Roosevelt Island Rivercross Coop Building Votes To Continue Ban On Dogs In Place Since 1975 - Lazy Dog Owners Who Fail To Clean Up Poop Ruin It For Responsible Owners Says Resident, Offers Suggestions

The Roosevelt Island Rivercross coop building shareholders voted last week not to change their current bylaws prohibiting dogs in units (except those for service/emotional support). The policy has been in place since Rivercross opened in 1975.

Rivercross resident Ellen Polivy reacts to the vote:

Rivercross won’t be letting in dogs at this time. We failed to pass an amendment to the proprietary lease to allow dogs in the building. To amend the lease requires a 2/3 super majority of the total shares to vote yes. Unfortunately, the yes votes did not clear that very high bar. Many people who didn’t vote might not have understood that not voting was counted as a no vote. But many might have been ambivalent.  

I feel sad and disappointed. I hoped more neighbors would be more kindly focused on the benefits of "man's best friend" to our well-being and mental health. But this won’t happen now. I have to remember that up until recently, Roosevelt Island was a no-dog Island, and I have to admit, much as I like dogs, it was much cleaner then.  

I think many of the no voters and some of the abstainers in our building feared that their neighbors just-might-possibly turn out to be the same inconsiderate-slob dog owners they see evidenced around the Island. Some voters were not willing to take that chance no matter how generous they might have been inclined to be towards their neighbor. Lazy dog owners sully every other dog owner’s reputation, Even the responsible dog owners get tarnished.  

I have begun to understand that a new conversation needs to be started if we are to have non-dog people comfortable having dogs in their previously pristine spaces. We have a sloppy dog problem here on the Island. According to complaints I've heard, some parts of our little Island’s grass and tree beds are littered with dog poo. Some people are just not picking up after their pets. These are places where children play, families picnic, people do yoga and sunbathe and garden. 

I, myself have put my yoga mat on the ground in more than one place and turned my face toward a smelly dried turd. I don’t know where dogs are supposed to go to relieve themselves and which green spaces is an acceptable dog toilet where people should be warned not to put down their mats due to high concentrations of whatever came out of your pet. I can respectfully suggest curbing your dog is a good first start. But not being a dog owner myself, I have no idea what curbing your dog really means for someone walking their dog on the promenade. My personal peeve is people who let their dogs urinate under overhangs where the rain can’t wash it away and where it remains as a constant sticky stain until someone from RIOC or building maintenance cleans it.  

Two suggestions:  

I humbly suggest that another step in helping people be responsible might be for all of us to carry an extra bag, catch lazy owners in the act and make a show of cleaning up for them if they don’t do it themselves. Or perhaps, everyone should carry an extra bag and pick up dried feces when you see it. 

It takes very little effort and the selfless act will get the Island much cleaner. I am throwing out some suggestions as a way to get this conversation started, action going. Perhaps dog owners taking action to clean up the island will help non dog lovers become more comfortable accepting dogs in their midst..

Instagram readers comment:

• That’s really unfortunate. We have dogs in island house and it’s never been a nuisance.
• I remember when dogs were not allowed anywhere on the island😂 outside, buildings, everywhere.
• Don’t know how we would have weathered the pandemic so far without our dog...
• I would love to live in Rivercross but I didn’t realize there were so many rules and regs. Are cats 🐈‍⬛ 🐈 allowed?

Dogs are also not allowed on the Rivercross lawn though that policy is rarely, if ever, enforced.

 Instagram comments:

If they want to enforce no dogs on the grass then I suggest they move the 💩 bag post to another area because it implies you can walk your dog here

Roosevelt Island Dog Owner Shows Respect For Neighbors

A tweet from earlier today.

Diego makes a political statement@ Roosevelt Island instagr.am/p/RP4gTXyero/
— Thomas Wilkinson (@RosenblattsBoss) October 26, 2012

Roosevelt Island - A "Non Sequitur" With "Goofy Tram" And No Dogs According To Lethem Story In The New Yorker Magazine

Video By The Two Jeffs

A reader points out that Roosevelt Island was mentioned in a recent New Yorker short story by Jonathan Lethem. According to the reader:

