At last week’s RIOC Board meeting, both before and after the vote accepting him as RIOC’s new President, Steve Shane answered questions put by residents. The full transcript of both portions of the session is available on Website NYC10044 (nyc10044.com). This is a greatly condensed version.

DHCR Commissioner Deborah VanAmerongen (chairing): The proposed resolution, which is agenda item number one, is to introduce Steve Shane to the Board. I want to make clear that this is a resolution that we’re proposing be adopted by the Board. The appointment is clearly the Board’s jurisdiction. I think that we are really, truly blessed to have a public servant of Steve’s caliber presented to the Board as a candidate for the Presidency... In 1988-1995, Steve was the Commissioner’s designee to the RIOC Board. When the Governor’s office saw that on his résumé, they said, where else could we possibly find someone so uniquely qualified to be the new President of the Corporation?

Resident Board Member Michael Shinozaki: I think it would be nice if he could take a couple of questions about himself from the community and Board.

Outgoing RIOC President Herbert E. Berman: I would like the members of the Board to know that over the last several weeks, I have had an opportunity to spend much time with Steve. I believe he is a brilliant attorney uniquely qualified. Everybody is very fortunate to have him as a nominee. I would urge his approval.

Shane: I’m 69 years old. I live in White Plains. I’ve been practicing law in this State since 1962. I graduated Columbia Law School. I had the pleasure of serving as the Commissioner’s designee to the RIOC [as] Special Assistant to the Commissioner. I was also tasked to put together the redevelopment plan for Southtown, which I did. Unfortunately, during my tenure, [it] could not go forward because of economic circumstances.

I spent a lot of time on this Island. I care for it a lot. I know a lot about it. I’m more than pleased to tell you that on my inspections now, after my meetings with the staff, I am pleasantly surprised to find the professionalism of the staff and to find an Operating Corporation that has a very bright future ahead of it. This is most simply demonstrated by the fact that twelve years ago, RIOC was dependent upon the State budget for about $7 million in annual appropriations. Today, RIOC is running a surplus. I am looking at the prospect of Southpoint Park. It’s going to be a wonderful thing... I’m looking forward to this with great enthusiasm. Thank you very much for this opportunity.

Shinozaki: How do you see our requirements for low- and middle-income housing?

Shane: The charter of Roosevelt Island is the Master Lease with the City and the General Development Plan (GDP), and it has an affordability component. RIOC is charged with the legal responsibility of carrying out its obligations under those documents as they are incorporated into the various leases for development of various enterprises. The issue of affordability falls within the ambit of the Division of Housing... My job would be to deal on behalf of RIOC with the agreements that it has. I’m not here to enforce the affordable component. I’m here to see that the plan gets carried out in accordance with the contractual agreements that exist. I think that the GDP requires that there be an affordable component to the housing going forward. That’s my official position. My personal predilection on the subject of affordable housing is that I have always been involved in delivering affordable housing, and I personally believe that affordable housing is an essential component of our society. I certainly personally will do everything that I can to see that it is enhanced within the constraints of the contractual obligations of the corporation.

Mary Camper-Titsingh: I’m just kind of concerned that he lives in White Plains...

Shane: I live 35-40 minutes away. I am looking forward to spending a lot of time on this Island. I have never been a 9-to-5 person; and I think that I am very familiar with most of the issues as they exist on the Island, and to the extent that there are any issues that I am not familiar with, that have not been brought to my attention, I want to hear about them. My modus operandi is that I have a yellow pad and I list all the things that are in front of me and I cross them off as they get done. I’m here for you. RIOC is here for you. Our offices are open. We are not going to be a foreign occupier on Roosevelt Island. We are here to serve the community. That is our job. We are employees of a public agency of the State whose function is to serve the people of Roosevelt Island, and that’s what I’m here for.

Ellen Polivy: I would like you to summarize what you think the top five priorities of the residents are.

Shane: Having read the last several years of The WIRE, my view of the top five priorities are:

(1) Probably to get the streetlights working.

