Roosevelt Island's Version of Wikileaks Returns - RIRA Committees Report on Meeting With Public Safety Chief, Future Planning Issues, Skate RI, Internet Fundraising, Island Services, Calendar & More

 Image From The Public Record

Roosevelt Island's own version of Wikileaks continues - below are the Roosevelt Island Residents Association (RIRA) Committee Reports for tonight's Monthly April 2011 meeting. These reports had been made available on this blog for a couple of years until  a majority of RIRA members banned the release of these reports to the Roosevelt Island community prior to the Monthly RIRA meeting following the release of what some RIRA members thought were embarrassing Committee Reports.

Despite the ban by RIRA, here are the Committee Reports.

The Public Safety Committee Report:

Meeting with Keith Guerra 3/10/2011

Present: Pete Digilio, E. Feely-Nahem, Howard Polivy, Keith Guerra, Renee Bryant

After introductions, concerns of the committee were raised in the order presented in the agenda.

The purpose of the proposed meeting was reviewed, explained as a quarterly follow up to issues discussed, and the initiatives that had been promised by Chief Guerra in response to the meeting held in December 2010.

Discussion on the limited visibility of the vertical patrols in the WIRE buildings was discussed. Guerra stated that he stressed it in January’s supervisor’s meeting and he will remind them in March. He will also suggest that they return to the front desk to sign out if they are not doing so. He stated that the Supervisor will just show up and that they must call in to report where they are. Statistics were provided for January and February of the buildings as follows:

Building    January    February
Westview    114    111
Island House    80    84
Roosevelt Landing    925    751

The committee expressed concern over traffic control at the bottom of the ramp. Guerra stated it was not the highest priority but that it was happening. Committee members informed him that although there was a presence, they rarely directed traffic. Guerra stated that he would continue to monitor situation.

Motorgate patrols have been more visible it was noted.

Parking enforcement was again visited by committee members due to what committee members felt was a continued lack of enforcement i.e.: the continued presence of certain vehicles that are not legitimately exempt from parking regulations, parked without being ticketed in the North and South Town area. Mention that tours in these areas do not seem to be conducting visual sweeps of the area, or getting out of their vehicles was addressed. Guerra stated that he make sure that the tour moves more slowly through the area on the way to the Tram post.

Clarification was given of areas where vehicles are allowed to park/not allowed to park.

Gated area by Tram: For tram employees

NYS Placards on Dashboard: can park on the street, but not in areas that say no standing or no stopping, not allowed in crosswalks, or in front of fire hydrants. They can park in no standing unloading areas. These vehicles do not have to pay the meter. Handicap parking is available in Motorgate, for those individuals with NYS placards, on the ground floor, for free.

Hang Tag and license plate; Must park in handicap-designated areas without exception. Have to feed the meter anywhere else. Hang Tags have a few spaces designated in Motorgate, as well as in front of the post office.

Vehicles are not allowed to park under the ramp, except the Dry Cleaner’s vans who have a deal with RIOC to use this area during business hours when they are shuttling clothes between stores. School buses are also allowed to idle there, but not park after hours, but the handicap’s vehicles are only given an exception in snowstorms.

We were informed that recently 3 sergeants had relinquished their positions, and 3 others had been promoted. They are seasoned officers and are presently waiting for a spot in the academy.

It was confirmed that the bicycle pump is available 24/7 at the PS Office. They have 2 hand pumps available.

They have been patrolling the sea wall and have arrested two people, one is staying with residents without permission, and the other came here to Tag. Mention of an increase in gang activity in the form of graffiti, and some possible recruitment efforts. Guerra is planning a community educational workshop in the future on this subject.

Discussed suicide incident and the slow response time with traffic control and learned that once NYPD comes on to the scene, Public Safety officers establish the 2nd perimeter and are there to assist the NYPD. Guerra stated that there were 4 calls for service at the time of the incident as well, with a soccer game in the field. He only had 5 working officers at the time, until 3pm when 5 more came on shift. The initial 5 remained and at this time, they did begin to direct traffic at the bottom of the ramp and redirect the flow up the side of the island. He stated that his officer was remiss in informing him that the suicide had landed in the middle of Main Street and he had thought that once NYPD had arrived the situation was in control.

The Planning Committee Report:

Subject: RIRA Planning Committee Report
Date: 2011-04-03
From: Frank Farance

The RIRA Planning Committee did not meeting face-to-face in March, but we continued discussions via E-mail. Our next meeting is Wednesday, April 20, 2011 at 8:30 PM in the Island House Community Room. RIRA members are welcome to attend.

