According to the Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC):
Come out this summer and enjoy an awesome line-up of family friendly movies at Roosevelt Island’s 2012 Outdoor Summer Movie Series Event. The free event will take place at Southpoint Park.
Save the dates- From June through August, the following movies will be featured on a 3 story inflatable screen:
June 30th- Captain America: The First Avenger
July 7th- Grease
July 20th- Tangled
July 21st- The Help
August 4th- Lion King
August 11th- Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
The fun starts at 7 PM, with music & movie trivia. Food and drinks will be available for purchase. Bring friends and family along with lawn chairs or blankets and watch movies at Southpoint Park under the stars. This is an experience you don’t want to miss!
This event is sponsored by the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation.
You can walk or take the Red Bus to Southpoint Park.
Island Shakespeare Performance of Much Ado About Nothing At Eastwood Amphitheater
This weekend is your last chance to see local resident theater company Island Shakespeare"s outdoor production of Much Ado About Nothing at the Eastwood/Roosevelt Landings Amphitheater. I saw a Sunday matinee performance and can highly recommend it as an experience not to be missed. It begins with Roosevelt Island resident and the production's director Thomas Kee welcoming visitors to 1861 Messina Italy explaining what you will see.
... an immersive celebration of Shakespeare’s “Much Ado.”
You enter a raucous celebration of Italian Unification (circa 1861), invited to drink and dance with the red-shirted soldiers of Garibaldi’s “Expedition of 1000.” Revelers can follow the story, follow a character, or follow their own desire to explore the piazza...
It certainly was that and more. A Yelp reviewer from Astoria who saw the show adds:
... For $15, you're taken to Messina, Italy where you'll meet a pair of lovers, Claudio & Hero (lovesick couple) and Benedick & Beatrice (bickering pair who are too proud to admit their love for each other). Like "Sleep No More" this is an interactive play where the actors go around the ampitheater, so the play takes place on the stage, in the seats with the audience, out on the lawns, and anywhere else there was open space. Although you could spend your time following the main play by following the speaking actors, there was plenty of action to watch with the minor characters. Indeed, I spent some amusing minutes watching Dogberry, the drunk constable, wrestle and roll around the grass with knaves who lied about Hero's virtue....
CornellNYC Tech, the high-tech campus opening in New York City this fall, has announced its first academic hire: Dr. Deborah Estrin, a renowned professor of computer science whose speciality is networked sensing, which uses mobile phones and wireless Internet to collect and examine data from users’ surroundings.
Estrin, who previously taught at University of California, Los Angeles and has been called one of the “10 Most Powerful Women in Tech,” told Mashable she was drawn to the soon-to-be-open campus because of the “incredible opportunity to work in such a vibrant context.”
“I don’t know of any other place that’s done or is trying to do what CornellNYC Tech is trying to do. It’s very much up my alley, that’s what’s bringing me to New York.”
and:
... While working and teaching at CornellNYC Tech, Estrin will continue to pursue her mission of finding ways to use mobile phones to help people improve their health.
“People walk around with instruments in their pockets they’re attached to,” said Estrin, referring to their mobile phones. “We’ve got the ability to use those to help people self-monitor their health and bring high-resolution data to clinical care. From wellness to prevention to managing medication, that’s what mobile health is about. And that always comes down to co-innovation between people on the health side and technologists....
... Do you know where you’re going to be living in New York?
Not yet. If anyone has a good sublet to offer in the East Village please let me know.
How about Roosevelt Island?
…I hadn’t thought about that. I figured there was going to be a lot of construction going on there.
The BBC has an interesting article and video on the new Roosevelt Island Cornell project including interview with our own Roosevelt Island Residents Association (RIRA) President Matt Katz. According to the BBC:
Roosevelt Island is a long narrow strip of land beside Manhattan in New York, shaped like a fountain pen that someone dropped in the East River.
It has been used for a prison - with inmates including the jazz singer Billie Holiday in the 1920s. It has been a mental asylum and an isolation hospital.
If a Scooby Doo villain was looking for a place to put a ghost mystery fairground, it might end up there.
But this two-mile stretch is soon to become a $2bn hi-tech cradle of creativity, a "Silicon Island" launchpad for the industries of the digital age.
This is going to be the site of New York's technology campus - a hugely ambitious project to create a research hub from scratch.
And it is an experiment being watched as a blueprint for other countries trying to find a way to kick-start such hi-tech innovation....
Exposure Of A Person - Male and female subject issued summonses and released.