(2) To do the best we can with the truly iconic transportation system, the Tram, with the bus system, so that people are not entirely dependent upon the subway, which is a physically difficult thing to access if you have any handicap at all, and is quite often inaccessible. So, Tram maintenance, subway coordination with the MTA, and bus coordination with all of that. Transportation is an important issue.

(3) The stores on Main Street. Obviously, to the people who live on the Island, those stores are critical. You need the local services that every small community wants to have, and we should do our best to make sure that they are there and available to service people on the Island.

(4) The appearance of the Island. It has an aging infrastructure. We have the resources to address those problems, and address them we shall. And to try to make sure that this continues to be the bright and shining Island in the middle of the East River that it was envisioned to be, and in many ways, is uniquely so in the entire United States. There is no other mixed-income community like this. It is successful. You should all be very proud of what you have. I can appreciate your unhappiness about your wish list of how things might be better. On balance, you need to appreciate the wonderful stuff that you do have. And we will always try to make it better.

We [also] need to address the issues of affordability and ownership of the people who are presently here on the Island in a way that makes sense for everybody, not only the people who are presently in those buildings, but [also] for the public purpose of the Island – to maintain an affordable mix [for] various income levels.

Linda Heimer: Do you understand that people in the Mitchell-Lama housing right now need to privatize in order to stay here? The only way they can stay under Mitchell-Lama is to raise rents. How do you feel about it?

Shane: If there is anything I know, it’s Article 2 of the Private Housing Finance Law. I do understand the impact upon the people who live in those buildings – the continuous rent increases, for example. So I understand the need, the urge, to privatize, and that we need to do so in the context of maintaining the affordability for the population on the Island. There has to be some combination of those elements. I will do whatever I can to try and encourage the stability of those populations on the Island.

The following Q&A took place in a Town Hall session after adjournment of the RIOC Board meeting.

VanAmerongen: On a semi-regular basis, I’d like to have the opportunity to really meet with people and talk. If other members of the Board wanted to, they’d be more than welcome to attend.

Betty Walker, who represents Octagon Park Apartments on the Residents Association Common Council, as she spoke at last week’s RIOC Board meeting.

Betty Walker: My name is Betty A. Walker. I am Chair of the RIRA Island Services Committee. We had a good meeting with Mr. Shane. He said communication is high on his list.

As a psychologist, I draw upon my training and experience to understand how communication can thwart or enhance the effectiveness of organizations. We have a tremendous amount of strength and vision in both RIRA and RIOC, but the past – and it’s past, we want it to be past – difficulties between us have hindered our ability to imagine and to act. We must work to diminish the negativity and dismay that has strained our relationship, and find the positive and optimistic energy and resources uniting us in achieving goals that will offer us pride and satisfaction at what we can accomplish together. RIOC’s responsibility and responsiveness to the community is of utmost importance to us, and from the meeting today, I think [it is] to you, also. We have to believe that the public’s need and right to know must be an integral part of communication. Our principle is that we will cooperate with you in this effort, and we will be firm and fair in our dealing. Today represents a positive beginning in open and respectful communication. We look forward to the matching of your words with your actions. And I think it’s fair for you to expect that from us.

The Island Services Committee has met and we have come up with five areas.

The first is the communication between RIRA and RIOC. I think we’re together on that. The RIOC Board members would be addressed by Matthew Katz, President of RIRA, our elected President of RIRA.

Mr. Shane did mention the lighting problems; the Red Bus; the retail shops; Island safety issues.

Residents Association President Matthew Katz questioned Shane about replacement of RIOC Board member John Mannix, who has left the Board.

Residents Association President Matthew Katz: In preparing for tonight’s meeting, I noticed that John Mannix is still listed as a member of this Board. He resigned and has not attended a meeting here in seven months. I’m wondering what [the plan is] for replacement and whether the community will be involved in that process.

VanAmerongen: I hope you appreciate the fact that it’s a brand new [State] administration, and there are an unbelievable number of agencies that have vacancies. We haven’t gotten through all of it. Steve and I have certainly talked about how to ensure that the community is involved in proposing names for Board membership. We need and want to have community people as members of the Board. We’re open to talking with you about how we get names to suggest and what process that might be. I’m sure you have some ideas you can share with us about that.

