Roosevelt Island Manhattan Tram Station Platform Capacity Will Be Reduced From Normal 100 To 50 Riders For Safety Precautions When Line Reaches Down The Stairs Says RIOC PSD Chief During Community Engagement Meeting Last Tuesday - Chief Emphasizes The Tram Is Not A Ride

During the January 15, 2025 Roosevelt Island Public Safety Department (PSD) Community Engagement meeting, a Roosevelt Island resident raised the issue of dangerous overcrowding on the Roosevelt Island Tram station platforms

as well as areas in front of, behind 

and leading to the turnstyles.

Many residents have complained about the unsafe conditions posed by mostly tourists aggressively pushing and shoving others to get inside the Tram in order to secure their desired view on the trip over the East River.

The resident asked PSD Chief Kevin Brown to station a PSD officer on the Roosevelt Island Tram station platforms to insure the safety of riders, many of whom, including older adults, disabled persons and children, are afraid to use the Tram now due to the overcrowding.

Chief Brown said that PSD Officers will be placed at the Roosevelt Island Tram station during the morning rush hours and the Manhattan Tram station during the evening rush hours.

Chief Brown added that when the Manhattan Station Tram Line extends down the stairs to the Plaza area, PSD officers will reduce the usual number of people waiting on the platform from 100 persons capacity to 50. 

According to PSD Deputy Chief Anthony Amoroso:

...once those 50 get on to the tram, people have to wait minute or two more. Then we'll send the other 50 up the stairs through and then we'll load the tram up to its capacity and then it will go across. So it's not that we lessen the number on the ride it's just lessen the number on the platform to give people a little bit more space....

Chief Brown added:

... We haven't had a line at the Tram since January 3rd and we're going to continue to track it. Like I said, it's not an exact science. So what happens when a line forms? There is usually either an officer or attendant there so for that first 5 to 10 minutes it may be crowded because it takes about 10 minutes for me to get three Officers over to the Manhattan side...

Chief Brown clarified that only when there is a line down the Tram station stairs will the platform capacity be reduced from 100 to 50.

Chief Brown and Deputy Amoroso both emphasized that the Tram is not a Ride.

Watch video of the full discussion.

The Manhattan Community Board 8 voted last night to approve a resolution supporting Roosevelt Island Tram boarding priority for NYC residents. The Community Board has no power to implement  such a policy but it's support may be helpful in persuading RIOC and the Governor to do so.

We shall see.

Help Save A Life, Good Life On Roosevelt Island Association Hosting Blood Drive Saturday January 18 At RI Older Adult Center - Please Schedule Appointment To Make Your Blood Donation

"When you give that [blood] donation, you don't realize the impact that it's going to have. Anywhere between 24 and 72 hours later, that donation had saved my life." #NationalBloodDonorMonth #NBDM pic.twitter.com/B4V9RROANj

— NY Blood Center (@NYBloodCenter) January 9, 2025

Click here for an appointment on Saturday January 18 to make your blood donation.

Single Stop Of Fedcap Group Offering Appointment Only Free Roosevelt Island Tax Preparation Tuesdays Between February 4 And April 15, Stop By The Senior Center For More Info And To See If You Qualify

Roosevelt Island resident Louella Streitz reports that Single Stop, a member of The Fedcap Group, is offering free tax preparation by appointment only on Tuesdays from February 4 to April 15 at 546 Main Street. 

Click here to make your appointment for free tax preparation or stop by the Roosevelt Island Senior Center (546 Main Street) Tuesday 10 am - 2PM for more information.

IDig2Learn Bellies, Bins & Beauty Food Appreciation Series Returns Tuesday January 21 - You're Invited To Enjoy A Roosevelt Island Community Soup Time Meal Featuring Our Local Soup Lady, RSVP To Reserve Your Spot

Roosevelt Island resident and iDig2Learn founder Christina Delfico reports:

Bellies, Bins and Beauty is Back! iDig2Learn is thrilled to continue our food appreciation series kicking off next week our first event of 2025. Join us for SOUP TIME featuring The Soup Lady and her delicious soups on Tuesday, January 21st.