We have had some ongoing discussions on the seven topics in our work programme (below). Note that topic #7 has an item for action on the formation of a new subcommittee within the RIRA Planning Committee.

Matt Katz, Aaron Hamburger, and I have been following the progress of the Red Bus service. We will provide updates at the April RIRA Common Council meeting.
Frank Farance RIRA Planning Committee Chair

Status Report on Topic #1: Blackwell Park Planning

In the 2008-2010 RIRA session, we had collaborated with RIOC on a Master Plan. We need to provide continuity for RIOC so that community involvement is not lost. The Blackwell Park Subcommittee (of the RIRA Planning Committee) was handling this task. We have new/different members this RIRA session, so we need to make sure there is follow-up. Also, Rosina Abramson was our RIOC point of contact, but she left at the end of 2010, so we need to re-establish a connection.

Upcoming Actions: Re-affirm existing RIRA members of the committee. Re-establish connection with RIOC on this planning topic.

Status Report on Topic #2: Long-Term Financial Planning/Budgeting for Roosevelt Island

In the 1990's there was a state subsidy of $1.6 million. As presented at the November meeting, the RIOC CFO has presented a bleak financial picture. We should be investigating the amount of revenue lost by the lack of State and City taxes returning to Roosevelt Island. By saying "lack", it doesn't mean zero, it means that we aren't getting our fair share. The purpose of this activity would be to research and calculate what our fair share might be, and then to make suggestions on how to acquire that kind of funding and/or services.

Upcoming Actions: Need to get financial data. Need to determine a set of comparable communities and criteria for comparison.

Status Report on Topic #3: Amendments to Roosevelt Island's General Development Plan (GDP)

There is an existing GDP, but more will need to be said about the present and near-future configuration of the Island. One might ask: Why worry about the GDP if most of the development (except Southtown 7-9) is complete? Answer: The GDP also identifies open spaces, parks, etc. and if the GDP becomes a weak document (because both sides, City and State, are ignoring it in residential development areas), then it becomes equally invalid on designation of park spaces and such. This activity would look towards providing revised wording (even though we aren't a party to the contract) and advocacy through the Mayor's office.

Note: The GDP explicitly does not cover the use of the Goldwater Hospital space.

Status Report on Topic #4: Island-Wide Evacuation Plan

At present there is no Island-wide evacuation plan, but RIOC has plans for several kinds of emergencies (snow, cold, heat, power failure). Normally, the City's OEM (Office of Emergency Management) coordinates all of this, including ordering evacuations, i.e., the Mayor orders this, not RIOC. The lack of planning for Island-wide evacuations has been a concern of residents for many for years. We plan on working with RIOC, the Roosevelt Island CERT, and the City's OEM.

Upcoming Actions: I have spoken with Howard Polivy, Chief of the Roosevelt Island Community Emergency Response Team (RI CERT). Howard, Matt Katz, and I will meet soon with RIOC staff to review the existing plans. (Note: The three of us have been involved in this for the past several years.)

Status Report on Topic #5: Main Street and Retail Planning

We recognize that the master-lease process is ongoing within RIOC, but there is a need for resident input on planning topics that are long-range, not merely short-term questions of providing specific services. We plan on coordinating and collaborating with the RIRA Island Services Committee to formulate RIRA planning positions.

Denise Shull is our liaison to the RIRA Island Services Committee, who is leading this effort in RIRA.

Status Report on Topic #6: Roosevelt Island Waterfront Planning

This work involves coordination with the NYC Department of Planning and their "Vision 2020" effort (a comprehensive waterfront plan).

Upcoming Actions: Matt Katz has distributed a new version of the plan and it will be discussed at the upcoming RIRA Planning Committee meeting.

Status Report on Topic #7: Goldwater Hospital Replacement

The City has plans to close the Goldwater Hospital (the structure south of the bridge) and possibly replace it with a science park. Recently, we've heard that Stanford University, among others, are interested in this site, see "http://nyc10044.com/wire/3113/StanfordProposal.pdf". We have yet to determine RIRA's involvement in this effort.

Based upon encouragement from RIOC Director Jonathan Kalkin, RIRA President Matt Katz, and RIRA Common Councilmember Denise Shull, RIRA should become involved and establish a community position on the support for this project. Just like the Blackwell Park Committee, we should have a similar framework of participation (not necessarily same people as Blackwell), and a similar approach towards interaction and making recommendations to RIOC and NYC. The Blackwell Park Committee was a good and successful framework for RIRA/RIOC/etc. collaboration.

