Roosevelt Island Moms On The Move Walking And Exercise Group Meeting 9 AM Thursday September 18 At Tram Kiosk
The Roosevelt Island Moms on the Move walking
Image Of Roosevelt Island Moms On The Move At FDR Four Freedoms Park
and exercise group
Image Of RI Moms On The Move Exercise Group
meets this Thursday. According to Roosevelt Island Parents' Network Coordinator Eva Bosbach:
Our next free Roosevelt Island Moms on the Move (RI MoM) walk and exercise will take place this Thursday, September 18, starting at 9 AM at the Tram kiosk.
We will walk to the south of the island on the Manhattan side and back, and end with some exercise by our fitness coach Paulina Mansz on the grassy area above the Meditation steps, in front of Dr. Grimm's office.
Looking forward to seeing you and your little ones there! :)
Please send me a short e-mail if you are interested in joining us.
26 comments :
The closure of the West Channel will not prevent anything whatsoever. It's just show and we got the short stick.
"... and request permission to allow the bridge to remain open."
Not sure if you noticed but we are talking about scenarios where an emergency happens while the bridge is drawn. The bridge is the only way to get on/off this island. It should never be closed unless it is replaced by a bridge that can open and close in a minute or two.
You need new pictures.
That's 9 minutes and 42 seconds PLUS the 8-12 minutes on top. We are approaching 20 minutes... It doubles the response time. I agree it may not be a problem for most emergencies but what is the trade-off here? What are the reasons that closing down the West Channel will increase safety for the General Assembly?
There is another option to deal with this logistical problem. Stay with me now, this might be a radical idea... DON'T LIVE ON AN ISLAND IN THE MIDDLE OF THE EAST RIVER. Or, accept a few minutes of delay...
if there is a blast, the further away from the UN it occurs, the "better," i.e. the less likely the UN will be damaged. This is probably why the area of the E. River by the UN is kept clear as much as possible (boats & cars kept away).
Obviously, in absolute terms, nobody wants a blast/damage/injuries/death - but if one were to occur, the thinking is to keep it away from the UN, which is the idea behind shooing marine traffic toward the W. shore of Brooklyn/Queens.
Dude, I usually agree with many things you say but your thinking is a bit out there now. We are talking about medical emergencies for starters. We talk about the actual need to close down the entire West Channel.
And if somebody wants to damage they will find a way to do so. A closed-off West Channel will not prevent anything whatsoever.
The idea is keeping craft as far as possible away from the UN increases the safety of those attending the General Assembly. In case of a blast, the attendees may escape harm. The UN has to be as secure as possible - and keeping the river as free of traffic as possible, or if that is not totally possible, at least keeping boat traffic away from the W. shore of Manhattan, makes the most sense.
Watching open bridge 15-20min as pleasure sailboat moseys on by: we're late for school, work, plane, whatever. And their only inconvenience, as they illustrate the definition of "saunter", was to use the East Channel rather than the West Channel.
However, security perimeters make sense: farther away reduces risk, doesn't necessarily prevent things, but just reduces risk ... which is what security is mostly about.
But that's not the case even when the UN is not in session. As far as we know, bridge closings to allow boats to pass (which is rare) do not take into account possible emergencies that may just occur. It's always been this way as far as we know: There is no system whereby an emergency vehicle may send word to the bridge/PSD to keep the bridge open, although they could do so, I suppose. Emergency vehicles simply drive to the bridge expecting the bridge to be be open.
Not all bridge closings are routinely announced in advance. Although bridge closings are rare and for purposes of testing/maintenance are announced in advance, but closings aren't always "scheduled" so they can't always be announced in advance. So there is always the chance that an emergency vehicle could be stuck waiting for the bridge to open - it's just that when the UN is in session, there is more of a chance.
YetAnotherRIer, the closures are described in regulation (CFRs), however it might be possible to amend the regulation. It seems that the Coast Guard, in their Notice Of Proposed Rulemaking, did not take into account emergency services for Roosevelt Island. When the East Channel is open, it is there only for vessels that can navigate its shallower waters. (They do have cut-outs for NYC DEP boats and passenger ferries, which require escorts.) My suggestion is: the East Channel is closed to non-emergency traffic, which largely applies to Luxury Cruises On Joe Bigshot's Sailboat. I'll inquire about it.
