It’s a story that winds through four administrations at the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation (RIOC) and politics – community politics, City politics, and State politics – and now, surprisingly, national politics – and involves a dozen years of effort that ranges from simple survival through passing brushes of hopeful optimism.

But it’s a story that culminates today, in the near-Spring of 2004, in a likely loss of the funds that were once expected to bring Roosevelt Island an updated Youth and Community Center as a home for youth recreation, with a game room and classrooms for after-school learning, entertainment in the form of a movie theater that might also be used for community meetings and presentations, and possibly future day care.

In simple terms, City Council Speaker Gifford Miller has said he will set aside $1.75 million in New York City funds, earmarked for renovation of new space.  Combined with $150,000 expected from Assemblymember Pete Grannis, the total is about $1.9 million.  But the City funds can be spent only on space that’s guaranteed for 30 years – and the Youth Program has been unable to pin down space for that period of time.

For that matter, the Roosevelt Island Youth Program (RIYP) hasn’t been able to pin down space for more than a year or so, according to its director, Charles De Fino.

For years, De Fino has had his eye on the Blackwell minischool, based on a promise made during the RIOC administration of Jean Lerman, backed by the RIOC Board of Directors of the time.  But the election of Governor George Pataki brought Dr. Jerry Blue to Roosevelt Island as President of RIOC and, as De Fino tells it, “Jerry Blue told us, ‘Forget about it,’ we were not going to get the space, and in fact he tried to evict us from 506 Main Street.  He and Robert Antonek were going to put a lock on the door until they realized the space didn’t belong to them.”  That space at the south end of Eastwood, which now houses the Youth Program, had been made available to the Youth Program by Roosevelt Island Housing Management.

“During the Blue period we were just trying to survive.  We weren’t looking to move into anything, because we didn’t have the backing of RIOC.  When Mr. Ryan came in [replacing Blue in 1999], he started working with us to put the proposal back together and bring it to the RIOC Board of Directors.  But by that time Blue had already given the Blackwell minischool space to Lilies Christian School for basically no rent at all.”  De Fino explains that RIOC had first built Lilies a school in the Sportspark but, in early 1999, when Blue thought he had a deal for a developer to erect an eldercare residence next to the Queensboro Bridge, he moved Lilies to the Blackwell minischool at 504 Main Street.

“We then lobbied the RIOC Board.  Steve Kaufman [of the Youth Program Board of Directors] and I spoke to every Board member, and we believed we were going in with an 8-0 vote to get the lease for that building.”  (That was in April 2002.)  “But when they came out of the executive session, the vote was eight to nothing against us – to give Lilies one more year.”  (Lilies has since been terminated at that space, which is empty.)

The Youth Program then started working on leasing the former Day Nursery space in Island House.  By November 2002, there seemed to be an arrangement in place.  “But what happened is that now, with the idea of privatization, the owners are no longer interested in leasing any space until the privatization deal is completed.”  Here, De Fino is referring to the likely acquisition of Island House by the Sheldrake Corporation.  The current owners, represented by Charles Lucido, are unwilling to make commitments that might threaten or complicate that deal.  There may also be a concern that such a deal might not be compatible with changing Federal policy on subsidized housing.

That, in fact, was the next stumbling block faced by the Youth Program: “We then went to Doryne Isley [General Manager of Roosevelt Island Housing Management], who’s been a very good friend of ours over the years.  She and Mr. [Aaron] Silverman have basically given us everything we wanted.  But they told me that there was no possibility of getting a long-term lease.  They’re not looking to throw us out, but they said there was no way they would give us a lease of that length.  I think it’s for the same reason – with the changing law in the Bush administration on Section 8 housing – I think Eastwood also has to look at the future of privatization, just for survival.

“That eliminates us from that.  So the only space still available is the Blackwell minischool, and one of the reasons that it’s the only possibility is that the City requires a 30-year lease in order to spend City money.  The Bloomberg administration is holding fast to that.”