First, we need to establish a subcommittee. Although the RIRA Planning Committee can create its own subcommittee, it would be better to do it at the RIRA Common Council meeting so it has more visibility. The RIRA Planning Committee requests the following motion for approval at the April RIRA Common Council meeting:

"RIRA establishes a Southern Development Review Committee (SDRC), a subcommittee within the RIRA Planning Committee, with the following terms of reference (1) the SDRC is focused upon the southern part of Roosevelt Island at the present Goldwater Hospital and adjacent areas, and its future development; (2) the SDRC is a forum for the Roosevelt Island residents to provide input, comments, and review; (3) the SDRC may make recommendations for RIRA's review and approval; (4) the SDRC will liaise with RIOC, NYC, and any potential developers."

Once the subcommittee is established a chair should be appointed, which would be done via a separate motion. We ask for volunteers to join the new RIRA subcommittee.

An Applied Science Center Analysis:

There's More


Planning Sub-committee Science Center Analysis-April 2011


The Social, Cultural and Education Committee Report:

SC&E Committee Meeting Notes March 8, 2011

Present: Shinozaki, Katz, Helstien, Darwish, Marcus, Green, Tang, Allen

Skate Roosevelt Island: We discussed next steps and our plan for moving ahead. Shinozaki and Helstien met with RIOC President/ CEO, Leslie Torres and RIOC Vice President of Operations, Fernando Martinez, on February 23rd to discuss this project. We agreed that we would move forward with the Skate RI concept this year incorporating it into RIOC’s Health and Fitness Day, Saturday May 14th.    By trying it on a small level (one day) we can see if it is popular enough to possibly try out for a ten day period during the winter break in 2012. (For follow-up to this meeting-see end of this report.) We brought up several other program ideas, all of which were met with relative enthusiasm.

Teen/Youth Issues – We will continue to meet with Islanders and potential stake holders in these projects as we move forward to create these sub-committees. -    “GarageBand”: We are looking for committee members and professionals in the music industry who will work together reaching out to their colleagues to act as mentors for Island youth. -    “Bounce”: A program organized around late evening youth basketball will be reaching out to pro-basketball players. We are waiting to hear if there is any interest in coming to Roosevelt Island to work with us. In presenting this program to RIOC, we found them willing to work with us, possibly opening Sports Park for this project. We are actively setting up this sub-committee. If you are interested in, and/or have any friends interested in volunteering to work for the Island’s youth, please let us know.

“Networkbreakfast”- The Sub-committee Chair is Robin Rawlings. She will introduce herself at the April Common Council meeting. The committee is full and is setting up its first meeting to define next steps.

Internet Fundraising - We will move forward with a motion for our next RIRA meeting. We are requesting any of our members who work for companies that give matching funds to list us and support our organization through their corporate giving programs. We will be coming up with a plan to recruit other companies to the RIRA website and our SC&E page. We are considering asking Fresh Direct and other businesses serving Roosevelt Islanders to do likewise.

Helstien requested that the committee add to the committee’s projects, specifically for RIRA fundraising purposes, the creation of hats and visors for RIRA members to sell, possibly during Roosevelt Island Day in June and at others of our events. Helstien will look into this project.

We again discussed Roosevelt Island as the “GO TO Place” and have something going on every few weeks on the island. We revisited:
-    A Cherry Blossom Festival Celebrating Roosevelt Island’s Cherry trees and Japanese Culture. We will be working with RIOC other island organizations and charities. We will be dedicating a grove of Cherry Trees to the Japanese People on and off the island as a show of solidarity. This will also be a fundraising event for groups providing relief in Japan. We will include RIRA fundraising in this project.
-    An Asian New Year Parade with Dragon etc. celebrating Asian Culture. Currently on “hold”.
-    The Kite Festival in the spring, celebrating Middle East Culture. We are awaiting feedback from RIOC on the best time to hold this using data from the tram wind conditions. We are also investigating suppliers of kites and kite materials, e.g.: string and spools.
-    The RIOC/ RIRA wine and cheese evening was a great success and we thank all who attended particularly the RIOC Board members.

ACTION ITEMS:
L. Shinozaki, S. Helstien: Prepare a Motion for RIRA to provide up to $300 fund purchase of snack and drink items for RI Skate concessions for April RIRA meeting.

B. Darwish: Prepare a Motion for April meeting, for approval to set up “click-thru” page on the RIRA website.

R. Rawlings: “Networkbreakfast” Introduction at RIRA. Move toward setting up first meeting. L. Shinozaki: Set up Committee for “Bounce” continue to move forward with committee.

L. Shinozaki: Set up Committee for “GarageBand”; we are asking as a favor from our members to reach out to music industry people they may know and Roosevelt Islanders to see if they will donate time to teach groups of children or be available for one on one mentoring.

