Report From RIOC President Charlene Indelicato - Roosevelt Island Halloween Events, 2014 Public Purpose Funds, Good Plaza Shepherd Seating And Greenery Coming, Southtown Construction, Motorgate Abandoned Cars & Sportspark Classes
Image of RIOC President Charlene Indelicato From RIOC
Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) President Charlene Indelicato sends the following report to the community.
The community is gearing up for a spooky holiday celebration with its annual Halloween Parade and PSD’s Halloween Safety Event. Plans are moving forward to give a new life to the Good Shepherd Plaza. At Southtown, planned work will be going ahead in preparation for the new building 7. New classes are opening up at Sportspark and applications for Public Purpose Funds will soon be available online– we hope you can take advantage of the great resources Roosevelt Island has to offer.
Halloween Parade
Ghosts, witches, pumpkins and more will be marching on Main Street! The Roosevelt Island Halloween Parade & Extravaganza is taking place today, October 26 at 12 PM. Urban American is sponsoring the Island tradition with support from RIOC and the R.I. Youth Center. The march begins at noon near Blackwell House at 500 Main St. – everyone is invited to come out in costume and march with their neighbors, friends and family. Once the parade march is over, follow the crowd to Capobianco Field for a free community celebration offering games, rides, treats and giveaways. In the event of inclement weather, the celebration will take place at P.S./I.S. 217 (645 Main St.).
PSD: Halloween Safety Event
Public Safety will be partnering with Safe Kids NYC to present their annual Halloween Safety Day at the Roosevelt Island Public Library (524 Main St.). Kids can come to the Library at 4:30 PM on October 31 to learn about how to have a safe and fun holiday. PSD’s Youth Officer Michelle Williams will be present to provide additional safety tips and goodie bags for the children. The Roosevelt Island Public Safety department reminds you to keep safety in mind while you celebrate – and to stop by the Public Safety office for some treats on Halloween!
Public Purpose Grants
The Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation will soon be issuing application materials for the 2014-2015 Public Purpose Funds. Public Purpose Funds are allocated to benefit Roosevelt Island residents, enhancing their quality of life through education, artistic and cultural enrichment, improved health or a better environment. Roosevelt Island not-for-profit groups who are looking for additional funding are encouraged to apply. For more information, visit the RIOC website beginning the first week of November at rioc.ny.gov/grants.htm .
Good Shepherd Plaza
Plans are in motion to revitalize the open space at the Good Shepherd Plaza – expect to see upgrades to the Plaza’s seating options and greenery in the upcoming months. We would like to extend our thanks to the community committee members who have worked together with RIOC on the design and provided valuable input on the needs of the residents.
Southtown Construction
Hudson/Related will soon be starting the municipal infrastructure work that is scheduled to be completed prior to the start of construction of Southtown’s Building 7. It involves laying new sewer pipe on the site and decommissioning a small portion of the existing pipe as contemplated in the original plan for the Southtown development. The team has been working closely with the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and RIOC to finalize and execute this plan which is expected to commence October 23 and to be completed by the end of November. As the team will be working with the septic system, workers will be wearing protective gear – this should not be a cause for alarm as it is just a precautionary measure against contact with septic materials.
Motorgate Garage
In order to address the issue of abandoned cars in the Motorgate Garage, Central Parking has begun issuing letters to owners notifying them to remove their vehicles from the facilty. Cars that remain unclaimed after 30 days of receipt of the letter will be subject to towing and disposal. When a transient car has been left in the garage for 30 days, or a car with a monthly permit is left for longer than 60 days without paying for a space and the owner does not respond to requests to move the vehicle, it is classified as abandoned. Though every effort is made to contact the owner, this becomes virtually impossible if the license plates and/or vehicle identification number are removed. If you believe your car may be considered abandoned, please contact Central Parking at 212-832-4585.
Sportspark
New classes are coming to Sportspark! Zumba classes began October 14 and are now meeting every Monday at 6:30 PM, Thursday at 8:30 PM, and Saturday at 10:00 AM. Classes are one hour long and the class fee is only $5. Also, the wait for parent-and-child swim classes is over: registration for Mommy & Me classes is now open online at rioc.ny.gov! With each class, you’ll watch your child’s confidence and swimming skills grow as they have fun in the water.
Sportspark’s pool, along with the rest of the facility, is currently heated by the Steam Plant. We have received several inquiries from the community regarding the shutdown of Sportspark when the Plant is decommissioned; however, we are pleased to note that a long closure is not anticipated at that time. When the Steam Plant closes, RIOC will be prepared to implement a temporary boiler system that will already be in place to heat the facility and pool until the permanent heating system is installed. Closure during the installation of the temporary system is not expected to exceed one week; closure for installation of the permanent system should not exceed two weeks. The exact date of the Steam Plant’s shutdown is not known, but we will work hard to ensure that the closure of Sportspark is as short as possible.