Shane: Matt, on this subject, you and I talked. There are seven non-statutory positions on the Board. Those can and should be filled, in my view, from Island people. We cannot change the [RIOC] statute, but we can certainly arrange with RIRA that you [are able to propose candidates]. So, look at the constituency of the Board and how you would arrange for staggered terms and elections where RIRA could forward candidates. We could then push them to the Governor’s office for confirmation by the Senate. Democracy would be served, you would have a much more representative government. You wouldn’t need to be concerned about a Board not listening to residents.

So puzzle it out among your constituency to see if we can come up with a workable plan. I think all of our hearts are in the same place in terms of representative government.

Nurit Marcus had questions for Shane on Southpoint Park, the empty storefronts on Main Street, and direct walking access to the Queensboro Bridge.

Nurit Marcus: Regarding the budget, I do not remember the allocation for Southpoint Park. Is it in this budget?

Shane: $12 million has been aggregated for the first stage of Southpoint. They are hiring and they’re doing planning and engineering development. I met with the FDR Memorial people and urged them to immediately interface with the Trust [for Public Land] because, if they want to do their thing on a coordinated basis, they must do it now.

Marcus: It is quite controversial. More than 50% really just want to see an open, beautiful park.

Shane: I understand it is controversial. I just remind you that, in the original dedication of the Island, the FDR Memorial was part of the planning. To the extent that they want to go forward and they raise the funds for it, we’re going to have to... The people on the Island are going to have to demonstrate very convincingly that it would be a bad thing. A memorial to Franklin Delano Roosevelt would be a tasteful part of Southpoint Park. It should be a sensational thing for Roosevelt Island and for the City and State.

Marcus: Our commercial strip on the Island – three stores closed on us, active stores that we needed. The bakery, the pizza, then the fish store closed down. Those really needed to survive. We really are a small place that is missing lots of services. So, I want to ask, what do you see happening? When?

Shane: As soon as possible. I would hope that appropriate service establishments will be back in business on Main Street. You need them. They are appropriate for the community. And vacant stores are not a good thing for anybody. Not to mention, of course, that the revenue stream that would be produced from that is a plus, obviously. I would hope to attract people who will come here and give you back those kinds of establishments – whether it’s a table-cloth restaurant, maybe, whether it’s a bakery, whether it’s a fish store – whatever it is. I understand: It’d be nice to get a pizza, to have an ice cream store here again. Those are the kind of things that make for a nice Main Street, where you can go for a stroll and do your business. I would hope that the economics of it will support that kind of retail life on Main Street. You have an evolving community, you have people up in Octagon who may not ever stop to shop on Main Street. We have people from Southtown who may or may not come north to shop, and obviously the developers of Southtown have some of their own retail establishments that they’re putting in there. It’s going to be an evolving thing. We are mindful of the problem, and we’ll pay attention to it and try and do our best, with the advice and help of the community, and with the people who are involved on the Board, to address it.

Marcus: I would hope that you would take into consideration that this is a very unique place and that these establishments are supposed to be fitting our atmosphere, our ‘quaintiness,’ as I would say, and we’re not going to consider big, major stores and chains, because it is a unique place.

[Question posed with regard to halting development in Southtown.]

Shane: Well, remember that Southtown was developed and was done in terms of its economic relationship with RIOC at a time when new development was critical to the mass of population needed on the Island for the stores, and Tram, and other activities on the Island. So we got a lot of benefits – not necessarily immediate monetary benefits, but a lot of benefits of having the Southtown development go forward. The rest of that deal has already been negotiated, as well.

Marcus: There is so much into it, but I would like to tell you that this is also very controversial. But if you could make a miracle happen and save the rest of the green spaces in Southtown...

Shane: Southtown buildings 5 through 9 are deals that are going forward. We don’t have any right to keep Related and Hudson from going forward and building those. It was part of the overall deal. And it’s a done deal.

As DHCR Commissioner Deborah VanAmerongen chaired last week’s RIOC Board meeting, Herb Berman and Steve Shane conferred. Shane repaid Berman’s tribute by thanking Berman for all his help in getting up to speed. Resident Board member David Kraut observed that in the many years he’s served on the Board, this is the only time an outgoing President appeared at a meeting as his replacement took over.

