The Residents Association Common Council voted Wednesday night to ask residents for their views on five referendum questions when they vote Tuesday, November 2.

The issues: Public Safety, RIOC, the Octagon Park Apartments project, Southpoint Park, and space for the Youth Program. The Council voted either unanimously or overwhelmingly to seek resident views on each question.

The outcome of a resident vote is only advisory, but resident leaders believe RIRA's only power lies in public opinion. Indeed, a heading over the questions on the ballot will read: "Decisions on these matters are made by administrative and/or legislative authority. Your Residents Assocation seeks your views on these matters as guidance for its work with public officials."

The biennial elections are one opportunity to gather opinion from the widest spectrum of residents. All Island residents over 18, regardless of country of citizenship, are eligible to vote in the Residents Association election; it is held at PS/IS 217, from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., like the general election (for which non-citizens are not eligible), but in a separate area.

Here are the referendum statements and questions, not necessarily in absolutely final wording, with additional background on each issue:

Public Safety

Roosevelt Island is patrolled by officers in the Public Safety Department (PSD) employed by the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation (RIOC). From time to time, various alternatives to PSD have been proposed, such as using State Police, NYC Police, a private security agency, or restructuring the current organization.

Question: Should RIOC consider a new approach to Public Safety?

Background

Complaints about the performance of PSD are constant: Parking laws are unenforced, say some; drug deals are ignored, say others. There are gripes about stop signs being ignored for some violators, while others are eagerly ticketed.

But individual residents often speak with appreciation of certain Public Safety services - escorts to apartments, for example, or motorized assistance in locating a "missing" car in Motorgate.

Within the past few years, the RIOC Board conducted a wide survey on the Island, asking residents their views on Public Safety. But after the forms were turned in, the Board member in charge of the survey, Dr. Joan Dawson (who soon thereafter resigned from the Board), declared the survey invalid. Results were never released.

The RIRA Common Council sees this question of whether RIOC should explore possible alternatives to PSD as a chance for Islanders to express their views on the Island's public safety operation with a simple "yes" or "no."

RIOC

Roosevelt Island is maintained by the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation (RIOC). Their responsibilities include maintenance of our sidewalks, streets, green areas, etc. (They are not responsible for residential buildings).

Question: Are you satisfied with the current level of maintenance of the Island provided by RIOC?

Background

The Council sees this as a chance for residents to express themselves generally on RIOC's physical stewardship of the Island - streets, pigeon control, sidewalks, the promenade, the seawall, Motorgate, and other physical resources. The feeling is that, over the years, the physical Island has gradually deteriorated more and more with each new administration in the RIOC offices - and that this is a chance to comment on the current state of affairs.

On the other hand, Island maintenance represents a constant set of choices and priorities making demands on a limited RIOC budget, so the question centers on the choices RIOC makes, as well.

Octagon Apartments

A New York State law (Chapter 493 of the laws of 2002) bans commercial residential housing developments on designated Roosevelt Island parkland. This includes, by some interpretations, the land surrounding the landmarked Octagon ruin. The Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation is currently entertaining a proposal to build 13-story apartment wings on the property in a project that would include restoration of the landmark but would cover much of the designated open space on the site.

Question: Should the New York State Legislature amend the law to allow the development of the Octagon Park Apartments project on open space now protected by the law?

Background

The RIOC Board gave the Octagon Apartments project a green light again Thursday morning, this time removing from its resolutions language that said legislative approval would have to be secured before the project could go forward. There's a disagreement over what the 2002 Open Spaces Law says: Assemblymember Pete Grannis maintains that its language forbids building anything outside the boundaries of the Octagon ruin itself (which would be restored as part of this project); RIOC has said from time to time that it believes the law permits two apartment wings to be built adjacent to the ruin. Critics deplore the fact that open space - parkland - will be built upon in constructing the wings. Advocates of the project say the housing is needed, and point out that parkland now fenced in would be opened by construction of the apartments.

The RIRA Common Council sees this advisory vote as a chance for residents to provide a yes/no opinion on the project, feeling that the result will be a guide to Grannis, who in turn is likely to influence the State Assembly when and if amendment of the 2002 law is considered.

