RIRA President On Roosevelt Island Transit Activism, Ferry Service And Red Bus Experiment

Image Of October RIRA Meeting

Roosevelt Island Residents Association President (RIRA) Frank Farance sends the following report to Roosevelt Island residents.

1. Call to Action for Island-Wide Transit Improvements -- supporting the RI Transit Tiger Team. Matt Katz, Chair of RIRA Planning Committee (and former RIRA President), called a meeting last Friday to discuss transportation issues on the Island. One topic was the ferry (more on this below). The more important topic was improving subway service. Because the MTA has been dismissive towards our suggestions, we agreed that we need a "tiger team" approach. This would involve bringing all the Island players together: the elected politicians, the developers, the residents (RIRA), and RIOC. The RIRA representation would include myself, Matt Katz, Ellen Polivy (RIRA Vice President and member of CB8), and other RIRA members. One area RIOC can provide help is authoritatively provide answers and information about the significant limitations on off-Island transportation. The developers can help by reminding the MTA that the developers have significant financial interest in their properties on the Island ('nuf said). Our elected politicians can demand that the MTA work with us until: (1) we arrive at some workable solution, or (2) all parties agree that we've investigated all possible solutions. The MTA is really unenthused about providing neighborhood-specific solutions, but our politicians can remind the MTA that Roosevelt Island has unique circumstances. I've spoken with Fernando Martinez, RIOC VP of Operations, and he said RIOC is will to play a supportive role in improving island transportation — RIOC has worked with the MTA before. Thanks, RIOC for the help!

What can you do as a resident? You can help by contacting the elected officials. Remind them (1) next spring the tram will be out of service for six months, so the need to solve the transportation problems RIGHT NOW, (2) the ferry might help, but it is not enough, (3) we have a tiger team her to interact with the MTA to help us get to the right solution, (4) most importantly, the elected officials need get the MTA to meet with the tiger team. Here are their phone numbers and E-mail addresses:

— Scott Stringer, Manhattan Borough President, +1 212 669 8300, bp@ManhattanBP.org
— Jessica Lappin, City Councilmember, +1 212 980 1808, Lappin@council.nyc.ny.us
— Mayor Michael Bloomberg, +1 212 788 9600, ksheekey@cityhall.nyc.gov
— Jose Serrano, State Senator, +1 212 828 5829, NYSSenate@gmail.com
— Micah Kellner, Assemblymember, +1 212 860 4906, KellnerM@assembly.state.ny.us
— Governor David Paterson, +1 518 474 8390, http://www.state.ny.us/governor/contact

If you want to follow progress, which we hope to report more frequently than WIRE issues, you have the following choices:

http://ritransit.org -- A website for Roosevelt Island transit issues
ritransit on Twitter -- A twitter account for real-time reports
ritransit@rira-council.org -- Send us your E-mail address and we'll keep you posted on progress (not more than one E-mail a day)

We hope to make progress over the next 3-4 months -- in time for the tram shut down.

2. Ferry Service. As mentioned above, Matt Katz held a RIRA Planning Committee meeting on this. There is support in the committee for providing immediate ferry service. There will be more details and discussion when the full RIRA Common Council discusses this at its monthly meeting on November 4.

3. Red Bus Experiments. I promised more information in this issue. I'll have to punt until the next issue: we're focused on the off-Island transportation issue these two weeks.

4. RIRA Town Hall Meeting on October 28 at 8PM in Good Shepherd Community Center. This is in preparation for the RIOC Board meeting on October 29. Residents are welcome to come discuss topics on the RIOC Board agenda *prior* to RIOC taking action on them. RIOC Board members: we'll looking forward to seeing you, too, at the RIRA Town Hall Meeting.

The RIRA President's message was also published as the RIRA column in the 10/24/09 Main Street WIRE.

As an update the RIRA Town Hall Meeting scheduled for yesterday was cancelled due to the Novemeber RIOC Board of Directors meeting being cancelled.