Report From RIOC President Leslie Torres - Roosevelt Island Environmentally Friendly Green Initiatives Include Fuel Cell, AVAC Recycling Integration, Hybrid Electric Buses, Wireless Parking Meters, Motorgate LED Lighting, Solar Power, Electric Car Charging Stations & More
You Tube Video Of Parking Garage LED Lighting
Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) President Lesie Torres sends the following report to Roosevelt Island residents.
A few weeks ago, as I was preparing to interview with NY1 News about the new fuel cell technology at the Octagon, the city’s first residential LEED certified building, I found myself thinking about all of Roosevelt Island’s green initiatives.A version of the RIOC President's column also appears on RIOC's web site and the March 24, 2011 Main Street WIRE.
The fact is, environmentally friendly and sustainable innovation has been a major focus of Roosevelt Island’s development since the start. Today, we remain committed to identifying ways to harness innovation to make Roosevelt Island a great place to live, work and visit.
Green initiatives on the island started with the concept of making this a car-free Island. While that vision hasn’t been realized, we have managed to keep many cars and trucks off the roads through our sanitation and public transit infrastructure systems. We are building on these initiatives with new efforts, such as electric vehicle charging stations, smart parking, and bicycle sharing. And we are exploring other ways to green the island.
Since 1975, the Automated Vacuum Collection System (“AVAC”) has been transporting the majority of Roosevelt Island’s solid waste through tubes connecting the residential buildings to a sanitation facility located by the Roosevelt Island Bridge. Because of this system, we are able to reduce the number of NYC Department of Sanitation trucks that ride our street by 18 trucks a month.
Now, we are exploring new technologies that will allow for the integration of source-separated (recycled) and commercial waste into the system. Additionally, it might be possible for access points to be located in key areas of the district, eliminating the need for curb-side pickup. CUNY’s Urban Transportation Research Center for Region 2 has been awarded a grant from NYSERDA to investigate the feasibility of integrating such a system into the Island’s facility.
After AVAC, the next big green development on the Island was the Tram, which has been in operation since May, 1976. The old tram was replaced last year by a significantly more energy efficient system. The new tram, according to the tram’s developer, is estimated to consume 60 watts per hour to transport each passenger from one side to the other, the equivalent of using a light bulb for an hour.
The Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation has also provided “green” buses for island transit for many years. Our current fleet of hybrid-electric buses utilizes ultra-low-sulfur-fuel that reduces the emissions of dangerous particulate matter by 90 percent, nitrous oxide by 40 percent and greenhouse gases by 30 percent.
For residents and visitors driving on the island, we are employing innovation to put the “quick” back in quick trips by helping people avoid having to circle the streets looking for a parking spot. Over the next few months, data from sensors embedded in the street will begin providing occupancy information for parking spaces. Technologies such as dynamic street signs and mobile applications will use the information from the parking sensors to alert drivers to available spaces — creating greener streets by reducing congestion and emissions. To make an even greater dent in car emission, we are developing a new pilot program to provide car charging stations at the Motorgate garage.
There are additional green programs planned for Motorgate. We have submitted an application with the New York Power Authority (NYPA) to include the Motorgate Garage in the Solar 100 program, which seeks to install solar panels across the State. If selected, Motorgate is projected to produce 300 kilowatts of energy, approximately 33% of RIOC’s annual usage.
Also, this past week RIOC’s Engineering Department visited the Hudson River Park Trust management office to discuss their LED lighting conversion plan. They are in the process of converting all facilities (garage, office and street lighting) to LED, and we at RIOC are considering making the move too. With an estimated 15 year life for LED bulbs, the long term cost savings is quite substantial, and LED bulbs are also great for the environment because they use substantially less energy than traditional bulbs.
For those who wish to enjoy the spectacular waterfront views without being dependent on a vehicle, the best ways are walking and bicycling. Efforts to facilitate bicycle sharing are currently being planned.
Finally, we are also working to make our green spaces – our lawns, parks and sports fields – more environmentally friendly and safer for residents, including children and pets. Starting this spring, we will be using organic lawn products throughout the island that are phosphorous free and free of other ingredients deemed hazardous by the US EPA.
With all our green programs, Roosevelt Island might be one of, if not the most environmentally friendly neighborhood in New York City. And that’s great news for all the island residents and businesses.
Until next time,
Leslie Torres
9 comments :
who really cares, i sure dont .this island is now for people with money us low and middle income people are being pushed off this island , how about building an affordable apartment building on the island ,who in rioc needs to be paid off for this to happend,
Ref President's comment above I consider her comments about promoting bicycles on the island to be inconsistent with the creation of a little utilized parking lane on the West Side Road
I would like to know from Ms. Torres and RIOC the status of what is going on with Westview and possibly going private.
There is a new, current rumor the owner is filing for dissolution out of the ML-Program.
I am a long time resident here.
There is never any news about what is going on with the Buildings and where RIOC stand on this.
When Steve Shane was President of RIOC, we knew some of his views.
The current WVTF Board is keeping everything a total secret.
The only people in the entire Complex- 360 apartments that get to know anything are the top Board Members- now very few after a current election- they say they are "negotiating".
There are usually two meetings a mo. for Tenants to attend- the Board never gives out concrete info.