I asked Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) Public Safety Director Keith Guerra
Please provide additional details regarding place, time, age of victim, whether the two incidents are related and any other relevant information that the Roosevelt Island community should be aware of regarding the incidents.
RIOC's spokesperson replied yesterday:
The two incidents were not related. The incident on 6/21 took place at 4:06 pm behind 555 Main Street along the seawall. There were no injuries.
Image of Roosevelt Island Pier NYC Waterfront Restaurant Space To Open In July
More great news for Roosevelt Island. Earlier today, we learned that an ice cream shop was going to open on Main Street. To double the pleasure, Roosevelt Island subway pier waterfront restaurant will open in a few weeks.
Will East River waterfront dining be coming to Roosevelt Island's Subway Pier this summer? Imagine being able to sit, relax and eat some good food right next to the East River with these stunning NYC Skyline, Waterfront and Queensboro Bridge views in the evening.
The answer to that question is yes and it will happen as soon as the middle of July, if not earlier now that a liquor license for the area has been approved. As reported in this previous post, the Roosevelt Island waterfront food concession at the subway pier was awarded by the Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) for this summer season to the owners of the Riverwalk Bar & Grill. Co-Owner Sal Hoo reported on some of their initial preliminary plans several weeks ago:
... We thought it would be a great idea to use the space as a waterfront cafe and call it The Pier NYC, serving great food and summery drinks. We are working in collaboration with John Brown Smokehouse and Chef David Santos formerly of PerSe and Bouley to give the residents of the island new food options that they have been desiring. Earlier this year, John Brown Smokehouse was named best brisket in NYC and we will bring that along with other great BBQ menu items. Chef David Santos will bring his expertise of seafood to The Pier NYC and we will be serving items such as raw oysters, shrimp cocktail and lobster rolls. The exact menu is not yet set in stone, but these are the types of things residents can expect from us in this new venture. Being a resident myself I know this can be a great addition and look forward to further serving Roosevelt Island....
Image of Roosevelt Island Pier NYC Waterfront Restaurant Space To Open In July
The subway pier area was an ugly mess and looked like this as recently as a few weeks ago.
Mr. Hoo and his partners have spent the last several weeks cleaning up the pier, scraping off as much rust from the railings as they could and giving it a fresh coat of paint
as well as cleaning up the graffiti on the barrier wall.
Wonder what can be done to get rid of the pigeons though?
The subject of the waterfront restaurant arose during the June 25 RIOC Operations Committee meeting with the announcement of the liquor license approval as well as a discussion regarding the jurisdiction of Community Board 8 to approve a liquor license for Roosevelt Island since Roosevelt Island is under the jurisdiction on NY State and not NY City. Here an excerpt of the discussion.
The waterfront restaurant subject also came up during the June Roosevelt Island Residents Association (RIRA) meeting.
I am certainly looking forward to sitting out by the pier with some John Brown Smokehouse BBQ and think it will be great. Bring it on!!
UPDATE 6/30 - Here's an aerial view of the Pier NYC with tables, chairs and umbrellas set up.
Wish I cud go in a boat. New Pier NYC opens on Roosevelt Island July 6, 11 am to 9 pm with BBQ,seafood & Manhattan vu. Take the tramway. #fb
— Gael Greene (@GaelGreene) July 3, 2012
Below is the Agenda for today's Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) Board of Directors Meeting.
AGENDA
JUNE 28, 2012 MEETING OF
THE ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
THE MANHATTAN PARK COMMUNITY CENTER,
8 RIVER ROAD, ROOSEVELT ISLAND, NEW YORK
5:30 P.M.1
I. Call to Order
II. Roll Call
III. Approval of Minutes
1. May 24, 2012 Board Meeting (Board Action Required)
IV. Old Business
V. New Business
1. Presentation of RIOC's Audited Financial Statements for Fiscal Year 2011-12
2. Approval of Report on Procurement Contracts for Fiscal Year Ending March 31, 2012 (Board Action Required)
3. Approval of Report on Investments for Fiscal Year Ending March 31, 2012 (Board Action Required)
4. Approval of Property Report for Fiscal Year Ending March 31, 2012 (Board Action Required)
5. Approval of Annual Report for Fiscal Year Ending March 31, 2012 (Board Action Required)
6. Authorization to Enter into a Contract with CBRE for Real Estate Consulting Services (Board Action Required)
7. Authorization to Enter into a Contract with Mid-Island Electrical Sales Corp. for Procurement of Motorgate LED Light Fixtures (Board Action Required)
8. Authorization to Enter Into a Contract with City & County Paving Corp. for Pavement Reconstruction Phase II
(Board Action Required)
9. Authorization to Enter into a Contract with Langan Engineering and Environmental Services, Inc. for Design and Engineering of the Southpoint Park Seawall Reconstruction Project (Board Action Required)
10. Authorization to Enter Into a Contract with Alternative Construction Concepts, LLC for Stabilization of the Renwick Ruin Southern Wall (Board Action Required)
11. President's Report
12. Committee Reports
a. Audit Committee
b. Governance Committee
c. Operations Advisory Committee
d. Real Estate Advisory Committee
13. Public Safety Report
VI. Adjournment
1 The RIOC Board Meeting will commence following a public comment period. The public comment period is not part of the meeting.
