According to the Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC):
Please be advised that the MTA has issued a weekend service advisory for the F train, which may affect travel plans. The Tram will run on a rush hour schedule from 7:00 AM until 10:00 PM to accommodate any increase in traffic. Please plan your travel accordingly and visit mta.info/weekender or call 511 for more information.
For electronic updates on F Train service, sign up for MTA Alerts at mymtaalerts.com.
The Roosevelt Island Jewish Congregation Board of Trustees & Rabbi Leana Moritt are delighted to invite you to join us 2 PM Sunday, August 30 as we REDEDICATE OUR SANCTUARY at the Cultural Center in time for the High Holy Days 5776.
The Torah will be ceremonially paraded in and installed
We will all help move furniture and arrange the aesthetics of our rededicated space.
If you have already joined as a member, thank you.
If you have not joined, please consider membership.
The entrances to Cultural Center can be accessed thru the Breezeway next to 540 Main, at the staircase behind the old Hardware Store @548 Main Street, or through the elevator entrance behind the Public Safety Office.
The RIJC is delighted to announce its return to the Cultural Center after a 3-year absence due to flooding & SuperStorm Sandy. After conducting Shabbat services, celebrating holidays & festivals, running its Hebrew School & supporting our members & friends in times of need in many locations around RI, we are thrilled to come back "home".
We are rejoining our original neighbors, the Main Street Theatre & Dance Alliance, as well as joining many new ones in the re-built & renovated Cultural Center space. This is an exciting time for us, & we welcome everyone to come by, meet our Rabbi, Leana Moritt, & see us Sunday afternoon. And we look forward to seeing you in September too, as we celebrate the New Year.
Please visit our website, rijc.org for the full schedule of activities.
under the Motorgate Ramp is open early morning to mid afternoon on Saturdays in good weather and bad
featuring fresh fruits and vegetables including local and homegrown tomatoes,
apples,
peaches,
seedless watermelon,
sweet corn
and more.
EAT FRESH, EAT LOCAL, EAT HEALTHY VISIT THE ROOSEVELT ISLAND FARMERS MARKET EVERY SATURDAY. EARLY MORNING UNTIL MID AFTERNOON UNDER THE MOTORGATE RAMP. LOOK FOR HOMEGROWN FRUITS AND VEGETABLES.
Received the following notes of appreciation today for Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) Red Bus Drivers
and Public Safety Department from two Roosevelt Island residents.
Jenny Carr reports:
We want to pay a huge compliment to Greg the RIOC bus driver who took me (with MS and difficulty climbing stairs) and my 2 companions on the shuttle from the RI tram station over to Manhattan. He was kind and polite. He was helpful to several other people riding his bus that day including a very grumpy mommy with 2 young children. More than full marks Greg - you are a STAR!!
Michelle Ferritor:
Just wanted to give a shout out to the Red Bus Drivers & the PSD on the Island. They are good, honest, hard-working folks. Recently I left my bag on the bus with an $1800 laptop, charger, and other personal effects. I was emailed within a few hours & all was returned to me in tact. Thanks go out to the driver who turned it in & also the PSD officers who were careful with my belongings & logged every item. So many times these folks get slammed by criticism....not the case for me this week! Kudos!
Also, RIOC reports:
Temporary Shuttle Service Ending: Roosevelt Island – Manhattan
Shuttle bus service ending. Last Manhattan- bound bus at 5:30 PM, last Roosevelt Island- bound bus at 6:30 PM.
Con Edison has temporarily suspended the work that crews had started earlier this month on Main Street, Roosevelt Island. After the initial excavation revealed some unanticipated conditions, Con Edison will revise its work plan and schedule. We will conduct some minor excavation work on Main St on Thursday night August 27th to allow crews to perform additional inspections on Friday night, August 28th. Work will be suspended thereafter until the revised work plan and new schedule are developed.
We will continue to provide you with updates as this work continues, and once the daytime gas main work commences in the coming weeks. Schedule is subject to change. There will be no service disruptions to customers associated with this work. We apologize for any inconvenience. For more information, contact Manhattan Public Affairs at ManhattanPA@conEd.com.
I asked a Con Edison spokesperson:
What was the unanticipated conditions that Con Ed found requiring temporary suspension of the work?
The Con Edison spokesperson replied:
Some of the pipe configuration was different than what we expected.
... An advisory will be issued once Con Edison issues a new work schedule. No Parking regulations along the work area will remain in effect until Saturday, August 29, 2015....
Today, Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney (NY-12) was joined by Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul, Special Advisor to the Governor Christine Quinn, and several local leaders and elected officials to celebrate the 44th Annual Women’s Equality Day and call for the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment.
Maloney, the House sponsor of the ERA, announced her intention to send a letter to the House Judiciary Committee Chairman and the Ranking Member urging them to schedule a hearing on the ERA.
Maloney also released a new Joint Economic Committee Democratic staff report outlining the inequality women still face in today’s economy.