Year after year we have hosted community gatherings featuring chefs, entrepreneurs and doctors to not only enjoy a meal together but learn about food as a healing force and how to enjoy more of our food and waste less.

On our journey we are learning from each other how to consume more of our food into Bellies, capture the food scraps for Bins and then use compost processed from those scraps to create Beauty by feeding flowers, trees and food gardens to complete the circle.

Please join us and learn about other positive efforts uplifting the neighborhood.

Bellies, Bins and Beauty is brought to you by RIOC Public Purpose Funds, NY State Assembly Member Rebecca Seawright and individual supporters like you.

Click here for more info and to register for Soup Time featuring The Soup Lady.

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A Possible Solution To Reduce Roosevelt Island Tram Long Lines, Overcrowding And Dangerous Platform Conditions - Create Annual Fast Line Pass For Tram Boarding Priority Available For Everybody That Must Be Obtained On Roosevelt Island

As reported many times over the last several years, there is no issue which has decreased the quality of life and angered more Roosevelt Island residents than the long lines, overcrowding and unsafe platforms conditions caused by tourists using the Roosevelt Island Tram as a sightseeing amusement attraction to view the NYC East River waterfront and skyline.

Since early November 2024 almost 2500 people have signed the Trampled By Tourists, Priority Boarding for Residents and Workers on the Roosevelt Island Tram online and paper petition.

According to the Petition organizers:

However, according to an opinion drafted by the Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) legal department, a residents/workers Tram boarding preference would be illegal.

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Others have disputed RIOC'S legal opinion. 

Can a solution be found that overcomes RIOC's purported legal obstacle for providing priority Roosevelt Island Tram boarding to those who use the Tram for essential transportation purposes before those using the Tram as an amusement sightseeing attraction?

How about this?

RIOC sets up a permitting system to issue an annual Roosevelt Island Fast Line Pass that is available to everyone, resident, worker or visitor. The Fast Line Pass must be picked up in person on Roosevelt Island at least 24 hours before it can be used. 

The Fast Line Pass allows the holder to board the Tram before a person who does not have a Fast Line Pass. A person who only rides the Tram as a one time sightseeing attraction is less likely to obtain the Fast Line Pass than a regular user of the Tram. 

Logistics would need to be figured out for how the Fast Line Pass would work in practice, but the bottom line is that Roosevelt Island residents, workers and anyone else who uses the Roosevelt Island Tram for transportation purposes will have priority boarding over those using it for one time sightseeing amusement attraction.

NYC Mayor Eric Adam, former Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, Assembly Member Rebecca Seawright and NYC Council Member Julie Menin have all expressed support for providing some sort of Roosevelt Island Tram boarding preference for residents and workers.

Last week, a joint Community Board 8 Roosevelt Island/Transportation Committee approved a resolution supporting Roosevelt Island Tram priority boarding for residents and workers. The full Community Board 8 is scheduled to vote on the resolution during its Wednesday January 15 meeting. You can attend the CB 8 meeting and give your views on this issue in person or via Zoom.

Perhaps this proposal will be considered.

Believe It Or Not - Secret Herd Of Woolly Hippos Discovered At A Protected Sanctuary On Roosevelt Island In The Heart Of NYC

According to the Headtap Horror By Bobby Boom You Tube Channel:

... in the heart of New York City lies an extraordinary secret that defies imagination. A protected sanctuary on Roosevelt Island housing the last surviving population of Wooly Hippos magnificent creatures that once roamed the Arctic Circle alongside mammoths and woolly rhinoceros...

...The Roosevelt Island woolly hippo Reserve established in 1952 but kept secret for decades spans a carefully concealed section of the Island's Northern tip. Here behind carefully designed barriers that appear to be natural rock formations, a population of 23 woolly hippos thrive in complete secrecy. Their existence is known only to a select group of scientists, caretakers and a handful of local residents who have learned to recognize the distinctive sound of their calls echoing across the East river at dawn...

Believe it

or not.