26 comments :
I saw mostly the new type of people who have moved on the island. The 100k types. Today at the parade. Sad
Indelicato should disclose if she was ever instrumental in bringing low cost, fully integrated, housing to Westchester County.
Bill: Do you know that Westchester County is still being sued by the Federal Gov for not implementing measures to integrate housing - by building projects in the wealthier areas?
I think we should be told what is Indelicato's role in either fighting or complying with the Federal lawsuits.
Is Indelicato pro fully integrating Westchester Cty housing or against it? That means, is she in favor of fully complying with the Federal law suit and building projects in the wealthier areas of Westchester Cty.
If Indelicato is truly a fighter for integrating housing instead of always shunting the projects into the "poorer" parts of town, and also extending more low cost housing to the less advantaged members of the community, then she should cancel/amend the contract signed with H-R on buildings 7-8-9 and insist that units in those buildings are leased at low cost to members of the general public.
This is what H-R must "give back" to the community in return for the handsome profits they are realizing on the rest of the ST development.
Otherwise, it appears that the State of NY is simply forking over huge profits to H-R, with nothing, no benefit, no thought given to the 99% who are suffering today under sky-rocketing rents as well as a 1% apartment vacancy rate in NYC.
Not taking the less advantaged members of the community into account now, will not play well when the Governor is up for re-election later.
So in one post you say the wealthy are a plague, and in another you want "integration". In your crazy world, the employed are worst off!
Ideally, there should be no wealthy enclaves. That doesn't mean the wealthy disappear - it's just that their exclusive enclaves disappear. Then we would have truly integrated housing, meaning integrated in all senses, income, race, socially, etc.
As far as the wealthy representing a plague: Only if they drive up the price of housing, and in so doing drive out the 99%, are they like a plague. If they do not arrive like a plague of locusts, eliminating affordable housing by not only driving up rents but also drying up the supply of units, then there is no problem with welcoming them.
There is obviously a serious shortage of housing in NYC. The need is not being met appropriately, by increasing the supply of new, low cost housing. That is deliberately the result of BB's policies. Instead, BB caters to his friends the developers that want to maximize profits by only building luxury housing so as to make the most money from a given piece of property. The market in this way doesn't work to the peoples' advantage. Certainly, BB did not stand up for or care about the needs of the 99% in catering to the developers. And in not performing thousands of needed repairs at the existing projects, he even went so far as to actively persecute the poor, a policy which also was spelled out in his cruel homeless policy. We'll leave off the stop-and-frisk policy, which was of course eventually ruled unconstitutional.
Hence, you have the revulsion of many to the "plague" of the overseas wealthy that has descended upon the City, gobbling up apartments at prices the 99% could only dream of affording.
And many times, these overseas wealthy don't even live in the units - they are for investment purposes only.
Notice the irony: The overseas wealthy may have originally made their money by sweating underpaid workers, toiling away at jobs that were outsourced from the US, where they were once good-paying jobs.
These same heartless exploiters then take the profits of this exploitation back to the US and buy fancy upscale apartment in buildings that seem to have cachet or spell "success". The money of the exploited workers is recycled into the pockets of the brethren of the exploiters, the real estate developers! This is the same money that should have been paid out in decent wages to Americans had the American business owners, the brethren of the overseas exploiters and the real estate developers, kept those jobs in the US!
Meanwhile, the folks in the US, who were originally screwed out of the good-paying jobs because the business owner wished to exploit cheap labor overseas, are again screwed by the overseas wealthy, who made their money in concert with the US business owner that outsourced the jobs, when they find that there are (1) scarce good-paying jobs (2) even if they find a good-paying job, there is a scarcity of apts (3) even if they can find an apt, there are no reasonably priced apt that the average American could afford.
Thus, in this way, Americans are again screwed by this devil's concerto of wealthy people - here and overseas - who feel that the 99% - here and overseas - just don't count, and can go live in the gutter as far as they are concerned.
The name of the game is: Exploit labor, play the real estate investment game using the accumulated sweat of exploited workers in Asian countries, and at the same time screw the American worker coming and going.
Not a very nice scenario, but we shall soon see at the polls next month, if the citizenry has finally had enough of this infernal run-around.
Let's hope the same revulsion with the status quo takes place throughout Asia, S. Asia, and Latin America, too. Only if wages rise everywhere, will good paying jobs return to the US.
The US needs a complete overhaul of the tax code, which would also work to level income inequality. Current excessive compensation packages must be taxed at a 90% rate. Even at this rate, executives would still receive quite a bit of money.
