Report From RIRA President Ellen Polivy - Roosevelt Island Easter Egg Hunt, Cherry Blossom Festival, Gristedes Renovation, Gardening, Motorgate Mural Art, Cornell Barging, Public Safety & More
Gallery RIVAA Fall For Arts Murals in Motorgate Garage
Roosevelt Island Residents Association (RIRA) President Ellen Polivy sends the following Report To The Community:
Roosevelt Island is bustling with activity right now.
We are seeing some exciting new changes, from wonderful Sunday night music at Gallery RIVAA to their RIOC-RIVAA cosponsored classical music and Art in the Motorgate lobby.
I am thrilled with the Gristedes renovation. The store is clean and bright. I enjoyed seeing the new merchandising with lots of specialty items, interesting gift and housewares items and the specialty foods isles separated for ease. I think the changes are positive. I hope the high prices and the old practice of selling outdated items also get reconsidered.
RIRA Social Cultural and Educational committee planning a host of events. Saturday, March 30 ushers back our Easter Egg Hunt
After many years we have decided to revive the much loved Easter Egg hunt with an exciting day planned for ages one through twelve.
From 10:00am-12:00pm the Easter Bunny and bonnet making will be at Manhattan Park as well as an Easter egg hunt for the youngsters in the Manhattan Park green space.
Later from 2pm-4pm the older children from ages 6 to 12 will be at Firefighter's for Field Games and egg hunting with prizes in the eggs. You will find at both the Easter Bunny and our fundraising raffle that includes Gift Certificates to Eiji’s Salon on Madison Ave., gift certificate for Photographer Rachel, (her work is amazing), Starbucks basket as well as many more wonderful gift certificate from our wonderful local restaurants and prizes.
TO REGISTER YOUR CHILDREN toddler to 12 years, ON LINE PLEASE GO TO
http://go.riraonline.com/easteregg
or FAX to
212-537-6685
or leave your form in box at
PSIS 217
There are volunteer opportunities Saturday, March 23 from 9:00am-3:00pm at 4 River Road Community Room. We will be stuffing Eggs. We also need volunteers for Saturday, March 30th Easter Egg Hunt 9:00am - 5:00pm. You can come for an hour or two if you can't commit to the whole day. Contact us at sceeasteregg@riraonline.com
Sat. April 13th Cherry Blossom Festival
Our Third Annual Cherry Blossom Festival is scheduled for under the Cherry Trees in front of Goldwater Hospital. The vendor organization Japan Block Fair will provide food and vendors. From 10:00am-7:30 pm Rain or Shine our promenade leading to Southpoint Park will teem with wonderful Japanese food and fare. Performances will take place at Four Freedoms Park. You will be able to hear the music you have enjoyed with some wonderful new additions. If the weather is bad everything comes inside. If you are interested in working on the committee or volunteering please contact us at
sce@riraonline.com
Saturday April 20, Love Your Block, Love Our Earth
Come on out to this family friendly event. Join the festivities with flower power as we plant together. Celebrate our Earth and beautify our island. Make your mark. We will be beautifying certain strategic areas along main street including in front of the plaza in front of Motorgate and Gristedes. Christina Delfico got a special grant from Citizens Committee for NYC and NYC Service to celebrate Earth Day and beautify our block. Her group, iDig2Learn is organizing this event collaborating with Roosevelt Island PTA, RI Youth Program, RIOC, RIRA, Urban American, The Hudson Companies and others.
See the work of your hands for years to come. Practice getting dirty in anticipation of Roosevelt Island Day in June. There will be activities in the morning and afternoon for more details or to volunteer contact
iDig2Learn@gmail.com
Updates:
Roosevelt Island Community Coalition (RICC) has been closely following the deliberations of the NYC Planning Commission. We are disappointed that up to this point they have been unwilling to take a stand on barging. This means that our City Councilmember Jessica Lappin will need to save the day and deliver us the barging that our community demands. Also pushing for barging is Assembly member Micah Kellner and Assembly members from Western Queens. RICC plans to continue lobbying our elected officials.
We will be having a RIRA /RICC /CERT Town Hall meeting about emergency planning after OEM releases the new evacuation designations for the City. It is expected that Roosevelt Island will be reclassified. We’ll give you more information when we learn it.
The Public Safety Committee is planning many additional events and are being very active in their mission to replace the leadership of public safety to one that treats Islanders more respectfully. Committee members are continuing with the petition drive and are planning a march and rally. It is not enough to get rid of what we don’t like about public safety, our community must create a public safety that we want. To that end, I have begun some discussions with a not for profit organization that helps communities think through thorny issues and come to collaborative conclusions. I have invited the public safety committee to join this process to create the kind of public safety department that supports life on our Island.