Three or four RIOC administrations past Jean Lerman, it appears that the today’s Operating Corporation and its Board may feel that passage of time has released it from any commitment to make the Blackwell minischool available for the Youth Program.  This week, when asked by e-mail, “What are your plans for 504 Main Street?” Berman responded, “We are seeking legal authority for the property.”  Asked in a follow-up e-mail to explain, Berman wrote, “Since it has to still be returned by the School, there are no Board approved plans.  We have a mission to develop a healthy commercial strip that will compliment the commercial stores on the Island, will provide good revenue and enhance the quality of life for the people who reside here.  The operative point still is that until such time as we have the legal right to dispose of same, there will be no official determinations made.”

To another WIRE query, “I gather that the possibility of the space’s being used to expand the Youth Center is not being considered,” Berman responded only, “No decisions have been made for the use of the space.”

But decisions are one thing, and plans are another, and along Main Street there has been talk that RIOC covets the Blackwell minischool – at least its upstairs – for expanded offices, and that it would like to see a bakery or restaurant in the space, at least on the ground level.  If true, such plans would seem to rule out any use of the space by the Youth Program.

“We approached RIOC with suggestions about if we could raise money to buy the lease for thirty years – what would it cost – they never give us a number, they tell us to call the management company [a consultant advising RIOC on marketing Island properties], but that company tells me this is not a real estate decision, this is a political decision, and it has to be made by RIOC: ‘Does RIOC want to give you space to upgrade the community, or does RIOC want the space to be commercial.’”

De Fino’s ability to corral government funding is near-legend among those who have served on the Youth Center Board.  Almost single-handed, he caused the qualifying rules for the City’s Beacon programs to be revised to include Roosevelt Island.  The result was a jump in the number of Beacons City-wide, as other communities found they qualified.  This summer, De Fino believes he’ll have funding to hire every willing teenager on the Island for some form of summer work – something that many residents see as a way to “keep the lid on.”

But now, DeFino sounds discouraged.  “This has been an eleven-year process for me,” he says.  “I came here with the expectation that it was a done deal, that I was coming to build a Youth Center, that I would do that and then turn it over to the Police Athletic League or the Boys Clubs of America.  My goals were to build a community center able to attract all the people of the Island.  It was never my intention to be here long-term.

“This money became available, really, only because we got lucky.  For probably the only time in our existence, we have a Speaker of the City Council.  I don’t foresee that happening any time in the near or distant future.”  With term limits, De Fino points out, he had a five-year window to put together the deal for City money through Gifford Miller.  Miller is expected to run for the Mayor’s office next year, and De Fino recognizes that the money Miller can commit cannot be held for Roosevelt Island with no clear possibility of it actually being used.  And timing is important.  The City budget will be negotiated over the next four or five months.  Sometime during that period, Miller must put the funding in the budget again – or not.

Last week, in a liaison meeting between members of the Residents Association Common Council and two members of the RIOC Board, David Kraut and Mark Ponton, Kraut said, “I don’t want to see that money disappear for lack of a space...  And apparently, it’s going to.”  Kraut also said, “I told Charlie, ‘You’re just not making your wishes known to everybody.  You’re just not yelling loud enough.  But I’m afraid, as a community, we’re going to lose those funds for the kids.”  Later, he added, “We can’t just leave that money on the table in this economy when we can use more space at the Youth Center.”

De Fino told The WIRE this week, “Gifford Miller cannot be expected to keep putting this in the City budget, because he’ll look foolish, especially now that RIOC has taken the only possible space off the table.”  De Fino says he broached the idea of a two-story steel building over one of the basketball courts in Blackwell Park.  He says Berman said, “Give me a proposal,” and “he said they might consider it in the months ahead,” but that might be too late.  In any case, De Fino says he has little hope that idea will go anywhere.

In the RIRA-RIOC Board liaison session, both Ponton and Kraut were asked why the resident members of the RIOC Board don’t stand together on this and other issues, unite, and recruit one more Board vote, which would make a majority, to move things in directions the community wants.  The question was discussed but left unanswered.

Click here to read transcript of the RIRA-RIOC liaison session.