RIRA President On Being Annoying, Roosevelt Island Budget, Directors, Transportation, MTA Lawsuit(?), Lego Robots & Future Meetings

Image Of 1/10 RIRA Meeting Discussing Budget With RIOC Management

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

1. That "incredibly smart but annoying Frank Farance". This is in the category of If You Can't Laugh At Yourself .... In the last WIRE issue, long-time resident Nina Lublin was wondering out aloud why we (RIRA, me, both?) don't have the gumption to do Article 78 proceedings to halt further development in Southtown. I ran into Nina last week and thanked her for compliment. Regarding Nina's points ...

We have enough residents as board members on RIOC and, if there is a will, then things can change. But even our own resident board members don't seem to make the connections at the right moments: spend $25 million on a tram (when we only need to spend $15 million), now 14 months later it's clear we could have saved $10 million and put the savings to good use to shore up RIOC's finances; RIOC board members had the opportunity to decline Hudson-Related request for an extension for Southtown 7-9, but now they say "Gee, I didn't understand what that vote was about"; yet another year of RIOC board meetings with directors complaining about not having details until last minute or not all, and your fellow resident board members haven't figured out how to vote as a bloc to get the message heard or the procedures changed.

2. I Told You So. Last year, I complained loudly about RIOCs finances and I worried about their finances. In 2009, I estimated that RIOC would go bankrupt in about 10 years if Southtown were not completed. So I was cranky and annoying about RIOC not revealing long-term budgets and about RIOC board members who didn't seem to care as they approved spending over $40 million on this year's budget. In RIOC's 2011 budget proposal, page 9 (PDF page 11) concerns What If Southtown 7-9 Aren't Built? On the bottom row of that page you'll see that RIOC cash balance goes from $60 million (2010) to $2 million (2019) to negative $2 million the year after. RIOC President Steve Shane and RIOC CFO Steve Chironis say that on December 31, 2012 RIOC will assess which way to go on their spending (read: possibly severely curtailing spending). That $10 million extra we paid for a dual-haul rope tram (rather than a design like the present tram) is really looking like money we should not have spent — you can thank resident board members for not having a backbone on this one. By the way, although I am critical of the financial status of RIOC (a long-term issue), I really must compliment Steve Chironis on making the extra effort to work with the residents to better understand the RIOC budget and for providing much of the information requested by RIRA.

3. Transportation Problems with Tram Shutdown. In short, I might be heading to an Article 78 against the MTA. While the MTA is a huge opponent, I want to be able to say: I have done everything possible on behalf of the residents to improve transportation. I'm consulting with attorneys and our elected representatives on the best course of action. In short, what you read from the MTA in the last WIRE issue is either wrong or poorly researched. For example, the MTA rejects our suggestion on reserving the first car for Roosevelt Island because there are stairs at Roosevelt Avenue and a high number of passengers at the front of the platform. The MTA seems purposely un-creative here: if there are problems with the first car, then why not look into reserving the last car? The MTA didn't look into any alternatives and, yes, the last car would work better because people on the rear of the Roosevelt Avenue platform are largely waiting for E trains, not F trains (see photo 1).

Image From Frank Farance

As another example, the MTA says that occasionally putting an R train on our tracks (so we don't have to wait several F trains to board) is operationally infeasible, yet the MTA can do this in the morning rush, as shown in the attached photo 2.

Image From Frank Farance

The R train, with its relatively empty cars, was able to take all the passengers that were not able to board the prior overcrowded F train. After spending time on the platforms, I realized that the there is significant available capacity on the local tracks in Queens for additional R trains — adding more R trains over our tracks on 63 street would help Queens and Roosevelt Island. More to come on this topic.

4. Robots for Kids 6-13 Years Old. This is a repeat of my last column on robots: Last year, we had a great team of children who learned about and built robots (based upon Lego Mindstorms NXT), and they competed well in a City-wide competition. With the help of the Roosevelt Island Youth Program and the PS/IS 217 Beacon Program, we are continuing again this year with a longer/larger program. Brian Dorfmann and I are the mentors/coaches. The cost is free. We meet once a week 6:30 - 8PM at RIYP's second floor at 506 Main Street. We might expand to two days a week. Both boys and girls enjoy this, they enjoy socializing with children different than their own age, and it is a rewarding experience in many ways and at many levels. Pizza is served for kids.

5. Upcoming RIRA meetings. The next RIRA Town Hall meeting is on February 17 at 8PM in the church. This meeting is a prep for the RIOC Board meeting the next day. Come talk to RIOC board members and staff on agenda topics. The next Common Council meeting is March 3 at 8PM in the church lower floor. Former RIRA President Steve Marcus is chairing the Public Purpose Grant committee as will present his committee's recommendations to RIRA for discussion and approval, and for forwarding to RIOC.

The RIRA President's message is also published as the RIRA column in the 2/13/10 Main Street WIRE.