Reported last week that an Ice Cream Store would soon be opening on Roosevelt Island's Main Street:
... Several reliable sources have told me that Hudson Related is about to sign a lease with a Roosevelt Island resident for an Ice Cream Store on Main Street....
I learned last night from Main Street Master Leaseholder Hudson Related that they signed the Roosevelt Island ice cream store lease with Roosevelt Island resident Scot Bobo. The store will be located at the former Montauk Credit Union store.
Location For New Roosevelt Island Ice Cream Store
Mr. Bobo reports that he hopes to have the store open within three months and adds:
I'm incredibly excited to open a shop on Main Street that I know will be one that the entire community is going to be happy about! I've been a Roosevelt Islander for 18 years and have been involved in the community since day 1. To bring something to Main Street that will be fun for me and the community is a perfect step for me, and hopefully all of the Ice Cream lovers out there!".
The name is Coach Scot's Main Street Sweets, and is at 559 Main Street.
Great news and I am looking forward to having a Roosevelt Island Ice Cream Store.
Image Of Jet Ski From On Hudson (for illustrative purposes only)
When the weather gets warm Roosevelt Island residents often see Jet Skiers roaring past us on the East River bouncing their aqua-motorcycles up and down off the waves. Last Sunday evening a jet ski was not bouncing but bobbing, about to go under and nearly hitting an oncoming barge, as the FDNY and later NYPD Marine/Harbor units attempted to fish it out of the East River.
At the time, NYPD officers watching from the Subway Pier told me that the person riding the jet ski was not injured and safely on shore. On Monday, I spoke with the NYPD Press Spokesperson to confirm and was told that NYPD had no information on the incident which indicated that nobody was injured.
Don't know if the jet ski was eventually fished out of the water.
... A plucky couple took it upon themselves to engage in recreational water motorizing in the East River. Not kayaking, or sailing, or even swimming—three ways of getting about in bodies of water that aren’t reliably fast—but jet-skiing, which is basically motorcycling on water.
And yet: Even with that speedy little way of getting around, they almost got smashed in the face by a barge, because—unlike most small bodies of water people jet ski in—barges get around on the East River....
Received the following message from Roosevelt Island resident Tom Wood regarding an Icla da Silva Foundation Roosevelt Island Bone Marrow Drive to be held on Saturday at our local Starbucks.
On June 30th, 2012 from 10am to 3pm Roosevelt Island residents will host a Bone Marrow Drive for The Icla da Silva Foundation in order to raise awareness about Bone Marrow Donation and engage the community in adding more members to the Be the Match Registry.
The Bone Marrow Drive will happen at the Roosevelt Island Starbucks located at 455 Main Street. At the drive prospect donors will be given a Consent Form to be filled out and a quick cheek swab test that will be determining if the donor is a match to a patient in need of a transplant.
To become a Bone Marrow Donor, you need to be between 18 and 60 years old, meet the health guidelines and be willing to donate to any patient in need.
It costs us $100 to register each prospect donor into The Be the Match Registry and donations of any size will be welcomed. Funds raised at the Roosevelt Island Starbucks Drive will go towards registering new bone marrow donors to the Be the Match Registry and allowing The Icla da Silva Foundation to provide more extensive patient support to those individuals and families with leukemia and other diseases requiring a marrow transplant. Icla da Silva Foundation is the largest recruitment center for the Be The Match Registry, we have an unwavering commitment to facilitating access to health care for all people, increasing disease awareness and supporting cancer patients and their families from all over the world.
Participants can call at 212 470 3136 or email tom@icla.org in case they have any questions or would like to give a helping hand as volunteers at the Roosevelt Island Starbucks Drive
Sponsorship opportunities for this drive are still available. Interested entities should contact (718) 360 5799 or Priscilla@icla.org for more information.
More on the Roosevelt Island origins of the Icla da Silva Foundation from the September 8, 2001 Main Street WIRE.