“In 1920 the 19th Amendment changed women’s lives in the United States forever,” said Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney. “After years of silence and second class citizenship, women were finally granted a voice and the essential right to vote. It’s been almost a century since then, and the struggles women still face make it clear that we are long past due for another life changing amendment: the Equal Rights Amendment. As this new JEC staff report clearly shows, women are still fighting for equal pay for equal work, paid family leave, equal protection in cases of child custody, and more. We need to end discrimination on the basis of gender and include at long last the word ‘women’ in the constitution. This Women’s Equality Day let us celebrate the great battles women have won, and gear up for the fight ahead.”...
State Senator Seawright added:
While today is about celebrating American women gaining the right to vote, it is also about bringing attention to the fact that nearly a century after we gained that right, there is still work that needs to be done,..
Congresswoman Maloney has been reminding America of this very real fact by introducing the Equal Rights Amendment in Congress year after year. And though it is shocking that women still do not have this protection, even more alarming is that today – in 2015 – the Equal Rights Amendment still does not have the support it needs. I thank Congresswoman Maloney for her tireless fight for women’s equality and hope that we can all come together in the near future to celebrate the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment.
Click here for the full press release and report on inequality facing woman in today's economy.
On Woman's Equality Day, Ms Maloney called for gender equity in Times Square. The Observer reported today:
Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, a member of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s task force to combat toplessness in Times Square, said that whatever rules the panel comes up with should apply equally to the body-painted female “desnudas” whose appearance last week provoked a furor and to the Naked Cowboy who has performed nearly nude in the area for years....
UPDATE 8:20 PM - Urban Omnibus has a very interesting article on pneumatic garbage removal tubes used on Roosevelt Island, a plan for their use at the Hudson Yards development and a proposal for their use affixed to the underside of the High Line:
... The elegance of Juliette Spertus and Benjamin Miller‘s proposal for the integration of pneumatic tubes into existing infrastructure — in this case, the High Line — comes in part from how minimally invasive its implementation would be. The proposed system, which would mark a third foray into pneumatic waste systems in the city after Roosevelt Island’s and Hudson Yard’s, also proves its worth by facilitating myriad goals articulated in the de Blasio administration’s OneNYC plan. Here, the two designers, researchers, and waste management experts articulate how a network that serves buildings across multiple developments could expand the utility of infrastructural repurposing and demonstrate the feasibility and attendant achievements of rethinking our waste management practices....
I'll be taking a flight back home to Roosevelt Island, NYC tomorrow and will look out the airplane window, as I always do, to get a view of the NYC skyline.
Here's a great photo taken from an American Airlines flight window high over NYC of Roosevelt Island and surrounding East River waterfront.
The $300 Thousand grant caused some Queens residents to complain about funds from the Queens Borough President's office being spent on a NY State Manhattan Park and the lack of funds spent on Queens parks.
I asked FDR Four Freedoms Park Conservancy President Sally Minard:
"improve lighting along the shorefront facing Queens in Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park on Roosevelt Island."
Some Queens residents are very upset that the FDR Park in Manhattan (Roosevelt Island) is receiving funds from the Queens Borough President when there are many Queens parks in dire need for improvement.
Do you think it appropriate for a NY State park located in the Manhattan jurisdiction on Roosevelt Island to receive funds from the Queens Borough President discretionary capital budget earmarked for Queens parks?
Will FDR Park return the money to the Queens Borough President's Office for use in Queens parks?...
Ms. Minard replied:
We are delighted Queens Borough President Melinda Katz chose to appropriate $32,000,000 to parks in her 2016 capital budget. This is an enlightened investment in infrastructure that directly enhances quality of life for Queen’s residents and those who visit the borough.
Less than 1% of the Borough President’s appropriation is designated for FDR Four Freedoms Park. The funds, combined with funding from Manhattan, New York State and private sources will support installation of new lighting to illuminate the exterior of the memorial park. This lighting installation will make the remarkable Louis Kahn design, a sculpture in the New York landscape, visible from the Queens and Manhattan shorelines after dark. The beauty of the illuminated Kahn design will be a new experience that will be shared equally by residents of Queens and Manhattan.
Every month, thousands of Queens residents already share the free educational and public programming, commemorative events, musical performances, and health and fitness sessions offered to visitors at FDR Four Freedoms Park. They come to enjoy the Park’s lush lawn, tree shaded allees and peaceful waterfront promenades with spectacular Queens and Manhattan skyline views.
We are a new, New York City cultural institution that exists for the pleasure of visitors from across the city, the country and around the world. We appreciate Borough President Katz’s recognition of the economic value to the city of this new destination and her willingness to enhance the Park’s aesthetic value to her constituents.
UPDATE 8/25 - Queens Crapper reacts to statement from Ms. Minard:
... Well I didn't expect this lady to look a gift horse in the mouth, but by her logic, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer should be allocating funding toward Gantry Park in LIC because Manhattanites can see it and on occasion take the ferry over to use it. (Somehow I don't see that happening.)
How about we just keep it simple and require that the BPs spend their pots of money in the boroughs they represent? Is that really too much to ask? Or is helping developers sell real estate now the primary function of elected officials?
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.