Get Your Roosevelt Island Sunday Freshly Baked Bagels At Mediterranean Eatery And Nutella Or Peanut Butter Stuffed Cookies At Nisi Kitchen - They Are Delicious

Roosevelt Island Sunday mornings are better with a freshly baked hot out of the oven bagel from Mediterranean Eatery.

    

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And then indulge with a delicious tasting Nutella or Peanut Butter stuffed cookie from Nisi Kitchen.

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I had the Peanut Butter stuffed cookie last Sunday and it was delicious.

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A post shared by Roosevelt (@rooseveltislander)

Give one or both a try. They are delicious.

First Friday Of NYC Congestion Relief Zone Pricing Traffic Seen From Roosevelt Island Tram And 60th Street At 1st And Second Avenues This Afternoon - Compare Before And After Congestion Pricing Data Too

On my way to and from Trader Joe's this afternoon between 3:30 and 4 PM, the first Friday of NYC Congestion Relief Zone Pricing traffic in the area of Second, First and York Avenues at 60th street seemed alot less than usual.

Here's the aerial view of traffic from the Roosevelt Island Tram

and street level.

More on the first week of NYC Congestion Pricing

from Fox 5 New York,

Channel 7 Eyewitness News

and Pix 11 News.

Check out the Congestion Pricing Tracker 

to compare traffic data before and after Congestion Pricing began on January 5, 2025.

There Once Was An Elevator From The Queensboro Bridge To Roosevelt Island - Learn More About The Welfare Island Upside Down Elevator Storehouse Building

From 1919 to 1955 there was vehicle and pedestrian access from the Queensboro Bridge to Welfare (Roosevelt) Island. According to Neil Tandon writing for the Roosevelt Island Historical Society (RIHS):

... The Elevator Storehouse, opened in 1919, housed an elevator that transported cars and people from the Queensboro Bridge down to the present-day Tramway Plaza. In addition, it contained storage space and a reception ward for the island's Metropolitan Hospital. The building, whose main lobby was on its top floor, was nicknamed the upside-down building and was featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not for its peculiar design. With the opening of the Welfare Island Bridge, the building closed in 1955 and was demolished in 1970.... 

Image of Elevator Storehouse From Greater Astoria Historical Society

Today, the Roosevelt Island Connect Instagram page features Roosevelt Island Historical Society (RIHS) President Judy Berdy describing the Elevator Storehouse building.

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According to the NYC Ambulance History Facebook Page:

The top floor of the Elevator Storehouse, as it was known, was a ‘Reception Hospital’ or ER, where patients were evaluated and treated before being put on the elevator for transfer to one of three hospitals on the island: Metropolitan, City or Island. The first two were relocated in the early 50’s while the shell of Island Hospital remains standing. The Elevator Storehouse served as the central materials supply depot for the Department of Hospitals.... It was demolished to make way for the Roosevelt Island Tram.

And:

The only legal way for pedestrians or bicyclists to get across the Queensborough Bridge for a long time was. (starting at Manhattan side) take the stairway at the south side of the bridge at 59th street to the upper_ level.

Then use the narrow walkway alongside the southern (eastward heading) roadway - which had lots of girders sticking through it... - _halfway_ across the bridge until you were over Welfare Island.

Then... another stairway sticking _out_ from that walkway, over the water, and leading to a passageway _under_ the lower level which took you over to the roof of the hospital building. (There might have been another stairway to get back up the flight).

Then... you'd go across the roof of the building to the elevator and be brought down to street level of the island...

In 2015, Cornell Tech Assistant Director of Government & Community Affairs Jane Swanson reported that Cornell Tech raised the subject of pedestrian access from Roosevelt Island to the Queensboro Bridge with the NYC Department of Transportation during the Bloomberg administration in 2013, but at that time the Bloomberg administration was not interested in pursuing a feasibility study due to its scale, complexity and cost.

The 1962 TV Program Naked City episode titled Carrier, shown in the Instagram video, gives us a look at the Welfare (Roosevelt) Island staircase to the Queensboro Bridge.