... Thought you might be interested in this mention of Roosevelt Island in the New Yorker from a few weeks back (May 25 issue, it's tough keeping up with these dense weeklys), if you haven't already seen it. It's from a short story by Jonathan Lethem, "Ava's Apartment". Lethem, as you may know, is ... known most famously for his novel "Motherless Brooklyn". The story concerns an aging rock critic, Perkus, who is forced out of his apartment by a snowstorm (it has undermined his building's integrity), and he decides to drop out for a bit. He finds a squat in an eastside building in the '60s given over to orphaned dogs, where volunteers come each day to take the dogs for walks, feed them, etc. Ava is the pit bull who occupies the apartment where Perkus takes up his squat. Perkus eventually assumes full volunteer duties for Ava and they go on walks all over the eastside:

Now the two gradually enlarged their walking orbit, steering the compass of Ava's sniffing curiosity, around the Rockefeller campus and the Weill Cornell Medical Center, onto a bridge over the Drive, to gaze across at the permanent non sequitur of Roosevelt Island, defined for Perkus by its abandoned t.b. hospital, to which no one ever referred, certainly not the population living there and serviced by its goofy tram, as if commuting by ski lift. "No dogs allowed," he reminded Ava every time she seemed to be contemplating that false haven. Or down First Avenue, into the lower Sixties along second, a nefariously vague zone whose residents seemed to Perkus like zombies, beyond help.

Well, he doesn't get the t.b. hospital right, at least not these days. But I'd say RI as a "permanent non sequitur", and the tram as "goofy", are both pretty much spot on. Plus I've always been struck by the lack of dogs on the island, having come from 2 neighborhoods (Chelsea then Hell's Kitchen) that are full of them. Manhattan Park, where we live, is just weirdly devoid of dogs (because they're banned of course).
Keep up the good work.

I appreciate the literary tip though we know that dogs are now allowed on Roosevelt Island. There is even a Roosevelt Island dog blogger and RIOC has a dog control policy as well!

Roosevelt Island - A Place Without Dogs or Bloggers No More

Image of Turner & Hooch from Amazon

Is it possible that one day soon, Roosevelt Island may challenge Brooklyn neighborhoods as being among the most bloggiest in the United States? Probably not in terms of total number of bloggers but perhaps on a per capita basis now that another new Roosevelt Island blogger has arrived on the scene. Roosevelt Island Dogs - A forum for dog owners living on Roosevelt Island in NY- joins myself, Roosevelt Island 360 and video blogger Press HD in reporting on Island events and brings the number of Roosevelt Island bloggers to 4 from a population of 12,000. Welcome.

According to RI Dogs, the Octagon Dog run has been temporarily closed because a tree fell on it crushing the fencing. The 5/16 Roosevelt Island Public Safety Report advises that:

Hazardous Condition- A tree fell on the Dog Run. No injuries. Area cautioned off. RIOC engineer notified.

Also, RI Dogs notes that:

... a dog run or dog park is only as good and as nice as the dog owners who use the space. Careless and inconsiderate dog owners can turn a dog park into a poop minefield, grass bare wasteland and pothole filled space that no one wants to use. Careful and considerate dog owners can take a nice or decent space and make it better. One of the features our current dog runs both lack is a poop bag dispenser. It doesn't have to be an "official" poop bag dispenser and it doesn't have to be filled with expensive or special dog waste bags. It can be something as simple as a mailbox or some other type of closeable box filled with used/recycled plastic shopping bags.

And suggests:

...If anyone is crafty and wants to take on the project of making a bag dispenser, we'll happily mount it on the fence at the dog run or if someone wants to purchase a mailbox we'll happily mount that too. Once we have a bag dispenser in place I'll have a bag recycle box put in place by the deli/ATM area of the Octagon. Residents can drop off their used plastic bags and I'll fill the dispenser in the dog run.

Perhaps dog owners should seek the assistance of David and Emilia in obtaining the poop bag dispenser.

There was a time not that long ago when dogs were not allowed on Roosevelt Island. This short 16 minute film explores that time in Roosevelt Island's history:

Roosevelt Island sits just a stone's throw from New York's Upper East Side, nestled in the East River between Manhattan and Queens. What makes it so peculiar is not only its anonymity but its by-law stating that no dogs are to be allowed on the island at any time, for any reason. The absurdity of this issue is eclipsed only by the impassioned feelings of many of Roosevelt Island's citizens concerning the specter of canine rights, or, in this case, an acute lack thereof.

Find more videos like this on www.truveo.com.

Hat tip to Roosevelt Island 360 for finding Roosevelt Island: Land Without Dogs.