Kitty lets be honest . Its all about the money. People like us don't have a chance to save this island from being taken over by people like old rossie it began with eastwood and it will not stop until all the low and middle income people's are gone I saw the new people today at the parade young hipsters with money.this is the new face of the island.even the school is being taken over by people who don't even live on the island but they have money
The Europeans moving onto the island are very rude.they do not know how to get on a line .a few times today while i was on line with my kids this was at the parade and i am on line for popcorn or a ride they come right in front of me I told them that there is a line they said something that was not English and got mad.well too bad I told them to get in the back of the line. Boy do i miss the good old days of this island
Well said. Kitty why don't you run for riocofficer i can you a lot of support from eastwood of what ever oldtimers are left and 2 4river road you will be the 99 per cent people canadate
I so agree!! Ms. Indelicato has not appeared once in front of the entire RI community once she took over as RIOC head. She may be all pro- development and not about preserving any affordable housing. H-R has done enough damage to the Island already and no one seems to want to stop them. RI doesn't need and cannot handle three more large Residential buildings geared toward high rents!! This island is too overcrowded now!!
Bill, very sad. We all used to fight together for the whole of the Island when it was just the WIRE buildings. Now, it is all about money and greed.
Hahaha.. thank you Bill! One rather powerless official alone wouldn't make a difference, though. We may see a change with the next City Council though, since a lot of the compromised "pols" lost the primary, and the reform-minded winners should win in 10 days, on the 5th of November.
What would it take to bring change to RI? First, Ethics would have to take front and center in Albany. Campaign finance would need to be reformed. No more buying of politicians by the r/e and finance bigs.
The political establishment, once freed from the claws of the r/e and finance donors, could then perhaps start to finally address the needs of their constituents, most of whom fall into the category of - you guessed it, the 99%!
They would have to look around and realize it's a new day. They no longer would have to cater to the elite, the 1%, the "ruling class". They would finally know what it is to deal with the parasitic donors from a position of power once they're freed from the present campaign system.
And for the first time, they could dictate to the r/e interests, instead of the other way around.
The politicians have to realize that there is a trademark or essence about NYC that can't be duplicated elsewhere. That is the high card they hold in any negotiations with developers.
Thus, when the developers or financiers grouse about paying higher taxes, or not getting the maximum return on investment if they are forced to build low cost as opposed to luxury housing, the State should turn around and say: Oh yeah? So what other city has the pull of NY? You really think folks are going to want to pull up stakes and immigrate to NYC from all over the world to have a chance to experience the stimulation and excitement of - Hartford?
NYC by virtue of being NYC is unique. The Governor and Mayor must assert that if the rich do not want to play according to the new more 99%-friendly rules, well, there's always - Wilmington?
The hundreds of Dullsvilles USA that the country contains, will never pull newcomers the way NYC pulls them. The same holds true for many areas globally.
The frenzied, albeit on occasion chaotic, business environment, began since the early days with the links of NYC to commerce and the maritime industry. The "excitement" flowed from the money and people sloshing around, and the potential deals.
All the seaports in the US have some of that quality, but only NYC has not only the maritime tradition but also a key spot at the foot of the Hudson, facing Europe and the world, turning the City into an immense trading entrepot from the 19th C on.
A similar canalization scheme was contemplated for Washington - linking Washington to the Ohio/Great Lakes - but it was never carried out. Had that canal scheme been implemented, probably the Virginia/Washington area would have been not only the Nation's Capitol, but also the center of the Nation's Capital.
Many other factors led to NYC's greatness since then, and its position as a nexus or center of a number of key industries was never really challenged, even as the maritime industry moved to Port Newark, and manufacturing moved off shore largely.
That is the card that NY has always played, the trump card that Deblasio can play in dealing with the developers: If they don't want to play ball with him the way he wants to play ball, well, they can always pull up stakes and build in - Evansville?
So, I'm sure a forceful personality can simply put it to them: It's my way, or the highway. You've had your hey-day under BB. Now you will in fact cater to the 99%. If you don't like it, you can always buy land and build in - Texarkana?
Agreed. The Wire or blog should do some investigative reporting on Indlicato's past in Westchester.
Is she really on the side of the 99% or is she on the side of the rich developers?
If she really cares about low- and middle-income residents, she should put her foot down and force H-R to build low cost housing at 7-8-9. She could even invoke the GDP if she needs "justification" although I don't even think that would be necessary.
Too much affordable housing has disappeared under BB. Upzoning has been a disaster for ordinary New Yorkers. In the next 10-20 years, we'll find out the extent of what BB did to screw New Yorkers in the 12 years he held office. And we may find out how he managed to increase his net worth by a few billion dollars.
New Yorkers have had enough. We are at the center of the wave of revulsion convulsing the nation, revulsion at the glaring income inequality, and the systematic screwing of working people for many years, starting long before Obama got into office.