Youth Center Space

The Roosevelt Island Youth Program is eligible for a $2 million City grant to expand and improve its facilities for serving Island youth. Availability of the funds depends on the Youth Program having a long-term lease on space to be renovated. The Youth Program has asked for the former Lilies School space at 504 Main Street, but RIOC has not granted a long-term lease, although space was promised to the Youth program when it was asked to move out of 552 Main Street. Other possible uses for the space include offices for the RIOC staff, or commercial use, though no commercial renter has been found.

Question: Should RIOC grant the Roosevelt Island Youth Program a long-term lease to expand its facilities into 504 Main Street?

Background

Youth Program Director Charles De Fino says that RIOC long ago promised more space for the Youth Program, and he considers the Lilies School space (a former PS 217 minischool), which is adjacent to the Youth Center's present facilities, to be ideal. The Youth Program was denied the space when, under the RIOC Presidency of Dr. Jerome Blue (1996-1999), it was given to the Lilies Christian School. The RIOC Board terminated Lilies' use of the space, either planning to rent it to a commercial tenant or use it for RIOC offices - depending on whose version of RIOC intent you hear, and when. Since Lilies vacated, the space has been empty - unrented and unused, with RIOC seemingly unable to rent it, and the RIOC Board unable to make a decision about what to do with it.

Youth Center advocates point out that the Youth Program's long-term occupancy of its current space is tenuous, as the Eastwood Apartment building's future evolves, and say that the Youth Program's future may depend on its getting space to hold, long-term, and renovate. To get the City money for renovation, the Youth Program must have a long-term commitment for the building.

The RIRA Common Council put this advisory referendum question on the ballot to get a reading on public opinion, and possibly to put pressure on the RIOC Board to put the space to use as an expanded Youth Center.

Southpoint Park

There are two Southpoint questions:

Recently, three possible plans were presented for development of a new park at Southpoint. The following two questions are intended to gauge public reaction to two specific ideas, each of which is included in one of the plans.

One plan envisions a semi-circle of "speculative retail space" at the park entrance.

Question: Apart from park-related facilities, should Southpoint Parkland include retail space?

One of the plans envisions using the southern half of the Southpoint Park site for a formal stone memorial to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, designed by the late Louis Kahn.

Question: Should several acres of parkland at the southern tip be used for a granite and grass memorial designed by Louis Kahn and dedicated to FDR?

Background - Retail Space

Critics of RIOC say that it doesn't manage the Island's existing retail space very well, pointing to its eviction of the bakery in favor of a replacement business that hasn't materialized in the two-year period since the eviction as an example of short-sighted management. (RIOC President Herb Berman said, at the time, that he would not tolerate businesses not paying their rent, and it seemed he was making an example of the bakery, which had recently changed hands while still owing back rent.) Many critics of the semi-circle of "speculative retail space" (as it is decribed by the Trust for Public Land) also say they want Southpoint Park kept simple and non-commercial.

The Trust for Public Land (TPL) points out that some components of Southpoint Park, perhaps including retail space, will help pay the maintenance costs of the rest of the park. In any case, the retail court proposed by TPL is only one part of three overall plans under consideration.

RIRA Council members who favor a relatively simple park without a strong commercial component advocated use of this referendum question to gauge public sentiment on just how commercial the park should be.

Background - FDR Memorial

Advocates of Southpoint Park have long believed that the original plan for the park - a memorial to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his wife, Eleanor - should be its future. But for years, those interests failed to raise the funds to build an impressive design by the late Louis Kahn, and the park remained closed until RIOC Board member Mark Ponton insisted it be opened in its mostly "wild" state.

Now that the park has been open for nearly two years, many residents have come to like its "unimproved" state, and to prefer simplicity in a park design. They see the Kahn memorial, which would cover half the length of Southpoint Park with a long marble triangle pointing downriver (and, say some, eliminate views of the Manhattan skyline from there), as simply "too much." Most feel there should be some acknowledgment of FDR at Southpoint, which lies across the East River from the United Nations (which FDR advocated during his Presidency).

This question is intended to get at the "big memorial or simple park" question. It is believed that a clear resident expression of opinion on the matter will influence final decisions about the nature of Southpoint Park.