeepers, maintenance and Tram staff.  In other words, we pay over $2 million just for RIOC bureaucrats to sit in their offices.  RIOC allocated over $650,000 last year for administering the Tram even though the entire operation (maintenance, salaries, etc.) is farmed out.  What value does RIOC add with this money when no one in its office can make a few phone calls and get some basic facts?

Mr. Kraut’s other comments on the MetroCard raise some important issues. There is a one-time expense in installing card readers – how much?  There will be income lost to the MTA when the free transfer is used.  Our proceeds certainly won’t be cut in half, as Kraut assumes, because the free transfer will increase Tram traffic to the City and only a portion of Island-bound fares will be traveling for free.  Has RIOC made a reasonable estimate of how much this would cost?  Mayor Bloomberg is on record as supporting MetroCard for Roosevelt Island.  Perhaps he’d be willing to see the MTA take over the Tram entirely.  Is this a good idea, or is it better to keep paying the Tram’s deficit ourselves so that we can better control the level of service and safety?  These issues can be resolved with the appropriate level of effort, analysis, and concern for the community.  They cannot be resolved with the same level of attention RIOC obviously gave to the recent Tram outage.  Does anyone trust RIOC to do it right?

All this goes to prove once again that we need a RIOC Board composed of democratically-elected, active, and highly-motivated members, and to replace this whole crew of inept and indifferent bureaucrats with professional management.

I am surprised that there isn’t a direct bus service from Roosevelt Island to the markets of Broadway and Steinway Streets.  Hasn’t anyone thought of starting an appeal to convince those who control bus service to start one?  It will mean easier access by the residents of the Island to cheaper and more stocked markets than what we have and more affordable transport cost than what the car services charge.

The members of the Roosevelt Island Visual Art Association (RIVAA) want to personally thank RIOC President Robert Ryan and the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation for enthusiastic acceptance of our Gallery.  The space is more than a place – it is a collective enthusiasm for art and life.  All are welcome to visit.