Screenshot From You Tube

According to the You Tube episode description:

After 14 years of self-imposed exile, a young woman who carries a deadly infectious disease leaves Welfare Island (now called Roosevelt Island) for Manhattan, alerting the NYPD to a potential plague.

Watch the full Naked City episode of Carrier. The Welfare (Roosevelt) Island scenes 

are at the beginning and end.

Mayor Eric Adams Announces "Founded By NYC" Campaign Celebrating 400 Years Of The Greatest City In The World And Honors The Lenape Indigenous Peoples - A Current Lenape And Roosevelt Island Connection Too

Happy 400th anniversary, New York City!

From the Lenape to the Dutch, to all those who made our city, this year we're celebrating the history AND the people who have made NYC so great. Learn more about "Founded By NYC:" pic.twitter.com/AhDrsUMKxr

— NYC Mayor's Office (@NYCMayorsOffice) January 5, 2025

New York City Mayor Eric Adams submitted the op-ed article below to local NYC community media including Roosevelt Islander Online. According to Mayor Eric Adams:

Celebrating 400 Years of the Greatest City in the World

January 6, 2025

2025 marks a historic occasion — our city's 400th anniversary. It marks four centuries since the first European settlement of Manhattan in 1625, on land then known as Lenapehoking, the homeland of the Lenape people. The tiny Dutch colony began as New Amsterdam and then changed to New York when the English took control and expanded rapidly. A century ago, its boundaries increased beyond the island of Manhattan to encompass the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island.

To celebrate our city’s 400th anniversary, we are proud to announce the launch of our “Founded By NYC” campaign, which focuses on commemorating and celebrating our city’s 400th birthday and honoring the Indigenous communities that came long before. The campaign highlights contributions from New York City that have shaped our nation and affirmed our country’s place in the world.

Our website, FoundedByNYC.com, features events and activities that showcase our city’s amazing 400-year history. You can also sign up for our newsletter, which will keep you up to date on events in the five boroughs and submit information about your own events that illustrate New York City’s past so that we can showcase it on our calendar.

Even as we look forward and celebrate all our great city has to offer, our administration is deeply committed to acknowledging and engaging with our city’s complex past. That is why we met with Chief Brad KillsCrow of the Delaware Tribe of Indians at Gracie Mansion and have proclaimed November 20 as “Lenape Heritage Day.” The Lenape people are the original inhabitants of this region, we acknowledge the pain they have experienced and the great contributions that have made — and continue to make — to our city.

Like the Lenape, our city’s story has ultimately been one of perseverance and triumph. Together, the many nationalities, religions, and ethnicities that have been a hallmark of our city from its earliest years have worked to build a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. For four centuries, New York City has been a beacon of hope for people from all over the world, a place of religious freedom and tolerance, a place to fulfill the American Dream; and our administration has been working hard to bring that dream a little closer for New Yorkers today.

We passed the historic “City of Yes for Housing Opportunity” plan that will help build a new generation of affordable housing; proposed the “Axe the Tax for the Working Class” to eliminate and cut city income taxes for some of our hardest-working New Yorkers; driven down crime all last year by seizing illegal guns, getting ghost cars and other illegal vehicles off our streets, and closing down unlicensed cannabis stores. We also created a record number of new jobs and small businesses, shattered affordable housing records, and produced a record amount of public space for pedestrians across the five boroughs. And, as we commemorate our 400th anniversary, we are preparing for the next 400 years — prioritizing climate resiliency by instituting citywide composting, creating new parks, planting trees, and completing the first section of the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project.

As mayor of the greatest city in the world, I am committed to fulfilling the great promise that is New York, and delivering for you. Every day. Everywhere.

Present day Roosevelt Island has a strong connection to the Lenape people. During the April 6, 2024  joint Sugi Project and iDig2Learn Healing Forest Planting at Southpoint Park, the co-Founder/Director of the Lenape Center Curtis Zunigha spoke

and 

planted the first tree.

Explore what NYC and Roosevelt Island (Mannahatta) looked like in the early 1600's from Beyond Manhattan, The Welika Project.