Reported previously that Roosevelt Island Mobile Food Truck applications were finally made available by the Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC). During yesterday's RIOC Operations Committee meeting (audio webcast of full meeting is here), RIOC VP of Operations Fernando Martinez reported that no Mobile Food Truck Operator has expressed interest in serving Roosevelt Island yet.
I guess we got the answer to my question from this post:
... The question now becomes if any Mobile Food Truck vendor will come to Roosevelt Island with the extra RIOC fees and regulations that are not required in any other NYC neighborhood?...
Big Gay Ice Cream @biggayicecream@markhlyon Damn, $345 a month, three month minimum? Gonna have to pass!
New York Street Food @nystfood@markhlyon Thanks for the info Mark. I may write about it, but at $345/mo, don't know how many trucks will do it.
In response to the lack of interest shown by food truck operators in Roosevelt Island so far, RIOC Directors decided during the Operations Committee meeting to waive the $345 monthly fee for July to see if any food trucks would come to Roosevelt Island. Here's the discussion at the RIOC Operations Committee meeting.
So, Mobile Food Trucks like Luke's Lobsters, Mexicue, Rickshaw Dumplings, Schnitzel, Coolhaus, Waffles and Dingles and all the other great ones, please come to Roosevelt Island. You will have a ready, willing and very hungry public ready to buy your food - particularly during the evening rush hours and weekends.
Some Roosevelt Island residents have expressed dissatisfaction with the inadequacies of the Gristedes
and Duane Reade pharmacy sections
and are seeking a full service drug store to serve the Roosevelt Island community. For instance, Duane Reade has this sign currently posted at it's cash register
As reported in this March post, the Roosevelt Island Residents Association (RIRA) Island Services Committee has taken notice of the situation:
Full-Services Pharmacy on RI
This is a new issue which ISC will pursue. In summary, RI no longer has a full-services pharmacy. Duane Reade will not accept prescriptions managed by Express Script drug plans. Soon this may be extended to Medco plans as Express Scripts is trying to acquire Medco. In addition, DR will no longer deliver. Gristedes will accept prescriptions from all plans and will deliver (but only to pre-registered customers). However, Gristedes maintains a limited variety of drugs in the store. So, many customers have to wait one or two days for the particular drug(s) to be delivered to the store.
We will initially attack this problem by dealing with Hudson-Related, the controllers of the leases for both Duane Reade and Gristedes.
and two weeks ago, Chair Aaron Hamburger sent this request to Hudson Related Master Leaseholder Principal David Kramer:
As mentioned in our brief conversation on Friday, we need your help in trying to restore a full-services pharmacy on RI.
We do not want a new pharmacy. We just need to improve/change the two exiting pharmacies.
Here's the situation:
Duane Reade no longer accepts prescriptions from Express Script (which affects 15-20% of their presciption business on RI and many customers) and DR has stopped delivering to customers. Gristedes carries a very limited inventory of drugs on-site, has limited Sunday hours and a limited delivery service.
What's needed at Gristedes is an expansion of their pharmacy space (when they renovate the entire store) so they can carry more drugs on-site, and a more liberal delivery service. At DR, they need to change their policy and again accept Express Script presciptions plus resume the delivery service that existed when they began operations on RI, but terminated deliveries (without notice) about 9 months ago.
Since you control the leases for both Gristedes and DR, we hope that you can put enough pressure on one or both of these stores to permit a return to a full-services pharmacy.
Thanks for doing whatever you believe is possible to relieve our pharmacy problems.
Yesterday I asked Mr. Kramer:
... is anything Hudson Related can do to improve the Roosevelt Island pharmacy offerings?
Mr. Kramer replied:
We don/can’t tell tenants how to run the specifics of their business. It’s up to residents to lobby these businesses.
During the March 12 Gristedes Town Hall meeting, Roosevelt Island resident Raye Schwartz explained to Gristedes owner John Catsimatidis and David Kramer why she thought a full service pharmacy was needed for Roosevelt Island. Mr. Catsimatidis replied that he would look into the situation and that he recently hired a former Duane Reade employee to "beef up" the Gristedes Pharmacy, Health and Beauty sections.
UPDATE 6/27 - Mr. Hamburger sent the following reply to Mr. Kramer:
3 weeks ago, I sent you an e-mail on the full-services pharmacy issue on RI. Today, I learned about your response by reading the RooseveltIslander. Don't understand why you didn't respond directly to me.
