Did you enjoy the Fourth? I'm a sucker for fireworks and the Grucci Family's are the best. However, I'm partial to Fireworks Night at Shea Stadium (held on July 16 this year) where the light and sound ratchets around the enclosed space and is amplified by it. Talk about the "rockets red glare!" If only someone would light some pyrotechnics under the Mets, I'd be a happy camper.

Despite summer breezes the work goes on. At long last, the first meeting to discuss Roosevelt Island contingency planning was held on July 9. Held under the auspices of RIOC, the State Emergency Management Office and the City Office of Emergency Management, these meetings will afford us the opportunity to put into practice the lessons we learned from last August's blackout. The meeting was presented as a quarterly community meeting, but RIOC President, Herb Berman, has indicated his intention to make the discussions monthly with a different emphasis at each get-together.

The first meeting concentrated on the Roosevelt Island/36th Avenue Bridge, and the New York City Department of Transportation, which operates and maintains the bridge, was represented by Russell Holcomb and George Kern. They made two very significant points: Should there be a power outage while the bridge is raised, an operator could still return the bridge to roadway level using the mechanical brakes. Also, emergency vehicles would still have access to Roosevelt Island even in the event of a problem at the Keyspan power plant. My concern was that a toxic fire would prevent the use of the bridge. Without a single working dock on the Island, we would be cut off from police, fire or emergency medical services. Further, Pubic Safety's Rene Bryant made the point that the FDNY, NYPD and EMS are present for all bridge testing such as occurred last Thursday.

Future meetings will include representatives from the fire department, Con Ed, Keyspan, and the police department. I hope the end result will be a real plan that can be shared with all of us so as to make the best choices in the event of some unforeseen incident. One last point: at the end of this first meeting I asked the RIOC representative, Operations Vice President Sari Dickson, what the status of the red buses would be should the subway and Tram be out of service. I was informed that Islanders would be obliged to walk across the Queensboro Bridge and could then catch the Q102 bus at Queensboro Plaza. Ever since last summer's controversy about the off-Island use of our buses, it has seemed to me that any use of our rolling stock to assist residents in getting home is justified.

I e-mailed Herb Berman (who was unable to attend the July 9 meeting) of my concerns and he said that off-Island bus use was "not off the table." He reminded me that four new hybrid buses have been ordered with an expected delivery time of eighteen to twenty-four months. While this is good news indeed, during the interim I would hope that a decision regarding the appropriate use of the red buses, on- and off-Island, could be established and the results shared with all of us. We Islanders are blessed with resources unavailable to other New Yorkers, including the staff of a public benefit corporation, a quasi-private public safety force and a fleet of old but functional buses. We must create the methodology to incorporate all our resources in dealing with the unknown and I hope that this series of contingency planning meetings will do just that. Stay tuned.

My conversation with President Berman was wide-ranging, covering other Island issues that are on the front burner. Our buses also are used to take members of the Senior Association on shopping trips to Queens once a week. Senior Association members help to defray the cost by paying a modest fee. There used to be two trips each week but these were cut back. This has resulted in a limit to the number of riders on these popular trips that afford an opportunity for our seniors to shop in less expensive venues. Herb stated that this was necessary because of the feeble condition of our buses.

He noted that RIOC is closing on the negotiations with the Hudson and Related Companies for the Southtown III and IV buildings with groundbreaking soon to follow. The first of these buildings will include 12,000 sq. ft. of commercial space that could result in as many as six new merchants on the Island. Now that Becker and Becker Associates have arranged for their financing, work on the Octagon Apartments also can begin, Berman informs me, with short-term tennis courts to be provided while the underground parking garage that will temporarily destroy the current courts is being constructed.

We discussed the negotiations currently under way involving the ownership of Island House and Westview. While Herb has recused himself from these discussions, he assured me that the RIOC Board would protect the interests of the residents of these two Mitchell-Lama buildings. Board members Deborah Beck and David Mannix have been given the responsibility of devising the extensions to the buildings' ground leases and I hope they will offer the Island House and Westview Task Force leadership an opportunity to meet with them before any decisions become graven in stone.

The work on the RIRA constitution and bylaws goes on. With five opinions on every article and section, it is excruciatingly hard to arrive at consensus, but First Vice President Steve Marcus is doing his level best to create rules of operation which will serve the interests of those who use them, the Common Council, as well as the RIRA membership in general. My thanks to Raye Schwartz and Marc Diamond, residents who have offered their time and services to this effort. We shall persevere.

Thanks to my lovely spouse who brought the New York Straphangers "State of the Subways Report Card" to my attention. Our F train ranks twelfth out of twenty-one subway lines or about mid-level in the system. The report card finds that the F train is scheduled to come more often than most subway lines but, in fact, arrives with regularity slightly less often. During rush hours, the F should run every four minutes and, in fact, arrives every 5:35 minutes during the morning rush and every 5:55 minutes during the evening. Here's a surprise: the survey states that F line riders have a better-than-average chance of getting a seat (46% compared to a system average of 44%). I guess Gene Russianoff, the Straphangers spokesman, hasn't tried to get to Manhattan from Roosevelt Island at 8:30 A.M. The profile also finds that the F train breaks down more often than average and is below average in cleanliness. You can check out the profile at http://www.straphangers.org/statesub04/F.pdf or access the full report at http://www.straphangers.org. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view these reports.

Did you know that there was a robbery at 552 Main Street on July 21? Deputy Inspector David Barrere, commander of the 114 Pct., left me a phone message that evening, saying that his officers were canvassing the area. I've tried to contact the Inspector and the precinct many times since then, but have yet to get an expanded description of the crime. I will share the information with you when I receive it and will expect to see an account of the incident in the next Public Safety Blotter.

As you know, there are plans afoot to build a permanent park on the thirteen acres we know as Southpoint. The first Southpoint Park advisory committee was held on June 17 and addressed the site analysis and community interviews that preceded the meeting. The committee includes representatives of the community as well as a distinguished group of off-Islanders with significant experience in park planning and operations, including Project Director Charles McKinney, Andy Stone of the Trust for Public Land, landscape architect Mark Morrison, Peg Breen of the Landmarks Conservancy, Ray Gastil of the Van Alen Institute, Betsy Barlow Rogers, founder of the Central Park Conservancy, City Planning Commissioner Alex Garvin, and Bonnie Sherk of Life Frames, Inc.

RIOC has commissioned TPL to come up with three conceptual plans that will be presented and reviewed at a meeting of the advisory committee on August 10. These plans will be posted the following week and presented to the public the week after that. The schedule provides for a final determination of the preferred plan early in September with a public presentation to follow. You've heard me say it before; there is the potential for something wonderful here. I'm very excited to be a part of this act of creation. What a legacy to leave! Parkland is precious, especially in a vast urban environment like New York. I have the following quote posted by my computer desk in 48-point type:

Parkland is forever. If you lose that land, you can never get it back.

-Henry Stern, former NYC Parks Commissioner