Here is the notice in the Federal Register: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2013-08-30/html/2013-21171.htm
Now, here is an idea: why isn't the entire East River closed off and everybody has to go down the Hudson instead?
YetAnotherRIer: In fact, they can close the whole East River, but they don't. Yesterday, I spoke to Lt. Betts at the Coast Guard command center in Staten Island, who was sympathetic to my concerns: essentially, we shouldn't be prioritizing tall sailboats over emergency services. After talking to the Coast Guard, I discovered that they really don't know about Roosevelt Island, the communication between waterway events and PSD is non-existent, and they didn't have PSD's number (nor were they interested in PSD contact info).
Overall, the problem suffers from several layers of government (executive branch disconnect from legislative branch; a national regulation with local quirks; the City/ State/ Federal/ OEM/ RIOC/ police service from 114th but 19th's area ... and so on).
In other words, at best, if there were some issue at the bridge, this would be communicated to the Coast Guard, they would call either the 19th or the 114th, who would then call PSD. Sounds like a long and inefficient process to get us notified.
I will follow up later today.
I'm following up with the legislative branch. Will report back,.
it sounds like nobody is on the same page. Who tells the guys in the bridge to raise the bridge? If there is communication between the guys in charge of the bridge (presumably DOT employees) and someone who is out on the river directing traffic (either the Coast Guard or the police) then why can't there be communication between PSD & whoever is alerting the bridge guys to oncoming traffic (i.e. Coast Guard/police)?
And knowing the crazy terrorists, that blast can occur on the East Channel as well...right where our power plant is, and knock out power for the entire city!
The time needed for some emergencies is shorter than 12 minutes. Fires require almost immediate response, and our nearest firehouse in Long Island City takes less than 8 minutes.
Especially the pleasure boats which seem to constitute most of the river traffic in nice weather (when the general assembly meetings are held).
Worse, not one RIOC president, nor RIRA agenda, has ever made noise about this to the various agencies.
Two years ago I was stuck on the bridge coming to the island from shopping in Queens. There was an ambulance ahead of me with sirens blaring, horn honking and the idiots at DOT ignored it, while finally a tall mast sail boat came down the river. It was so slow...may not have had a motor, and was longer than 12 minutes.
Except for the fact that Ravenwood does not support the entire city. At peak capacity it can supply 20% of NYC's demand.
This is terrible. Maybe the best thing would be to close the E. River to all but essential/emergency/City/State boat traffic while the UNGA is in session.
It would still be ultra-bad if anything were to happen to Ravenswood - and maybe all power would be knocked out for a time, who knows?
I think the best thing would be for all E. River traffic to be banned, except for emergency/City/State/Coast Guard craft. This way, these boats - since there is no question they are the "good guys" - can travel up the W. Channel of the E. River, or the E. Channel if they wish - with minimal disruption to the RI Bridge. It is usually only the tall-masted sailboats that require the RI Bridge to be raised. If you eliminate all civilian boats from the E. River for the duration of the UNGA, you then will have no tall-masted sailboats. Thus, no problem with the bridge needing to be raised repeatedly.
If PSD was it's own real police department. Then all of this middle man nonsense would not exist.
Simple solutions. Yet... Nobody wants to play ball.
Umm because they come here for an easy position. Make no noise, make no changes, collect a small pension and leave. That's it!
Nobody cares! Look at PSD and it's inadequate equipment! Prime example.
What happens when the boats are south of the FDR granite mausoleum? Isn't that when they are the closest to the UN ? The UN grounds are from 42nd to 48th sts. and RI ends at 47th. Can someone explain to me why it makes sense to protect the east side from 47th to 86th St and leave the bulk of UN property below 47th st. exposed ? (if this entire august deliberative body disappeared, that would certainly be no tragedy either - but I guess that's for another day!)
Post a Comment