Most of the new jobs being created are low-income jobs. In NYC a person cannot survive on a low-income job. On top of that, most of these jobs don't even include benefits, much less health insurance. We all remember how BB vetoed sick days! Well, now, his moneyed friends in Congress just shut down the Fed gov so as to block ACA - Obamacare! That's how much the rich hate the poor in this country. They don't even want the poor to take a day off to go see a doctor if get sick!
This latest stunt by the 1%'s minions in Congress is truly feeding into the revulsion at what has happened to the working people of the US since approximately the time of NAFTA. That era represented the beginning of the end, a scheme that benefited only the 1% and eroded the strength of the US, resulting in what you see today: People crowded like sardines into expensive shares, lack of good-paying jobs, no future, living from paycheck to paycheck, and then Congress wants to slash all sorts of programs on top of the current hardships.
That is why, to start, we need the return of affordable if not low cost housing. Indelicato could make a difference if she leaned on H-R about 7-8-9.
But, first, we should find out a little bit more about Indelicato: What exactly was her role in Westchester? Was she overly chummy with developers? Or did she work to implement the Federal plan to integrate housing in Westchester by building low-cost apartments in the affluent areas?
Kitty, so so agreed with everything you wrote!!! You need to run for office!! I know it takes more than one person..
I have been here since 7/82 and to watch this happen to my home of 31 years is very very hard. I am also a New York City native.
I have been moving since I was 8 years old. First, two Bronx nabes got very unsafe, Highbridge and then the Grand Concourse.
Then we moved to Yorkville and our small building got sold and we happened on R.I. I saw the Tramway being built in 1975 when I was in HS and went to Julia Richman HS. I lived on E. 92 street then.
We were so happy the day we moved into WV on 7/26/82.
You are awesome!!
Thank you.
Kitty please read the daily news today sunday page 28 the real reason why the rent is too high.
The district attorney charged that the legislature In new York state is plagued by systemic corruption seeing whats been happening on this island with affordable housing.we all ways knew that
Seems like a tough jump - from congress shutdown, to obamacare, to outsourcing, to RI affordable housing... but just for giggles: who's going to pay for all of this cheap-to-the-masses housing that you're looking for?
You and people making the money youare you all can well afford to
Bill, you don't want to work so you don't lose section 8, Frank has repeatedly noted your income as well above the poverty line, and you complain that the ML deal is ripping off taxpayers. Remarkable hypocrisy.
I never sais m.l is ripping off tax payers I said the sec 8 in eastwood is ripping off tax payers see tax payers are paying for rents going for 3000 4000 in eastwood. Dont you agree
Also I dont case what frank says there is just no way i can pay 3400 per month with my income so I must stay in sec 8 me and everty one in eastwood who were forced into this mess. We been over this a million times if you are so upset about this go to rioc and tell them why the hell did they appove this deal now stop crying
Easy big boy - you are throwing stones at my income. But, you're right, sorry, I was so thrown by your bantering about Europeans, young working professionals and their children, and statewide systematic corruption, I assumed you were on the bandwagon regarding ML. I'm not bothered by the deal - actually it sounds like people on the island stand to make a lot of money. not sure why that would bother other residents... but I don't claim to know the history. And I agree with Kitty - this will all ultimately benefit those that can afford it. This deal fits well with the direction the island is going: Cornell, the other "market-rate" rentals, NEW market-rate rentals, Market-rate buying options... The island will be a high end place in no time! and I think it's great. Dump loads of cash on the island, with a few slippery officials, and you have a beautiful, expensive, exclusive place!
See this what poor slaps like me are up against.people who feel like you. People who dont care about people with less you say this island will become a expensive place to live and you think that's great
Well when all us poor sec 8 low income people are gone who is going to work the island events like Saturday's Halloweenevent and to day So you and all your hipsters freinds can have a enjoyable day we wont be here .you and the new types with money would have pushed us all out
I do! There are so many amazing parts of the city that are NOT in notable locations. Areas of the upper west, upper east, brooklyn, downtown... made beautiful by a little organization and a lot of investment. RI has the backdrop, the format, the access AND separation, the fields, the parks, PSD, the local public school has a decent ranking... throw in some investors and this place could be amazing. I'd probably get priced out too, but if i wanted to stay on a more expensive island I'd just have to work harder and if I'm lucky find a way to invest. Such is life. It would be selfish of me to stand in the way of any kind of improvement just because "I like where I am and don't want to pay more to stay here or be forced to move".
I'm sure we'll get by.
Cuomo is going to have to become more 99%-friendly if he wants to win re-election. A 50-point lead in the polls such as Deblasio holds, doesn't lie. This is the handwriting on the wall Cuomo must heed: Low and middle-income people in NYC - the 5 most populous counties in NYS - have had enough! It's time to cut the 99% into the equation!
I am sure you will as you and the others will bring in the household help to work the event.I hope you will be paying overtime
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