L. Shinozaki, S Helstien: Moving forward on RIRA hat/visor fundraiser, possibly ready for RI Day, June 11.

POST SC&E MEETING - FOLLOW UP:
Skate RI:

In a second meeting with RIOC, held March 18th, we agreed that for the purposes of Health and Fitness Day it would be better for our project to have a venue closer to where most of their event takes place at Capobianco Field. Therefore, Sports Park was ruled out as too far away; very few attended programs held there in past H&F events. Shinozaki approached Manhattan Park, asking if we would be able to use their Theater Club. Although the MP management was interested and willing to donate their space, it had been booked for another event. Subsequently, Shinozaki reached out to the Child School which has agreed to donate their gymnasium space.

Additionally, this meeting included a conference call with EZglide. The Child School will be faxing a floor plan to EZ-Glide for them to come up with a design plan for the number of panels and “fencing” to accommodate up to 40 skaters at one time on the surface. When we receive their assessment and plan, we’ll also be given a more comprehensive price, which may be quite a bit less than originally estimated. When we know the actual pricing we will then go to all the building managements to request financial support to pay for this event.

We will be organizing logistics of the project in terms of volunteers necessary. We will be setting up a time/work grid for RIRA and others in the community who will volunteer to hand out skates, collecting fees, and man the concessions area. Skating will be free, but skate rentals will cost $10 per pair.

Respectfully submitted,

Lynn Strong Shinozaki

S C & E COMMITTEE MOTIONS
RIRA MEETING: 4/06/2011

Motion #1
The SC&E Committee requests that RIRA Common Council approve our request in the amount of $150, for our first fundraising project, planned for April 30, a Cherry Blossom Festival. This amount will be used for the purchase of fans and parasols (and any incidentals) to be sold at the event. Whatever funds are left over from these purchases, it and all other money made, will be restored to the RIRA treasury.

Motion #2
The SC&E Committee has scheduled its second fundraising event: RIRA’s SkateRoosevelt Island. It will be presented in conjunction with the RIOC Health and Fitness program to be held on Saturday, May 14. We request approval from the RIRA Common Council of up to $300. This amount is for the purchase of beverages and some snacks to be sold at the event. We will endeavor to have Roosevelt Islanders do some baking, and we will be going after our local and area markets for donations of fruit, drinks, and other healthy snack items. We expect not to have to use the entire amount which we are requesting, but want to ensure that we will have adequate funds available, if absolutely necessary. Whatever funds are left over from these purchases, it and all other money made, will be restored to the RIRA treasury.

Motion #3
Attempting to address as many fundraising opportunities as possible, the SC&E Committee asks that the Common Council help us move forward by supporting our request in setting up on the RIRA website, in a joint effort with the Communications Committee, a “Click-through page”. This page will give us the possibility of raising some funds through companies who agree to be represented there. It will allow us and the community to support RIRA by using this site for our personal shopping choices. We hope that this effort, minimally, will generate enough money to support the small costs involved in maintaining the new site over the oncoming years.

The Island Services Committee Report:

RIRA – ISLAND SERVICES COMMITTEE (ISC) REPORT TO THE COMMON COUNCIL MEETING, 4/6/11

Updates on the key issues ISC is working on:

Red Bus Schedule – There continues to be problems with the new Red Bus schedule and with numerous complaints from residents. At the 3/31/11 RIOC Operations Committee meeting, we were introduced to Cy Opperman, new General Manager for bus operations. Cy is an experienced bus operations manager recently retired from the MTA. He begins work 4/4/11. Cy seems to fully understand the problems facing the Red Bus and is committed to making the Red Bus operation safe, efficient and on-time. ISC, Planning Committee and RIRA President plan to meet with Cy after heʼs been on the job for 3 - 4 weeks.

Strollers on Red Bus during rush hour - We have deferred raising this issue with RIOC until we meet with Cy Opperman.

Pedestrian Safety Barrier on RI Bridge – A letter (attached) was sent to the NYC Dept. of Transportation officials. We are awaiting a response.

Public Library – Weʼve been notified that Senator Serrano may authorize some money for the Library project planned for 504 Main St. We are trying to find out how much money could be granted. The total RI Library project was estimated last year to require about $10 million. Most of the money would have to come from the New York Public Library capital funds. RIOC is expected to provide some money as well as possibly some of the developers.

Programs for Older Youth After 9 PM – The Social Cultural & Educational Committee is taking the lead on this issue with support from ISC.

Main St. Stores – We had expected that the contract for the Main St. Commercial Master Lease would be awarded at the April 6 RIOC Board meeting. However, so far, this meetingʼs agenda doesnʼt include the Master Lease proposal. Also, the RIOC Real Estate Committee is meeting in executive session on April 4 to “discuss Final Terms of the Main St. Commercial Master Lease”. So, it seems likely this issue wonʼt come to the RIOC Board until their May meeting.