Anyway, your response is both disappointing and a cop-out. We never asked or expected you to interfere in the business operations of your tenants. We simply wanted you to bring the issue of a full-services pharmacy to the attention of the management of Gristedes and to Duane Reade. In the case of Gristedes, you could have suggested that since they were about to under go a complete renovation of their store, they might provide more space for the pharmacy section so more drugs could be in the on-site inventory. For Duane Reade, you could have probed into why they will not accept Express Script prescriptions and ask if this policy will be extended to other prescription plans such as Medco. These small actions on your part would be very helpfull in alerting management that they have a real and growing problem in their RI stores. Perhaps, management might then be motivated to take some steps to relive the problem.
Reported last Friday on a June 20 exposure incident that occurred at the 6th floor Motorgate Garage just before 6 PM.
The 6/20 -21 Public Safety Report indicated:
Exposure Of A Person - Male and female subject issued summonses and released.
Later on Friday (June 22), the Roosevelt Island Public Safety Report listed another exposure incident and I sent the following inquiry to Public Safety Director Keith Guerra:
Exposure of a Person - Male exposed himself to a female and fled. Search made with negative results. NYPD refused.
Please provide additional details regarding place, time, age of victim, whether the two incidents are related and any other relevant information that the Roosevelt Island community should be aware of regarding the incidents.
Also, today's Public Safety report indicated that incidents are for 6/20 - 21. I think that is incorrect and the incidents should be for 6/21 -22. Am I correct?
According to the Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC):
PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that a meeting of the Operations Advisory Committee of the RIOC Board of Directors will be held on Monday, June 25, 2012 at 5:30 p.m. at the RIOC administrative office, 591 Main Street, Roosevelt Island, New York.
Agenda:
1. Presentation of Traditional Korean Pavilion at Southpoint Park
2. Presentation of Southpoint Park Seawall Reconstruction Project
3. Presentation of Smart Parking Solutions Project
4. Discussion of Motorgate LED Lighting Project
5. Discussion of Pavement Reconstruction Project
6. Discussion of Renwick Ruin Southern Wall Stabilization Project
7. Update on Outdoor Fitness Equipment Project
8. Update on Volleyball Area Near Riverwalk
9. Update on Mobile Food Trucks
10. Update on Concession on the Pier
11. Update on Rodent Infestation at the Manhattan Tram Station
12. Any Other Committee Business that May be Brought Before the Committee
Are you interested in improving your public speaking skills, projecting greater self-confidence and meeting some new friends? If your answer is yes, then you might be interested in joining the Roosevelt Island Toastmasters. The Toastmasters meet every second and fourth Monday evening of the month. Tomorrow, June 25, is the Roosevelt Island Toastmasters Annual Dinner. Guests are welcome to the dinner as well as regular meetings.
Toastmasters International is a world leader in communication and leadership development. Our membership is 270,000 strong. These members improve their speaking and leadership skills by attending one of the 13,000 clubs that make up our global network of meeting locations.
Membership in Toastmasters is one of the greatest investments you can make in yourself. At $36 every six months, it is also one of the most cost-effective skill-building tools available anywhere.
How Does It Work?
A Toastmasters meeting is a learn-by-doing workshop in which participants hone their speaking and leadership skills in a no-pressure atmosphere.
There is no instructor in a Toastmasters meeting. Instead, members evaluate one another’s presentations. This feedback process is a key part of the program’s success.
Meeting participants also give impromptu talks on assigned topics, conduct meetings and develop skills related to timekeeping, grammar and parliamentary procedure.
Members learn communication skills by working in the Competent Communication manual, a series of 10 self-paced speaking assignments designed to instill a basic foundation in public speaking.
The Roosevelt Island Toastmasters meets twice a month on Mondays at 7.30pm at Rivercross Community Room at 531 Main Street. Doris Chernik is President of the Club. She can he reached at dchernik@nyct.net or (212) 751-9577.
Next meeting is our annual dinner on June 25th at 6.30pm at Land of Plenty, 204E, 58th Street, New York, NY 10022. It's a 35$ Prix Fix Menu. Islanders are welcome to meet members at this event or our regular events.
Roosevelt Island is a mixed income, racially diverse waterfront community situated in the East River of New York City between Manhattan and Queens and is jurisdictionally part of Manhattan. The Roosevelt Island Tramway, which connects Roosevelt Island to the rest of Manhattan, has become the iconic symbol of Roosevelt Island to its residents.
The Purpose of this Blog is to provide accurate and timely information about Roosevelt Island as well as a forum for residents to express opinions and engage in a dialogue to improve our community.
