Roosevelt Island Residents Association Common Council Meeting Tonight 8 PM - Good Shepherd Community Center

Image of November 2008 RIRA Common Council Meeting

The Roosevelt Island Residents Association (RIRA) will be meeting tonight, September 9, at 8 PM in the Good Shepherd Community Center's Lower Level. The meeting are open to all and begins with an opportunity for residents to address the Council with any item of concern. Below is the Agenda for the meeting.

AGENDA
Date: Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Time: 8:00 P.M. - Finish
Place: Good Shepherd Community Center, 543 Main Street
1. Public Session (8:00)

2. Roll Call (8:15)
X 3. Approval of Agenda (8:20)
- Election of Secretary (8:20)
4. Approval of Minutes (8:30)
5. Treasurer’s Report (8:30)
6. President's Report (8:35)
- RIOC and Field Policies agenda item for RIRA Upcoming September 16 Town Hall meeting
7. Committee Reports (8:45)
Government Relations - M. Smith
- Election of Committee Chair
Public Safety - E. Feely-Nahem
Housing - J. Micheff & L. Strong-Shinozaki
Social, Cultural and Educational Services - N. Leopold
- Committee report
Island Services - A. Hamburger
Planning - M. Katz
- Committee report
Communications - E. Erickson
Status report on RIOC long-term budgeting.

8. Old Business (9:45)
9. New Business (9:45)

10. Adjourn

X Agenda items requiring action
Town Hall Meeting for September RIOC Board Meeting: Wednesday, September 9, 2009, 8-9:30PM
Next Meeting: Wednesday, October 7, 2009 (Mailing Deadline: October 2, 2009)
Future 2009 Meetings: November 4, December 2

Also, RIRA will be holding a 9/11 Memorial Remembrance on Friday evening:

Friday, September 11, 2009
Memorial Service on Roosevelt Island
Sponsored by Roosevelt Island Residents Association
Sunset Service Commencing at 7:00 p.m.
At the 9/11 Remembrance Garden
Behind the Chapel of the Good Shepherd

Please plan to join your neighbors and Please bring your own candle!

In addition, below are reports from RIRA's Planning Committee and Youth Services Sub-Committee as well as the 2009 RIRA Financial Report:

REPORT OF THE RIRA PLANNING COMMITTEE – SUMMER 2009

The Planning Committee has not met since late March, but issues impacting the committee continue to arise and to be addressed. Both the Columbia University and Hunter College graduate seminars made their final reports to mixed reactions from the community. These have been reported on elsewhere.

On May 28, RIOC hosted a groundbreaking event for the start of Southpoint Park construction, and the earth moving continues. This ceremony included a ribbon cutting to mark the end of the Smallpox Hospital/Renwick Ruin stabilization project that required $4.5 million from Jessica Lappin and the City Council. To me, the results look like a mouth full of metal braces. The ethereal beauty of that structure has been lost and will not return until additional funds can be found to bolster its internal structure. This is unlikely to happen until a use, preferably some commercial, revenue-positive use, can be found for the building. If you haven’t been down that way, you should visit this landmark

The RIRA/RIOC Town Meetings, instituted by Frank Farance, have the potential to examine key Island issues, especially those on the RIOC Board agenda, prior to consideration and voting by the Board of Directors. This experiment can only work if resident Directors and RIRA Counselors attend in sufficient numbers to afford a lively and productive discussion. Unfortunately, this has not been the case so far. More than any other activists on Roosevelt Island, these two groups have the possibility of positively affecting the quality of life here. However, if these Island leaders continue to define their responsibilities only in terms of once-a-month meetings, many opportunities will be lost.

Following up on the RIOC Board approval of the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute (FERI) plan for Four Freedoms Park and the FDR Memorial, the Roosevelt Island Disabled Association (RIDA), under the leadership of its Treasurer (and RIRA Member), Jim Bates has achieved an agreement from FERI’s leadership to work with RIDA to include a representation of FDR the disabled President, to be included somewhere in the vicinity of the Park. To that end, Ambassador William vanden Heuvel has pledged $100,000 received from the Paul Newman Foundation. Jim has convened a group, including representatives from the RIOC Board, RIRA, RIDA and the community to determine the site, the funding and the nature and source of such a sculpture. RIOC Director, Jon Kalkin, and architect, Marc Diamond, have been especially helpful in educating the group as to the process and getting it underway.

On July 7, I was invited to join host, Rosina Abramson, members of her staff, Queens Parks & Recreation Commissioner, Dottie Lewandowski, and Urban Answers spokesman, Mike Fishman, to tour the Island investigating sites for a boating and kayaking launch area. The criteria include finding existing pier structures that might be built on, waterfront areas that are safe from excessive currents and proximity to service amenities. The possibilities for returning Roosevelt Island to its maritime roots are very exciting and part of a Citywide effort along these lines. I first got involved during the East River Day events of 2007, sponsored by the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance. I hope that a location we examined on the East Channel within Southpoint Park and near the Strecker Lab is seen as appropriate, as this would provide incentive to develop the Renwick site, the centerpiece of Southpoint Park, as a restaurant and perhaps, much more.

I attended, albeit briefly, a get-together between the RIOC-appointed architect, Lee Weintraub, who is looking for community input to improve the Blackwell Park area that extends north from Blackwell House to the fountain and east to the river. Frank Farance represented RIRA and has discussed the event in his WIRE column. Many Island organizations were represented at this first meeting and the game plan is to establish a small (six-person) working group to consider conceptual designs and elements, much as the Trust for Public Land (TPL) did with a somewhat larger group and for Southpoint Park. Stay tuned.

At the request of Bonnie Sherk, I arranged a meeting on July 29 to include Bonnie, Sen. Jose Serrano, Assembly Member Micah Kellner and myself. Ron Becker of Coler/Goldwater Hospital was there along with a hospital environmental educator, AKA a “horticultural therapist.” This took place at PS/IS 217 where the summer program, made possible by a $20,000 Public Purpose Fund grant allocated by RIRA, is currently taking place. Also joining us, were representatives of PS/IS 217 PTA, parents and, of course, the students and teacher participating in the program. Our state representatives had the opportunity to see the program in progess, and Bonnie had the opportunity to influence two legislators with discretionary funds at their disposal. My hope is that this synergy will allow LifeFrames, Inc. to find operating funds exclusive of the Public Purpose Fund, allowing RIRA to provide those funds to other deserving Island organizations next year.

SC&E Committee Report
May 28th, 2009

Youth Services Sub-Committee Meeting

In Attendance:

Common Council Members: Nikki Leopold, Phoebe Flynn, Gad Levanon, Paco Bozzano Barnes, Frank Farance, Ellen Polivy

Community members: Brian Dorfman, Scot Bobo, Kristen Goldmansor,

Committee discussed concerns surrounding Island youth services. The attendee discussed the focus of the youth services committee and identified the following areas that need to be addressed:

• Raising the quality of the current youth programs being offered in the RI community
• Raising awareness of current youth service offerings
• Coordination of disparate Island youth agencies
• Evaluating the well roundedness of current offerings
• Including Island youth in discussions pertaining to Island youth services. Create a youth forum in which topics such as arts, education and sports are the focus
• Advocacy for Island youth organizations
• The need to identify youth who do not get involved
• Parent Education: Impressing the importance to parents on the need to have children involved in extra curricular activities

Click on images below to read the 2009 RIRA Financial Report.