Going To Be An Interesting Roosevelt Island Residents Association (RIRA) Monthly Meeting October 5- Censure Former President, Disavow Current President Redistricting Testimony, Demand Main Street WIRE Retraction and Presentation Of Proposed Upcoming RIOC Budget

Image of September 2011 RIRA Meeting

 The Roosevelt Island Residents Association (RIRA) will be meeting Wednesday October 5, 8 PM at the Good Shepherd Community Center (543 Main Street). The Agenda for the meeting is below.

October RIRA Meeting Agenda Agenda

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.

Among the speakers at the October Public RIRA Session are Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) CFO Steve Chironis who will speak on the proposed RIOC 2012-13 Fiscal Year Budget and Miranda Murray from the Roosevelt Island Public Library.

An item on the Agenda under new business is a resolution to censure former RIRA President and current Planning Committee Chair Frank Farance. According to the Agenda item:

New Business (9:55) X B. Long- Resolution to censure F. Farance

During a September 26 RIRA Governance Committee meeting, an attempt was made by some present to censure Mr. Farance because of what they perceive to be inappropriate statements made by Mr. Farance to the Main Street WIRE and in emails to other RIRA members. The Censure motion was not voted on at that time because Mr. Farance was not present at the meeting. For the record, I was at the meeting and objected to the censure of Mr. Farance because he was not present. I would also have objected on the merits as well. The subject of censuring Mr. Farance for comments he has made is now on the RIRA October Agenda.

Another issue sure to be discussed at the October RIRA meeting is the Housing Committee Report below which, among other points, is critical of RIRA President Matt Katz's recent testimony during the LATFOR Redistricting Hearings and seeks an apology and retraction for an article in the most recent Main Street WIRE. Here is the Housing Committee Report to October RIRA Common Council.

A. The Committee’s attention was drawn to the front-page article in the Wire of 9/24/11, by David Stone, as well as the caption of the photograph of Matt Katz and others at a redistricting hearing of 9/21/11. The caption reads: “At Wednesday’s redistricting hearing, Linda Heimer, Residents Association President Matthew Katz, and Nancy Cruickshank asked that Roosevelt Island be mapped into a Manhattan district with which there is a “community of interest”. (My bolding.) This wording reads as a snide insult to the existing alignment of Roosevelt Island with the wonderful communities, including our own, represented by Senator Jose M. Serrano. The Committee was appalled by this wording on the front page of the Wire, which does not at all reflect the community’s affinity and brotherly feelings with the residents of the entire District. Roosevelt Island is already in a wonderful District which is represented by a hard-working, energetic and able State Senator. To say otherwise is to insult the residents of Roosevelt Island, the Senate district, and Senator Serrano.

1. Although the matter does not directly pertain to housing, we agreed that State Senator Jose M. Serrano has been a great help to RI, including with housing issues. We found that our community was not consulted prior to Matt Katz embarking on a unilateral effort to switch RI to State Senator Kreuger’s district. We therefore introduce the following Resolution by the RI Community in Support of Senator Jose M. Serrano at our upcoming RIRA meeting:

Resolution of the Roosevelt Island Community (RIRA) in Support of Senator Jose M. Serrano

Whereas, Roosevelt Island is well and ably represented and helped by Senator Serrano; Therefore, Roosevelt Island wishes to remain within Senator Serrano’s district.

Be It Resolved: The Community of Roosevelt Island (RIRA) Votes to Disavow the Initiative of RIRA President Matthew Katz requesting remapping of Roosevelt Island into Senator Kreuger’s Senatorial district, which was taken without a vote of the RIRA Council; RIRA Instead Enthusiastically Endorses and Embraces the Existing Senatorial District of Roosevelt Island which is the District Represented so Well and Ably by Senator Jose M. Serrano.

2. We learned that many African American RI residents were offended by a paragraph in David Stone’s article commenting on the shifting demographics of RI.

The paragraph in question is:

“Roosevelt Island’s ethnic balance is shifting, and is more in line with Manhattan than with the other boroughs. We’ve become more white, as has Manhattan. Blacks are leaving Roosevelt Island, too, but not at the bigger island’s 12.5% rate. Blacks remain our largest minority, at more than 21% of the population, greatly exceeding Manhattan’s 13%.” (My bolding.)

We agreed that the above paragraph was insensitive and that the information should have been presented in a less “slanted” and more sensitive manner. For example, the information could have been presented in the form of a table of numerical data, without commentary added about whether the island of Manhattan or RI is becoming “less white” or “less black” and so forth. Presenting data in a divisive manner is both hurtful and counterproductive as it is giving the impression that the newspaper is “keeping score”. We are all doing the best we can to survive in NYC and it is not necessary to appear to “gloat” about the departure of one group and/or the arrival of another group. For that matter, people of all colors are being priced out of NYC by richer newcomers of all colors – it might have made more sense to present this economic data. Yet, make no mistake: Discrimination based on skin color is still very much alive today, and the economic crisis that has hit New Yorkers of all ethnic and racial backgrounds is definitely hitting African Americans especially hard.

