April 3, 2004 |
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Editorial |
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Herb Berman has been
on the job as RIOC President for 234 days now. At times, it must seem
like 234 weeks to him.
Roosevelt Island doesn’t take a charitable attitude toward mistakes that affect quality of life. Residents – and The WIRE, too – are quick to employ harsh language when we sense that somebody has failed to think through what he’s done. We figuratively throw up our arms in a surrender to a feeling of futility and frustration when we detect that RIOC, lacking any meaningful institutional memory, has blundered off on some misguided mission when we know that asking – just asking the folks who’ve been around for a while – could easily save everybody a lot of inconvenience. Such was the case with the Red Bus business. We counted 107 days before it was over – close to half of Berman’s time here. The fact that the weather gave us some of the worst days on recent record made it seem like a never-ending trial by cold and wet. We sympathized with those less able to cope with a loss of basic transportation, and that made it seem all the colder, all the wetter. For the record, no voices were heard suggesting that Berman and RIOC were deliberately getting it wrong or trying to make it worse. Attitudes ranged from a head-shaking certainty that RIOC would always get the important stuff wrong to a thin patience that, sooner or later, the gang at 591 Main Street would finally see their errors. The WIRE remains convinced that a RIOC Board composed of residents, elected by residents, hiring professional community management, is the most sensible path to the future for Roosevelt Island. But in the meantime – probably a long meantime... In the meantime, the Red Bus matter is behind us. To be sure, it won’t be readily forgotten. But we can hope that Herb Berman and his administration have learned the lessons it offered: Understand that every resident here has a proprietary feeling about the Island. Understand that residents must be consulted. Listen to the Residents Association. Be prepared to act quickly when something doesn’t work out. Most of all, think like a resident in all the decisions you make. Now, we have to let Herb Berman get past the Red Bus matter, as well. With its lessons learned, he must move on. A fresh start. There’s really no choice. RIOC will screw up again, to be sure. When it happens, residents (and The WIRE) will jump up and down, and harsh language will again be heard in the land. But along the way, there is much good that can be done here, and we have no doubt Herb Berman intends to do it in the greatest measure he can manage. We have to let him, and his staff, move forward. They know, now, that we are watching, and that our stake in the decisions made in the operation of this Island is far greater than theirs. We live here. So let’s try a square-one fresh start, watchful but not resentful, appropriately concerned but not excessively suspicious. Until residents elect
residents to hire and guide professional management to run Roosevelt Island,
Berman’s our pro. He’ll take the room he needs to run, and we can help
by giving him the benefit of all the doubts we’ve accumulated, over the
years, about RIOC. Dick
Lutz
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