Parks - The opening of Southpoint Park has been delayed until July.

Aaron Hamburger, Chair - ISC


To:    Commissioner, NYC Department of Transportation
From: Roosevelt Island Residents Association, Island Services Committee Aaron Hamburger, Chair – Island Services Committee Jim Bates, President, Roosevelt Island Disabled Association
Re: ROOSEVELT ISLAND BRIDGE – PEDESTRIAN SAFETY

The Roosevelt Island Reconstruction project has a serious safety omission. While there is a pedestrian safety barrier on the Manhattan half of the bridge, thereʼs no barrier on the Queens side to protect pedestrians from falling into the line of traffic.

Why does only half of the walkway have protection while the other half has none? We are simply waiting for a child, disabled person in a wheelchair or others to be injured or run over.

An appropriate safety barrier must be installed before the Reconstruction project is completed.

Attached are photos from the Roosevelt Islander Blog illustrating the situation.

CC: Fernando Martinez, Vice-President, RIOC Jessica Lappin, Member, NYC Council Jose Serrano, Senator, New York State Senate Micah Kellner, Assembly Member, New York State Assembly Fred Herschkowitz, Community Relations, DOT Division of Bridges

The Communications Committee Report:

Communications Committee Report - March 2011
Committee met on March 15. In attendance: Ava, Vini, Joe, Lorena, Barbara, Rick, Sherie.

RIRA on Wikipedia

• Vini tried to create a page, but was rejected. Not enough sources and original content available. Frank showed interest in trying it again. 
• It was suggested to add information about RIRA to the Roosevelt Island page instead. 
• Ava will ask Ethel to write a RIRA section on Roosevelt Island's wiki page.

Website Stats

• Around 50 visits a week 
• Top traffic sources: Direct (33%), Facebook (21%), Google (16%), Roosevelt Islander(14%), The Wire online (10%) 
• Top content: home page (42%), calendar (12%), updates (8%), about (5%), get involved
• (3.7%), SCE (2.9%), Public Safety (2.7%), files (2.5%), election (2.4%) 
• Public Safety page has no content, and "Election" very little, despite being among thetop visited content.

Public Contact Email

• Made public contact@riraonline.com - will go to Matt and Joe to field.

File access

• Will create separate folders under “files” and arrange by date. Will post applicable
• documents under each date.

Reporting of Roosevelt Island issues

• Barbara reported that Public Safety Committee gets many emails about unresolvedissues. Suggested that we could post them on the website.  
• Conclusion was that those issues should be posted on Roosevelt Island's SeeClickFix page, for RIOC notification. 
• Barbara will try to post the issues to SeeClickFix. May post as "RIRA".

Community Calendar

• Will be managed by RIRA – to be used by everyone – involved will be Rick, Barbara (add events to calendar), Janet (reach out community organizations), and Vini (technical stuff). 
• Will speak with RIOC about using single calendar. – Vini & Rick 
• Sherie proposed to post advertisement of calendar – possibly on Red Bus.  Will reach out to island organizations for content.

Get more publicity for the website

• Rick can send press release to building email lists. Ava will write press release. 
• Update community/organization list – discuss with Dick re ownership, SCE working on this as well.

User-managed email groups

• Available at http://groups.riraonline.com (needs a Google Account for authentication) 
• Chairs can view and manage members of their groups by themselves. 
• Members can manage the groups they are in (subscribe/unsubscribe and choose email delivery options)  
• Also provides an archive and a web interface to read the messages online (accessible by members only)

Training on online tools

• Vini will provide training on how to edit the website, add calendar events and manage the email groups to committee chairs. Date to be decided, but will likely be on the week of 11-15 April.

and the Constitution and Bylawa Committee Report:

From: Constitution and Bylaws Ad Hoc Committee
Subject: Committee Report for April RIRA-Common Council Meeting
Members Present 7 March 2011: Matthew Katz, Dave Evans
Members Present 22 March 2011: Matthew Katz, Frank Farance, Joyce Mincheff,
Helen Chirivah, Dave Evans)

The Constitution and Bylaws Committee met twice during March to continue its review of the Constitution. This review of the Constitution is effectively fifty percent complete and it is expected the remaining portion will move along much quicker. Once the Constitution is done, any draft changes must be reconciled with the total review of the Bylaws. The next meeting is scheduled for 13 April 2011 at 8pm and 26 April 2011 is tentatively scheduled.

Respectively:

Dave Evans, Chair