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June 30, 2007 |
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These have been frantically busy weeks as RIRA and RIOC have prepared for and executed their last board meetings until September. RIRA has labored to address the Red Bus issues that have consumed our attention since the East Channel Drive (AKA, Main Street South) route was put in place and that was extensively discussed in the last issue of The WIRE.
As you’ve likely discovered this past week, several of the routing problems have been tackled and, I hope, solved. With RIOC President Steve Shane’s encouragement, I convened a meeting on June 20 that included RIRA officers and members Mark Chipman, Frank Farance, Vicki Feinmel, Margie Smith, and Betty Walker who were joined by RIOC resident Board members David Kraut, Mark Ponton, and Michael Shinozaki. Steve was joined by RIOC staffers Fernando Martinez, Chris Baker, and Buddy Satar.
Our goal was to consider the current Red Bus routing and scheduling and to see if either or both could be improved. The resident group represented roughly some 140 years of Island living, and many of us had seen various bus scenarios attempted and abandoned. In a productive two-hour meeting, we determined the following: the East Channel route would be abandoned. This had been put into use after the loss of the turnaround at the Tram station as construction begins for Southtown buildings #5 and #6. While building a new turnaround east of the old one seemed to some of us to be a logical alternative, there were technical questions for which we had no answers. Our second choice, as you may recall from the RIRA letter in the last issue of this newspaper, was a route requiring a turn around Sportspark and then traveling north again on the West Channel Drive. While adding a minute or two to the bus schedule, it would allow pickups at the subway without either crossing a street or walking overland to a 455 Main Street bus stop. After testing the route on Thursday, this change was approved and commenced this past Monday.
The second change involved making up some time during the morning rush hour by eliminating the turn-in at the Gristedes/Motorgate bus stop. RIRA determined that 91% of the morning riders who used this stop were coming from Manhattan Park and could easily use a stop in front of 2 River Road. This plan would 1) save time, 2) be safer, as Manhattan Parkers would no longer be obliged to scurry across Main Street to catch the bus, and 3) still protect riders from the elements under the Main Street/River Road arcade.
We discussed the indiscriminate violations of stop sign and yield sign rules by trucks, buses, and private vehicles on Main Street. We’ve all seen them zoom through pedestrian walkways without even slowing down. President Shane promised to step up moving violation enforcement with a ticket blitz, and to request Public Safety Director Jim Fry to give an account as to the number of infractions ticketed along with the index crimes that are regularly reported at RIOC Board meetings. RIRA suggested switching the yield signs back to stop signs so as perhaps to grab the attention of motorists, but no decision was made. Listen neighbors, when you see violations of these signs and when you see Public Safety ignoring those violations, for pity sake, report it!
We came to no conclusions as to the efficacy of allowing parents with strollers to bring them aboard buses during rush hours. There is merit on both sides of the question and, in fact, the MTA doesn’t allow them on City buses during peak hours. However, we are not the MTA, and it seems to me that we must consider the needs not just of the majority but also of those who have no options. Parents who must travel with kids, packages and strollers during the rush hours have no options; the able-bodied and unencumbered do. The elderly on walkers or the disabled riding wheelchairs have limited options as well. As a planned community we must consider the needs of those least likely to find alternative modes of travel, both on-Island and off-Island.
There are two other perennial problems that still must be pondered: We’ve all seen the bunching of two, three or even four buses. By considering the variability in waiting times, much as airport buses at car rental facilities do, we might get a handle on a problem that City buses have never solved. Further, it’s in everyone’s interests to improve non-rush hour scheduling so as to synchronize with the Tram schedule; it’s the only schedule that’s ever worked. I hope that subsequent meetings of our working group will address these issues.
It’s very gratifying to see RIRA, RIOC, and the RIOC Board work together to solve a problem. You old-timers know that this has not always been the case. I hope that Steve Shane will share operational decisions with this group, or one like it, prior to their implementation so as to bring those 140 years of experience to bear.
Several of us spent June 21 on a New York Water Taxi boat cruising the East River from Fort Schuyler in the Bronx to the Fulton Street Ferry Landing in Brooklyn. It was East River Day, and the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance (MWA) had convened civic groups from every borough fronting the river to discuss how best to evolve the usage of both the riverfront and the river itself for residential, industrial, and recreational use. I was proud to speak about Roosevelt Island’s plans for Southpoint Park and our hopes for the expanded use of our five miles of seawall and promenade. There is a missionary excitement in the air to resurrect mile upon mile of derelict and abandoned waterfront, and I expect RIRA, which is listed as a partner by the MWA and its parent organization, the Municipal Art Society, to participate enthusiastically.
Can you stand some good news? Kudos to Secretary (and wife) Sherie Helstien for obtaining a $300 contribution to the RIRA Treasury from a film company that never exposed a frame of film here. While filming the Bourne Ultimatum, the location company used our western apartment façades as background. Sherie traced the location company and simply asked for a contribution. As in past years and with other films, only RIOC and the building management company were compensated for Islanders’ inconvenience, at least until we asked the location people for a donation. In each case, they were happy to comply. The squeaky wheel and all that…
Further good news: My request to the City Council to help finance our 2008 RIRA elections, filed through Jessica Lappin’s office, was approved. We will be required to complete myriad forms, we are informed, but the result will be $4,000 in unrestricted funds that will be available probably some time before the end of the year.
Did you attend the Robin Russell Memorial Concert on June 22? It was a superb offering of classical pieces by Haydn, Ravel, Chopin, and Mozart performed by teachers from Robin’s Island Arts Music School. It was a bitter-sweet evening as we recalled the cultural bounty Robin brought to the Island as well as Robin himself. I never missed one of his River Music concerts, which included world-class musicians such as pianist Ruth Laredo, guitarist Eliot Fisk and jazzman Junior Mance. The future of the music school is in question, not for lack of teachers but for lack of a Robin Russell to administer it. When Robin adopted us, he brought another layer of cultural endeavor to this tiny Island that boasts more cultural institutions than anyone could reasonably expect. (Roosevelt Island also is home to the RIVAA art gallery and the Main Street Theatre and Dance Alliance.) We owe Robin for the sometimes Herculean efforts he made to produce those concerts, and we can repay that debt by helping his son, Matthew, who has been orphaned at a young age, having just completed his freshman year in college.
I hope you will join me by making a generous contribution to the fund set up by the Island Arts Music School. Your checks, made out to the Roosevelt Island Residents Association and including "Matthew Russell Fund" in the memo line, may be sent to: RIRA, P.O. Box 341, Roosevelt Island Station, New York, NY 10044.
The work by the Maple Tree Group and RIRA, to invent the process to choose the RIOC resident Board nominees through Island-wide elections, proceeds. You will find instructions elsewhere in these pages regarding a website containing data on the approval process for candidates, as well as an e-mail address to which you can direct your questions. RIRA will suss out the questions of how to produce an equitable election. But our efforts will be for nought unless those residents with the training and experience to run a multi-million dollar public-benefit corporation (and you know who you are!) step up to the plate. It’s the best work you’ll ever do.
It only remains for me to wish you all a glorious Fourth of July. We live in the premier site for viewing the East River fireworks, and I hope you find a salubrious site in which to watch. My scribblings won’t appear again until the July 28 issue of The WIRE, but I suspect we both need a break from the RIRA Column. There’s sure to be lots to write about then. Here’s to a splendid summer!