Cynthia Ahn: Good evening. Welcome to Roosevelt Island... I run the Roosevelt Nails Salon on Main Street. I have lived here for 20 years. I am very appreciative for your concern about Main Street merchants. North end residents are leaving [early] in the morning and coming back very late. Southtown residents also leave early in the morning, and [return] late in the evening. They do not have much time to consume at the Main Street merchants. Therefore, we have been struggling. There is less traffic and not enough business for the last 20 years. We’ve been working hard to build up and to maintain our small businesses. So, for the last few years, many of us didn’t have a lease extended or renewed, which really makes us nervous about our life and our business and our community. We have found it difficult to renovate because of no lease. Please give us leases and respect that we have been working hard for a difficult period [to] build up business.

For the last two years, an outside developer was trying to handle the Main Street merchants. It seems like they do not really understand community need[s] or they do not really care. I don’t know what the reason [is]. Hopefully, this time RIOC will care. RIOC management knows about the Island and cares about the community. Handle this, please, directly. Thank you for your time and I’m looking forward to your support.

Shane: Thank you.

Sharon Bermon: I’m sure that you already know, Roosevelt Island doesn’t have a lot to do now because our stores and restaurants are mostly closed. So, we have a popular local game. It’s called "Throw Rocks at RIOC Staff." [PAUSE] You were supposed to laugh when I said that.

Shane: Oh, okay. We have a very agile staff. They dodge.

Bermon: I would like to say something about the possible stairway [to the Queensboro Bridge]. Some of us think that having stairs would be a really good idea, and not just for emergencies. Last summer, when the subway was frequently not really working on weekends, and the Tram wasn’t running. for those of us who wanted to do recreational things, it was almost impossible. If we had a stairway, some people would go up the stairs, and if there was an elevator, it would be even better. An elevator would be an alternative way for people with mobility problems to get off the Island, [and] not just in an emergency...

Shane: Unfortunately, DOT, which controls the bridge, is not about to give up any space on the bridge from traffic, which is overwhelming already, for an elevator. If you run an elevator structure up to the bridge, you need a landing area and all that kind of stuff.

Bermon: I don’t want to get into the details right now. I just want to remind you that for years – for years – we kept saying that we wanted to get the Tram on the MetroCard, and it didn’t happen. And then, somehow, Matt Katz and some other people made it happen. And now, we’re on the MetroCard, and it’s fantastic. So, I’m just saying – look, there are always negative things we can think about, but this is a new administration. Let’s try to be positive and think about all these wonderful things ....

Shane: We are. We have talked to the DOT, and they’re not terribly receptive to the idea. But we continue to dialog and see what other alternatives [there may be]. A ramp up 200 ft. with switchbacks is a daunting engineering prospect. And any structure that’s built, which has to comply with ADA issues, is also a problem. So...

Bermon: I would like to bring up one more thing. We have almost no place to eat now on the Island. We can take food out from the Chinese restaurant. In previous Chinese restaurants there, there is a door on the left which leads into a room [that] used to be a dining room. Now, if there is any way that you can use your influence to persuade them to put the front half back into a dining space where people could actually sit – it wouldn’t have to be a fine dining experience, but it would be something more appealing than the [two] tables that are there now.

Shane: There’s nothing that permits [RIOC] to give out such direction. I suggest that you go in there and try and persuade them that this could be a great money-making venture. To whatever extent they would need RIOC’s cooperation from an engineering or changing storefronts or whatever, I mean, we’ll be glad to cooperate if, in fact, they wanted to do that kind of thing.

Resident Board member Michael Shinozaki started the initial dialog between Shane and residents at last week’s meeting.

Shinozaki: As to the bridge, you can’t just put in a stairway. It has to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. And how do you protect it when somebody comes back at night, and they’re riding the elevator, and they get raped?

Stewart: The 59th Street Bridge is a landmark, so you have to get the Landmarks Commission’s permission to do it. You also need Bridge and Tunnel, Department of Transportation, Homeland Security, the United States Coast Guard, and so on, and so it’s a lengthy and laborious proposition.

