RIRA President Reports On Blood Drive, Blackwell Park Design, Red Bus, FDR Disability Depiction, Permit Dispute & Other Roosevelt Island Issues

Image of June RIRA Meeting

RIRA President Frank Farance sends the following report to Roosevelt Island residents.

1. RIRA-sponsored blood drive. Former RIRA President Matt Katz and Common Council volunteers have again run a successful blood drive, with 40 pints donated.

2. Best Roosevelt Island Day in memory. Thanks to Doryne Isley and Charlie DeFino for staging an excellent event – and for their control over the weather. Thanks also to the sponsors: Urban American, RI Youth Program, RIOC, Island House, Island Kids, Rivercross, RIRA, RISA, RIVAA.

3. RIOC wants your input on the new Blackwell Park. RIOC architects will hear from residents on Blackwell Park at the June 17 RIRA town meeting. RIOC is developing a master plan for the new park, and would like to identify the stakeholders. Come and contribute your ideas.

4. Good progress on RIOC-RIRA collaboration on red bus schedule. The results look good: a reliable schedule for segment #2 (late morning, approximately 9:50 to noon), with the buses arriving within 1-2 minutes before tram departure. Next is segment #1, the morning rush. An MTA bus planner will be meeting with us to add their expertise. Steve Shane and I will let you know when we've finalized our next experiment.

5. RIRA takes position on FDR Memorial at Southpoint. In response to the RIOC meeting on the proposed memorial, RIRA adopted a resolution supporting the inclusion of a celebration of President Roosevelt as a disabled person by depicting him in a wheelchair or on crutches.

6. RIRA Activity on Roosevelt Island Youth Services. Nikki Leopold, chair of the Social, Cultural, and Educational Committee, is leading this effort. The interests include: raising the quality of current youth programs, raising awareness of current offerings, coordinating disparate youth agencies, evaluating the well-roundedness of current offerings, including youth in discussions pertaining to youth services (creating a youth forum in which topics such as arts, education, and sports are the focus), advocacy for youth organizations, identifying youth who do not get involved, and parent education — impressing on parents the need to have children involved in extra-curricular activities. For more information, contact Nikki directly at leopolds6@yahoo.com.

7. Baseball fiasco with arrest of a parent. This has been reported elsewhere. Here are my observations:

— RIOC's lack of maintenance of the baseball fields contributed to the problem, because the first permitted players, the RI Little League, had to clear the fields, remove water, etc., which delayed their games.

— Parents, friends, and relatives need to behave better. As parents, we all sign that form from the RI Youth Program on sportsman-like conduct, including parents and friends. Shouting obscenities and bigoted comments has no place on the field.

— Big Apple Softball League (BASL) could have done a better job of identifying their official representative. Little League parents, players, and umpires were under the impression that they could continue playing the last inning (about 10-15 minutes more). While I respect the right of the BASL permit holder to choose not to let the Little League continue to play, the BASL representative's decision was poorly communicated to them (thus, confusion).

— Public Safety (PSD) needs to improve its conflict-resolution skills. Mike Shinozaki reported their poor technique, including his impression that PSD chose to arrest Adib Mansour because he was taking pictures. PSD is looking to blanket the Island with surveillance cameras (it's OK to take pictures of us), yet they object when we use cameras.

— Public Safety needs to improve its arresting skills. Aside from the reportedly poor handling of Mr. Mansour, his young son was separated from him and cried outside PSD's doors while he wondered how his father was inside; meanwhile, his father worried about his son — primal emotions. Mike Shinozaki asked PSD if it was OK if the son could just see the father for a moment to be reassured that everything was OK, but PSD refused. NYPD would have handled this better, by making arrangements for the orderly separation of parent and child during the parent's arrest.

— Public Safety needs a new approach to better community relations. PSD Director Keith Guerra did nothing to investigate the reports of the poor handling of Mr. Mansour — only asking for a PSD officer's opinion is an incomplete story. Had this been NYPD, they wouldn't have responded this way: not on the field, not afterwards, not in the post-incident investigation, and not with a vow of non-cooperation.

— Mike Shinozaki had a good idea: Since the children were traumatized by the event, Public Safety should make it up to them. I'm all for better ties between PSD and the community, but to make it really stick with the children, their parents need to be supportive of PSD's message, too, i.e., PSD should also focus on soothing parents' concerns.

— Many parents complain about RIRA's permitting policy and the unavailability of fields for residents' pick-up games. RIRA will take up this topic in the fall, and hold a town meeting to gather residents' input.

Maybe we can all (RIOC, parents, etc.) take a deep breath and think about cooperating, which means doing our level best. Certainly, not cooperating doesn't help. I've had disagreements with Public Safety, but my children see me act with courtesy and respect to the officers. As parents, we owe it to our children.

The RIRA President's message was also published as the RIRA column in the 6/13/09 Main Street WIRE.