Roosevelt Island Residents Association (RIRA) Meeting Tonight - RIRA Committee Reports on Red Bus Schedule/Stops/Strollers, Housing, Proposed Science Center and More
Image of April 2011 Roosevelt Island Residents Association Meeting
The Roosevelt Island Residents Association (RIRA) will be meeting 8 PM tonight, May 4, at the Good Shepherd Community Center (543 Main Street). The Agenda for the meeting is below. As always, prior to the start of each meeting there is a public session in which any resident can come and address the Common Council Delegates on any issue of concern.
Also, remember that Roosevelt Island's NY State Senator Jose Serrano has Roosevelt Island constituent office hours just prior to the RIRA monthly meeting and on the first Wednesday of every month from 4 - 7 PM at RIOC Headquarters 591 Main Street.
If you have any questions to ask Senator Serrano's staff or are in need of any assistance that may require the help of your elected representative stop on by RIOC HQ. Also, bring photocopies of any paperwork related to your situation so that the Serrano staff can effectively and efficiently address the issue.
Below is the Agenda for the May RIRA Common Council:
May 4, RIRA Agenda
and RIRA Committee Reports.
RIRA – ISLAND SERVICES COMMITTEE (ISC) REPORT TO THE COMMON COUNCIL MEETING, 5/5/11If you are interested in learning more about what is happening on Roosevelt Island, come on down to tonight's RIRA meeting. Sometimes, it can get quite exciting, in a Roosevelt Island sort of way.
Updates on the key issues ISC is working on:
Red Bus –Schedule, Stops, Strollers – RIRA (President, Planning & Island Services Committees)met with RIOC (Martinez & Cy Opperman)| on 4/25/11 to review Red Bus. We agreed on the following: Schedule – The buses are now operating close to schedule. The main problem causing delays is double parked vehicles on Main St. in Northtown. RIRA suggested that RIC might want to prohibit parking on Main St. at selected locations from 7 am to 9 am on weekday mornings. The key to maintaining a schedule is proper headway between buses. Opperman or another RIOC person will meet or dispatch buses at the Octagon and/or the subway/Tram stops during rush hours.
Stops- The East Tram bus stop will be the principal place to discharge passengers and load passengers. Buses will also dwell here as necessary. The West Tram bus stop, at the kiosk, will probably be retained as a service for Goldwater employees and other passengers from Sportspark and the tennis facility.
Strollers – RIOC agreed to studying and changing the policy of not letting strollers on during rush hours. We expect that the no-strollers policy will be eliminated or substantially modified in the next few months. If the policy is changed, RIO\C will need help from RIRA in explaining to parents and other residents proper protocol for using the buses during rush hours.
Pedestrian Safety Barrier on RI Bridge – We have not received an official response From the NYC DOT to our letter outlining a safety problem at the RI Bridge. However, our “informers” at DOT say that the issue is circulating around the organization.
Public Library – Senator Serranoʼs office informed us that the grant for the Public Library is expected to be $300K.
Aaron Hamburger, Chair - ISC
February 2011: RIRA Housing Committee Minutes
By Russell Fields
The Committee met on 2/27/11 and the attendees included Lorraine Williams, Romano Reid , Russell Fields, Ellen Polivy, and Committee Chairwoman Helen Chirivas.
Our Committee met to consider the following:
1. HEAP – Home Energy Assistance Program‐ for low income utility expense assistance. Ellen and Steve Heller are planning a meeting with a lawyer from the Urban Justice center to assist eligible residents of all buildings with filing problems.
2. Discussion of Jose Serrano’s submetering legislation securing that all housing allowances will be fair to all affected tenants in NYS; currently in State Senate Committee.
3. Formation of a Housing Subcommittee called, HOUSING CONCERNS AND CHALLENGES to deal with the following issues (see attached resolution) a) Adequate disclosure of utility status for each building when referring to the building in common usage, b) Accepting housing related complaints at the RIRA mail box and by email for referral to building committees, state agencies, and designated parties and follow‐up thereon. c) Conducting electronic surveys on housing issues and satisfaction ratings for all buildings and publishing the results.
4. In addition concerns over the ongoing affordability were discussed including possible solutions.
5. There is considered to be inadequate disclosure in clear language as to the how the buildings are heated and if their utility bills are submetered. We are concerned that non disclosure might cause a surprise burden to potential tenants. We believe that for a potential tenant to make an informed decision, this information must be available at the time of decision making. Russell is researching which buildings already disclose this information on their websites or in their marketing literature and what they say.
Southern Development Review – a sub-committee of the RIRA Planning Committee April 28, 2011
Last Thursday, we had the first in-person meeting of the SD (Science Center) Sub- committee of the RIRA Planning and Resident's council. We agreed that there are the following broad categories of discussion.
• Transportation - during construction and once the new facility opens.
• Integration - this includes ideas about the RFP-winner being able to leverage existing facilities either currently on the island or planned for it, ingress/egress for the new physical plant (i.e. a strong preference not to have a gated community inaccessible to residents) and other items of discussion.
• Facilities - this dovetails with the above.
• Logistics - among other things this includes thinking through waste removal via the "avac" system, construction loads over the helix roadway from Queens and the issues around the possibility of simultaneous construction projects if Southtown's planned additional residences are being built at the same time.
• Youth - how could the science center be of value to our youth? What might be a reasonable partnership with bid winner in terms of local schools and programs?
• Idealized conceptions - while there are many, one of the most interesting is the suggestion of a bio-medical engineering program to be developed to work in conjunction with Coler hospital at the North end.
Our next steps are to further refine each line item under the above and work with RIOC to arrange a discussion with NYEDC regarding our ideas and suggestions. We will be meeting again within the next few weeks. If any island resident would like to join the committee now is the time. Given the announced schedule, we need to work quickly to assist in optimizing the outcome for Roosevelt Island and the eventual designee."
Denise Shull Chair - SD sub-committee May 1, 2011
I am unable to attend tonight's meeting so if anyone wishes to report on what happened please let me know.