Bermon: Well, all of those are complications; but I can only say something idiotic like, If we can send people to the moon, we should be able to find a way to get them to the top of the bridge.

Judith Berdy: May I add – the N and the R train [are there]. There is no way that the MTA is going to let you build anything going north of the bridge, because it is a subway tunnel. You cannot build anything over a subway tunnel that will require a foundation.

Bermon: Last year, when candidate Spitzer was here in August, I asked him if he would he authorize having the Tram repainted back to what it used to be. Now everybody who was here that night will tell you that the question brought up a lot of issues and a lot of anger at RIOC. I think you ought to repaint the sides or the ends of the Tram cars. They used to say "The Tram," right? Now they say "RIOC." And you know what, the Tram does not belong to RIOC, it’s "The Tram." A lot of people feel that way. If you want me to stand on Main Street and have people sign petitions, I bet you that I could get you 5,000 names in a couple of days. There is a huge, huge, huge feeling that this is something that needs to be done. It would be a really good signal.

Ellen Polivy: I noticed in the budget presentation that 5% of the budget is actually from retail space. That’s not very much. Perhaps we could just do what we did for Southtown, which is give them some incentives, so that we can get stores in there fast for the community?

Handicapped people are not represented here tonight because they couldn’t show up because it was raining. They can’t make it in the elevators, they can’t go off-Island because the elevators don’t level at the train [and] the Tram doesn’t have the right size elevator for the scooters. They’re really stuck here. If we don’t have stores for them to shop in, they can’t go shopping. They were stuck. Maybe they had a hard time making it down to the grocery.

I think that when we close a store we have to be really careful about the impact on the community, and I personally would like to see free rent for all the stores for at least a year so they can upgrade their stores and make it a real nice place to shop.

Do you have any answers?

Shane: No, there are no answers. As a public authority, we can’t give away the space. We have legal constraints. On the other hand, we can certainly deal with space that serves community needs at a subsidized rent. We can try and encourage retail tenants of diversity in order to try to meet the needs of people, which certainly include the handicapped. These are problems that we will address. We are mindful of them. And we will address them. I don’t know that there are any easy solutions, but we will try and certainly address them. And we will involve the community in addressing them, because we welcome your idea...To the extent that we have to get less than "market rents" from a particular kind of store if it’s a needed service establishment, then that’s the kind of thing that we’re prepared to do.

Shinozaki: Quite a number of people on the Island know that there have been a variety of vendors who have approached RIOC representatives to try and rent a place here, and they’ve gotten no response at all.

Shane: No. That’s not appropriate.

Shinozaki: Those bids never even came before the Board. They were rejected out of hand. So I think that what we need to be doing is to make sure that our agents do not overreach their authority by "voting" on behalf of the Board with a "no" answer before those bids reach the Board for a vote. That is, prior to your coming, part of a big discussion that I had with Mas and [I explained to him] that by you not responding, you are saying "No" on behalf of the Board and that is our right to say yes or no... I want to see it.

Ellen Polivy: We had tried to get the constituents of our RIOC Board members, the Community Board members... We tried to get them together to talk to them. And they weren’t allowed, we learned, to meet as a group so we could express our needs to our community members that would be representing us, because there’s some rule about that. So I’d like to find out whether they can meet with us as a group so we can get them together and express our needs in small groups over coffee. We can all sit together in Trellis and have a casual meal and express our needs so that they can actually represent us.

Sherie Helstien: In RIRA, we have – of the groups of people, one of the committees or a sub-committee was trying to put together RIRA members – four or five RIRA members who will meet on a regular basis with our RIOC, our local, resident RIOC Board members; and what we were told when we tried to organize these meetings is that if there were three or more RIOC Board members in a meeting together, whether it included residents or not, it was considered a Board meeting. They couldn’t do it. Now there’s no vote being taken and if it needs to be public, if it needs to be a public meeting because there are three or more Board members, we’d like to meet with all the Board members altogether as a... you know, with RIRA representatives, who are elected by the community – not appointed. The point was to get some kind of communication going, some line of communication with the people who sit on the Board and who live in the community. And we were stonewalled by this comment that they could not have a meeting of three or more of their members without it becoming a "public" meeting. And to that, I say: Then let it be "public." Let the public come to a meeting where all of you are sitting without a regular RIOC meeting going on and have a discussion with the people who are here supposedly representing.

