To the Editor:

Sometimes you run into a great cab driver and the ride home to Roosevelt Island is a treasure, enriched by a wonderful cab driver.  I have not been well lately, and I have had to use them almost every day to get home from a doctor visit in Manhattan.

I have noted a disturbing trend – drivers who try to get out of trips to Roosevelt Island.  They will ask you if they can take you as far as the Tram, or they will stop and put you into another cab.  On many occasions I have been told they can’t take me because their shift is ending in an hour.  The more this has been happening, the more my frustration level.  A friend was taken as far as the Tram, then the driver called the NYPD, said she was refusing to pay; my friend, stunned and appalled, was told by the NYPD there was nothing they could do.  (Why was she expected to pay when she had not been taken to her destination?)  Shame on the NYPD!

On the hottest day of the year so far, I had my own horrific experience.  My daughter and I had been on an un-airconditioned train from Philadelphia to Penn Station.  Because of my illness, I was suffering heat exhaustion, and feeling extremely ill by the time we arrived.  I was assisted by a redcap, who got my luggage and me, in a wheelchair, to the cab stand; the captain allowed us to get a cab right away.  I thought,  I’m almost home.

I soon realized that the cab had no air conditioning, so I opened the window and stuck my head out like a puppy.  The next thing I knew, the driver was pulling over at the corner of 39th and 8th.  He stopped the car, jumped out, opened the hood, and said, “Car can’t go.  Air overheat.”  I said, “You have got to be kidding me – you didn’t have the air on.”  He said, “Lady, get out.”

He then walked away from the car and refused to help us get our luggage out.  When I hailed another cab, he ran over, waving his hands, saying, “She’s going to Queens.”  The new driver drove off.  Our first driver does this once more.

My daughter started to cry.  “Mom, you have to call a car service, or we will never get home.”  I took her advice. When I turned to her and said, “They’re coming in about 15 minutes,” the driver quickly slammed down the trunk and hood, jumped in the car, and drove off, turning into the Port Authority to get a new, more acceptable ride.

Even on a very hot day, I don’t think a cab ride home for a sick person should be a trip through hell.

Have others had outrageous experiences with cab drivers when trying to get to Roosevelt Island?  I did report the driver to the Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC).  But I also called the Mayor’s office, and I would like to include others’ stories with my complaint about the difficulties in getting cabs to come here.  Please respond with an e-mail to me at LynneStrong@hotmail.com, and I will include them in my complaint to the Mayor’s office.

 

To the Editor:


It has been the best choice possible.  In fact, after seeing this apartment in Manhattan Park, the first one we saw, we knew there could not be anything better and we took it.  Five years later, not only we are sorry to leave the apartment, the view, the skies, the river, the Manhattan skyline, we are sorry to leave the people of our Island, our village within the city.

This village of ours made us feel part of it.  It was a great confort to be part of the Roosevelt Island community during the tragic events of the last few years.  Not only 9/11, but also the anthrax scare and the Blackout.

On a more personal level, we felt around us the genuine interest in the health conditions of my husband, Dr. S. L. Malhotra, starting with the staff of our 20 River Road building and the people in Gristede’s, when last winter he underwent surgery and had a long hospitalization and rehabilitation.

We have also to give tribute to a very special person of the Island – somebody who saved my husband’s life by taking over his health care and by giving the correct advice at every step.
In his compassionate and charming manner he was always available; he frequently visited his patient in the Lenox Hill Hospital and now at home.  Dr. Resnick, we will miss you!

Thank you, Roosevelt Islanders, thank you so much!

 

To the Editor:

This is another letter from another frustrated resident.   How long do we have to put up with Motorgate management and their I-don’t-give-a-damn-what-you-think way of doing business?  Does anyone know what, exactly, Motorgate/Edison Parking is supposed to offer in exchange for the monthly rate?  If so, please share it.

Not only do we pay money to have our cars not watched and not properly guarded against vandalism, now we also have to use stairs reeking of urine and worse, to go up and down the garage floors.

What do we get for our misery?  Another computer-typed note on the elevator door: “Sorry for the inconvenience...”

Just a thought: whose inconvenience would it be if we were to withhold monthly payment on grounds of unsanitary conditions, unreliable service or, even more accurate, no service at all?

I look forward to reading a response from those in charge.   Thank you for your consideration of this matter.

 

To RIOC President Herb Berman:

I would like to bring to your attention the problem the Roosevelt Island sports teams are having with the playing fields that are contracted for practice.

I am an assistant coach for my son’s team and, on several occasions, we have arrived at the field with a valid permit only to find an off-Island team with an equally valid permit for the same date and time.  I can only conclude that either RIOC does not keep a well-organized schedule, or through greed, double books the fields.  In either case, the youth of the Island end up being the ones who suffer.

The wording on your permit reads: This permit is subject to cancellation or termination at anytime without prior notice by an officer of RIOC, or an employee thereof so designated to act who in his/her discretion determined that a violation of this permit has occurred   (up to here it is reasonable), or for other good reason as may be determined by RIOC  (this portion seems to be very arbitrary and arrogant).

I am requesting that, once a permit is given, RIOC respect the dates and times.

 

To the Editor:

I am in 540.  This is about Disney.  I am beyond civilized discourse.  Our lobby is back to worse than its former state of deterioration and, more critically, our intercom (removed and replaced by Disney for filming, twice that I know of) is bolluxed up completely (five weeks) and apparently beyond repair.  I am physically disabled and unable to summon my aide, from downstairs when I need her assistance.

I wonder if those who feel so warm and fuzzy about “Dim H2o” would feel the same if it had been filmed in their building, their environment and activities had been disrupted, and their building damaged for, how long?