We are all, after all, brothers and sisters, and a community newspaper should reflect that spirit of community and cooperation. The article incidentally failed to mention that, overall, the number of whites has for some years (possibly decades) fallen below the 50% mark in NYC so that characterizing any particular ethnic group in NYC as a “minority” is technically a misnomer since there is no longer any one ethnic or racial “majority” in NYC.

Therefore, we wish to introduce the following resolution at our upcoming RIRA meeting protesting the insulting and divisive paragraph in the David Stone article and demanding that the Wire apologize in print for the wording of this paragraph because of the distress it has caused to a large number of residents on RI.

Resolution Protesting the Wording of Paragraph 10 of David Stone’s 9/24/11 Wire Article
Whereas, Roosevelt Island is a Community of Many Different Ethnic Groups – Like all of NYC – All of Us Living Together in Peace;

Whereas, the Wording of Paragraph 10 of David Stone’s 9/24/11 Wire Article Singled out an Ethnic Group – African Americans – as a “Minority”;

Whereas, there is currently no majority in NYC thus all the various ethnic and racial groups in NYC are “Minorities” including whites/Caucasians;

Whereas, We Believe Information regarding the socio-economic and ethnic composition of the Island would be best presented in a tabulated format, such that the reader can draw their own conclusions without editorial bias in the conveying of the information.

Be It Resolved: The Wording of Paragraph 10 of David Stone’s 9/24/11 Wire Article was both Inaccurate in its Characterization of African Americans as a “Minority” in the City of New York and Hurtful to the African American Residents of Roosevelt Island, and Was Not in the Interests of Brotherhood and Peace.

We therefore Demand, that Editor David Lutz of the Wire Issue a Retraction of the Characterization of African Americans as a “Minority” in New York City and an Apology for the Wording of Paragraph 10 of David Stone’s 9/24/11 Wire Article and have the Retraction and Apology prominently appear on Page 1 of the next Issue of the Wire.

B. The Committee discussed the status of sub metering of Roosevelt Landings. Although there have been some indications that Urban American has succeeded in its effort to sub meter Roosevelt Landings, the Committee, because of the element of doubt that remains that sub metering of Roosevelt Landings has been implemented, has decided to forego for the time being submitting a resolution in support of Roosevelt Landings residents in their struggle with the landlord over sub metering. We will await the final outcome of this matter before we proceed with a general resolution of support, to be submitted for the Council’s review and hopefully endorsement.

C. The Committee discussed the on-going unjust situation pertaining to the large number of Section 8 tenants of Roosevelt Landings: For these tenants, when their household income exceeds the Section 8 income guidelines, they are no longer eligible to receive their Section 8 housing subsidy and in view of the unaffordable “market” rents charged by Urban American, are then forced to leave their apartments. The Section 8 tenants feel they are discriminated against in being forced to abandon their apartments even though the Roosevelt Landings tenants receiving a Landlord Assistance Program (LAP) lease do not have income limits and remain in their apartments (rent-stabilized + 1%) no matter how high their income rises. Both groups of Roosevelt Landings tenants – Section 8 and LAP – form the group of original tenants of the building that were in place when the building exited the Mitchell-Lama program.

The condition stipulated by the State for the building exiting the Mitchell-Lama program was the on-going protection of the whole group of original tenants – with no exceptions or exclusions. The landlord has violated this condition by nonetheless charging a portion of the original group of tenants, those whose rising income makes them ineligible to receive the Section 8 subsidy, “market” rents.

The Committee concluded that the Section 8 tenants portion of the group of original tenants of Roosevelt Landings remains a victim of unfair and discriminatory practices, a situation that can be remedied by the landlord placing Section 8 tenants either in the alternate available program of protection, the Landlord Assistance Program (LAP) or in a similar program such as rent stabilization upon tenant exiting the Section 8 program. This would satisfy the requirement of protection for all original Roosevelt Landings tenants which was agreed upon by the owner as a condition for the building exiting the Mitchell-Lama program.

This issue has been on-going for many years and at this time, the Committee has decided to form a Subcommittee at our next meeting consisting of Roosevelt Landings residents to gather information and support from elected officials as well as to seek legal advice on the matter. Once the Subcommittee has completed the above effort and feels a sufficient amount of information has been gathered, the Committee will hear its findings and proceed with the introduction of a general resolution of support for the entire group of original tenants of Roosevelt Landings so that these tenants can continue to be protected either in the Landlord Assistance Program (LAP) or Section 8 or if they exceed the Section 8 income guidelines, then in LAP or a similar rent stabilization program.

More information on Mr. Katz's testimony before LATFOR and reactions from local elected officials available at this previous post.

So if you are interested in learning more about what is happening on Roosevelt Island, come on down to RIRA's October 5 8 PM meeting at the Good Shepherd Community Center.

Here's a re-post of an interesting discussion with RIRA President Matt Katz. Mr. Katz was recently interviewed for the Community Board 8 Speaks program. He talks about the role of RIRA as well as the history, governance and current issues facing Roosevelt Island.