RIRA President On Agreeing With RIOC On Red Bus Route Ideas, Roosevelt Island Blood Driver & Common Meeting Calendar For Organizations

Roosevelt Island Red Bus At Riverwalk Stop

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

1. Convening a scheduling meeting for the Island's organizations. Many of you participate in more than one of the Island's organizations and have had the occasional frustration: Why did organizations X and Y plan the two interesting events at the same time? My hope is that we can meet this September and try to mark up a common calendar from September 2010 to June 2011 that avoids scheduling conflicts as much as practicable.

2. Red Bus ideas. I spoke with Mr. Martinez (RIOC VP of Operations) and he believes the continuous flow of buses (1) does not produce the best service, and (2) doesn't make the best use of the resources (buses and drivers). He said that we need to have a fixed schedule and he will be gathering data soon to best understand bus ridership and traffic flows. Mr. Martinez points out that the new schedule and routing of the Q102 might help with the morning rush hour, especially for Octagon residents. I agree with Mr. Martinez and we will be working together on the planning and data collection.

3. RIRA Blood Drive on June 19, Roosevelt Island Day. Don't forget to donate blood. Thanks to Matt Katz for organizing this.

4. Upcoming RIRA meetings. The next Common Council meeting is June 2 at 8:00 p.m. in the Good Shepherd Community Center; future meetings are on September 15 (no planned meetings over the summer) and October 6. Upcoming RIRA Town Hall meeting (in preparation for RIOC Board meetings) is on June 16.

The RIRA President's message is also published as the RIRA column in the 5/8/10 Main Street WIRE.