In an April 1 letter to Governor George Pataki, Bloomberg wrote, “I am pleased to recommend Michael Shinozaki for appointment to the Board of Directors of the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation.  His appointment will fill a vacancy on the Board.”  Under the lease that gives New York State control over Roosevelt Island, the Mayor is entitled to recommend two members of the nine-member Board, one of whom must be a resident.

State Senator Olga Mendez, who was instrumental in the selection of Shinozaki, told The WIRE on Wednesday, “I am very, very happy that the mayor has recommended Michael Shinozaki.  I consider him very highly qualified.”

The appointment is subject to the Governor’s acceptance, and confirmation by the State Senate.  Presuming both happen, residents will have a five-member majority on the Board.  That would fulfill the terms of the law Governor George Pataki signed in autumn 2002, changing the composition of the Board.

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As the middle child in a family of five kids, Michael Shinozaki often had to play the role of a peacemaker.  It is a role he says he was good at and one that he enjoyed.  Now, he may have the opportunity to play a similar role on Roosevelt Island, as the newest resident appointee to the Board of Directors of the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation.

“I had to learn to get along with my brothers and sisters, and now I have to get along with people on and off the Island,” says Shinozaki, who is 38.  He is fully aware that there are varied politically motivated interests at play and that he will have to use his diplomatic skills to achieve the ends he believes important in his new role.  “We need more transparency and more rationality,” he says.

He says he is not sure about how much of a commitment his new position will require in terms of his time and effort, but he is willing to work so that the community on the Island benefits from it all.  “I want to see what the budget numbers are and see what can be made of them,” Shinozaki says.  “All information should be available to members of the community because none of it is a threat to national security.”

An architectural consultant by profession, Shinozaki says he can understand facts and figures and likes to make sense of them.  He says he would like to modernize the information infrastructure available on the Island and introduce better management practices.  “There should be more rationality in the process of governance of the Island,” he says.  “Everyone should try to separate out facts, opinions, and biases,” he says.  “People are confused about politics and facts.”

An Island resident since 1991, Shinozaki enjoys fencing and flying.  He competed at the national level as a fencer but says the training was more fun than the actual contest.

In 2000, he married Lynn Strong, a former Manhattan Park neighbor, with whom he has a son, Mark.  Strong had two children, Joseph and Haley, from a previous marriage.  Shinozaki jokes that his friends teased him about this: “After all, I went from being a bachelor to a father of three in two years.”

Shinozaki says the family loves the Island because it is such a friendly place to live.  “This is the most densely populated city in the region, and yet the bus stops for you if you run after it.”