Stewart: You will recall that, at the request of RIRA, there were three Board members.

Helstien: The point is, we were told that if three or more Board members came together, it would be considered a "public" Board meeting. Our point is, fine, let it be "public." Not taking any votes, come together and make an actual meeting with the community where you listen to what is going on and what’s happening. You guys don’t always know everything that’s going on. We’ve understood that. Sometimes we need to tell you when there are problems or issues, and we were told that could not happen and the thing fell apart. That’s the only question. I don’t care which three or five or seven members come together, we wanted to meet with as many as possible...

RIOC President Shane as he listened to a resident’s question last week.

Shane: The open meetings requirements of the Public Authorities Law are a pain because they are quite often counter-productive. We cannot have, as I understand it, a quorum – and out of the nine members of the Board, that would be five – assemble in any one spot where they might do business.

Helstien: Well, they’re not going to do business. They’re talking to the community...

Shane: I cannot . . . .

Helstien: They’re not voting on anything.

Shane: But they could, OK? That becomes...

Helstien: Well, then perhaps its up to you, as the head of RIOC, and Ms. VanAmerongen to see, to go back to the people who wrote the law, or to go back to the State, and say we need to have a real decisive indication for a community. That’s another thing. When you’re talking about a Board that runs an entity that is an agency, but is not a community, that’s another kind of thing. This is a community that we’re talking about... We need to meet with the people who sit on this Board.

Shane: I understand how difficult it is. And I understand that the Public Authorities Law is not particularly well-suited to RIOC . . . .

Helstien: Can you get that fixed?

Shane: No, I cannot . . . .

Helstien: Well, we have an attorney on line. Why doesn’t he look into seeing if there’s a way to...

Shane: Stop. This is a purely legislative matter. It is a law that is written and codified. So, in order to be able to be able to change it, you can’t just have a lawyer change it. You have to back to the Legislature and change it. And that requires a considerable effort through a whole host of steps, as you might guess, in order to change it only for Roosevelt Island.

Helstien: What I would like is that we have elected representatives here. We have an elected State Assembly – well, we don’t have a State Assembly person yet, we’re now without. But we have a State Senator. We have all of these folks. You guys are in the State. Why can’t you, on our behalf, talk with them about it; and when we do have an Assembly member, do something to try to find a way to make this, to change or to adjust or amend that legislation so that, for a community such as this, those kinds of impediments can be met, can be ....

Shane: I’m sympathetic with your plight...

Helstien: Then how do we resolve this?

Shane: We can’t resolve it. You must accept the fact that we cannot resolve it. This will require an act of the State Legislature...

Helstien: So we can meet with as many as four RIOC Board members, but not five at a time.

Shane: That is correct.

Helstien: How about if we put four in one room and two in another? Or three in another and we just go room to room?

Shane: We have a bigger problem because we have a vacancy on the Board, so we’re down to eight, so it can’t be more than three at this point until we have a full Board. To the extent that you try and circumvent the meaning of the law...

Helstien: I mean, who’s going to care, really, about Roosevelt Island? If we meet with our Board members, is somebody really going to come after us, Sir?

Shane: It’s the law.

Helstien: It’s the law, but who’s going to come after this community for meeting with the people who make our law, our rules here?

Shane: We are officers of the Court, those of us who practice law ....

Helstien: What is the worst that can happen to you? You’ll be taken off the Board. That’s a big...

Shane: All of the members of this Board, under the Public Authorities Law, are sworn to uphold the Constitution of the State of New York and the laws duly enacted by the legislature thereof...

Helstien: OK, all I’m asking...

Shane: ...and it will not behoove us, it will not behoove anybody to support activities which suborn those laws. And I am sympathetic with trying to get it amended, but I don’t think anybody is going to support going around the back door.

Helstien: Okay. I thank you.

Shane: All right. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much.