The only thing they every talk about is the tenants who may be interested in buying their apartments.
There are quite a few tenants in WV who cannot buy or not interested in buying for a variety of reasons.
Also- very troubling is that after a Building wide election for the Board of the WVTF- not many people voted- they had a meeting and appointed someone to the Board who had resigned.
This, I believe goes against their own by laws- drafted in 2006.
This person is not on the Board yet.
Also-very curious- this same person could not wait to get off the Board by the end of 2010.
Everybody in Westview must ask questions and attend meeting- the WVTF does not own the Building and was not appointed to rule there.
They have to held accountable for all and any actions they have done-past and current.
Very concerned WV resident
yes go to all meetings. always keep up on what is going on .you do not want what happened to eastwood to happend to westview. and by all means do not use the same lawyer who eastwood used, as the lawyer will sell you out.just like the eastwood building committee sold out the people of eastwood,
Information on Privatization of any of the RI Mitchell Lama buildings has been extremely difficult to obtain.
Nobody from RIOC or any of the elected officials will provide any substantive comments for the record.
Wasn't Belson's deal to exit ML sprung on the community with no advance notice - with merely a laudatory Wire article afterwards applauding the privatization of Eastwood? Of course, that transaction occurred under a Republican administration, with RIOC headed by a virtual political non-entity. It was not in the interest of then-Gov. Pataki, then-Pres. Berman, or then-owner Mr. Belson to apprise anybody on RI or NYC that hundreds of apartments were about to be removed from the "affordable" category. The possible dislocation of thousands of RI residents was prevented by the issuance of Sec 8 sticky vouchers with the Sec 8 ineligible tenants going into a Landlord Assistance Program, known as LAP, which was really an agreement by the landlord to adhere to rent stabilization guidelines + 1% (if I am not mistaken) for the LAP tenants. Skipping ahead a few years, former-Pres. Shane was solidly pro-affordable housing, and probably would not have agreed to the exit of Eastwood from ML had he been RIOC Pres. at the time of the deal. Mr. Shane often said he would withhold the ground-lease in order to keep housing affordable. Anticipating legal challenges to RIOC's power to withhold the ground-lease, he declared he would even go to Court if necessary to uphold his right to not transfer the ground lease, and thus protect the remaining ML tenants on RI. Does Ms. Torres stand by Mr. Shane's declaration? It's indeed surprising that Ms. Torres, an ex-Gov. Paterson appointee, and the current folks at RIOC, seeing as they are now all answerable to the very capable and responsive Democratic administration in Albany, are not more forthcoming with information about this topic of vital concern to hundreds of RI residents.
ron vass and the eastwood building committee got a great deal for themselves/. over 200 apartments have become vacant because of the agreement . hard working middle income people have had to move out of eastwood because of this agreement . sec8 is good if you are on a fixed income , but there were 100s of people who are working middle income people who should have never been put into sec8 .they moved out . 130 apartments became rent stabiled and 830 became fair market.now i would love to know who got paid off for this deal of couse everyone on the eastwood building committee got a rent stabiled apartment.dont you wish that you had a rent stabiled apartment .and forget about rioc helping the people who are in sec 8 get out of sec8 .because there is too much under handed things going on here
this is why i feel there were payoffs made for this buyout .eastwood has 1,003 apartments .DHCR.LET BELSON PLACE 830 apartments into fair market rent which in eastwood is 1800 to 4,500.00 per month. and only 130 apartments into rent stabilization .also called lap add one percent.dhcr let belson put as many people as he can into sec8 so the apartment would become fair market and sec8 would pay it . .there are many many people middle income working people .not on a fixed income placed into sec8 . and dhcr let him do this . these people should have been given a opportunity for a lap apartment because they are not on fixed incomes and their income goes up . now dhcr knew this and they let belson place there people into sec8 . because he wanted as many apartments he can get into sec8 because hud is going to pay the fair market rent for these apartments .i do not understand how sec 8 can pay 1800 to 4500 dollar rents . no where in this city or nation is this going on only at eastwood .the owner is ripping off sec8 . roosevelt landingsa is a dump . thats why there are over 300 vacant apartments. only sec8 would pay these rents .the owner is giving new people who move in one year free metro card for each working person in the apartment .he is trying anything to rent these apartments .a panel of appellate judges upheld a lower courts ruling that barred landlords who left the mitchell lama housing program from raising rents to market rates .daily news dec 31 2010.now by what i have just told you, what do you think ,if there were ever an investergation many heads will roll.also many of the middle income working people placed into sec8 have moved out as the rent was just too high . see you do not put middle income working people into a sec8 program that is made for a low income person or a person on a fixed income . thats why now there are over 200 to 300 vacant apartments in eastwood and if sec8 ever stopped paying these fair market rents . well bye bye urban american. without se8 there would be no eastwood .now hes renting to collage kids 6 7 8 9 kids in one apartment . god bless the american tax payer for paying these rents
well another family has moved out of eastwood , thanks to you ron vass ,this was a middle income working family .that was put into sec8 . and their income went up . just like your income goes up ron , but see they had to keep paying 30 percent of their, income to rent and thats before taxes see these are not people on fixed income nor low income ..these when people forced into sec8 . there must be a way out of this without losing the apartment.rioc when are you going to help us,
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