Ho, Ho, Ho - Good News, Roosevelt Island F Train Service To And From Manhattan This Christmas Weekend

Better late than never.

According to the MTA Weekender, there will be Roosevelt Island F train service

to and from Manhattan this Christmas weekend.

That's four weekends in a row without Roosevelt Island F Train service interruptions.

Roosevelt Island weekend F Train service schedule is usually published on Fridays. Sorry for the delay.

Merry Christmas And Feliz Navidad From Roosevelt island - Christmas Songs From RIYP Beacon Kids and Main Street Theater & Dance Alliance

The Roosevelt Island Youth Program (RIYP) Beacon Kids wish us a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year



and the 116th Street Band wishes Feliz Navidad



during the December 4 Roosevelt Island Tree Lighting Ceremony

Enjoy more Christmas songs from the RIYP Beacon Kids



and the Main Street Theater & Dance Alliance perform We Need A Little Christmas from the December 4 Tree Lighting Ceremony.



Merry Christmas and Best Wishes for the New Year!

Blast From The Past - Richard The Reindeer Admiring View As He Takes Tram On Way To Roosevelt Island Children's Christmas Party

The Roosevelt Island Twitterverse reports:

Reindeer on the Roosevelt Island Tram? Only in 1977 NY. https://t.co/DvELgmPUSD

— Frank Pavich (@frankpavich) December 25, 2015

“Only in America, only in New York,” read the caption alongside this December 1977 photo by @nytimes photographer Chester Higgins Jr. “A reindeer on a tram? What's so strange about that? One New Yorker thought nothing of it as she traveled, undisturbed and unimpressed, to Roosevelt Island on the Manhattan tramway. Her fellow passenger was going to the island to be the star attraction at a Christmas party for children.” It seems to us that the #reindeer — not Dasher or Dancer, but “Richard” — had his wits about him. Why haul a sleigh when you can simply take the tram? We found this photo in our newsroom #archives, known as the “morgue.” #tbt

A photo posted by The New York Times (@nytimes) on Dec 24, 2015 at 6:17pm PST

Is that Mrs. Santa Claus knitting a present on the Tram next to Richard the Reindeer?

Reindeers not only ride on the Tram but also pull it for Santa Claus

Roosevelt Island Tram Reindeer Cards from Marty Atkins

as he delivers presents.

It's Christmas Eve With The Pogues & Kirsty MacColl's Fairytale Of New York - What's Your Favorite Christmas Song?

A beautiful Irish Fairytale of New York for Christmas Eve by the Pogues and Kristy MacColl.



Best Christmas song ever.

Here's the behind the scenes story of Fairytale Of New York.

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town On The Roosevelt Island Tram - RIYP Beacon Kids Sing

Roosevelt Island Tram Reindeer Cards from Marty Atkins

The Roosevelt Island Youth Program (RIYP) Beacon kids sang Santa Claus Is Coming To Town at the December 4 Roosevelt Island Tree Lighting Ceremony.



You can check Santa's progress with the NORAD Santa Tracker.

It's Day Before Christmas And 70 Degrees In New York City - Cherry Blossoms And Roses On Roosevelt Island, That's Crazy

The Roosevelt Island Twitterverse reports:

Nothing says #ChristmasinNYC like 70 degrees & cherry blossoms & roses @Rooseveltisland ! #letitsnow pic.twitter.com/tKel16H4iy

— Sharon Lee Williams (@Sharon3williams) December 24, 2015

SPONSORED POST - Wengerd Family Farmers Market Wishes A Blessed Christmas Season And A Wonderful 2016 To Roosevelt Island Community, Will Be Closed For Christmas Holiday Saturday December 26

The Roosevelt Island Farmers Market at Motorgate Plaza will be open every Saturday with the exception of Saturday December 26.

We will be closed for the Christmas holiday. We will be open Saturday January 2.

We wish you a Blessed Christmas season and a wonderful 2016.

Report From Roosevelt Island Disabled Association Thanksgiving Dinner - Independent Living For Disabled People On Roosevelt Island Becoming More Difficult To Maintain, Higher Pay For Home Care Attendants Needed

Qi He spoke with several members of the Roosevelt Island Disabled Association (RIDA) during their 2015 Thanksgiving Dinner.

RIDA members talked about living at the former Goldwater Hospital (future home of Cornell Tech) before obtaining their own Roosevelt Island residential apartment and expressed concern that independent living opportunities on Roosevelt Island for disabled people are becoming more difficult to maintain. Nancy Brown noted the importance of home health care attendants helping disabled people live independently and asked that they receive better pay.

Here's Qi He's video report from the RIDA Thanksgiving dinner.

2015 Year End Update On Cornell Tech Roosevelt Island Campus Construction - Bloomberg Academic, Residential, Co-Location Buildings Going Up, Roadwork And Utilities Making Progress

.@Cornell_Tech, on the backend: pic.twitter.com/RztZAWfY38

— The Bridge (@BridgeAtCornell) December 19, 2015

Here's the latest Cornell Tech Roosevelt Island campus construction update:

December 20 - January 1 Look Ahead

Roadwork and Central Utility Plant – At the CUP, a major milestone will be reached as the roof waterproof membrane nears completion. Installation of the roof top mechanical units, the backup generator, and the transformers will be completed in the first week of this period. Block work continues on the ground floor. Once the transformers are placed, concrete stairs into the transformer vaults will be formed and poured. Plumbing on the ground floor is ongoing. In the vault, utility rack placement and conduit installation continues. Existing gas line abatement will continue on the west roadway, preceding telecom, storm, and electric line installation.

Co-Location Building – At CoLo, steel erection continues and installation of the metal decking is ongoing. The first floor metal deck will be fastened and prepped for the concrete slab floor, which will occur in the beginning of the next period.

Residential Building – At the Residential Building, as the superstructure continues to rise, coordinated work with interior utility installation is ongoing with sleeves, pipes and conduits being cast in place. The superstructure will start on the deck of the 12th floor in the beginning of this period and will be forming the deck for the 16th floor by the beginning of the New Year. The loading dock and hoist will be fully operational at the start of this period. CMU block masonry is underway on the 2nd floor and will also begin on the 3rd floor by the end of this period.

Bloomberg Center – Steel erection on the mechanical floor will continue in this period. Temporary lighting will be installed on the second floor and the grounding loop around the building perimeter is scheduled to continue through this period. The metal decking is being prepped in anticipation of beginning the superstructure floor slab concrete pours which will begin in this period.

Cornell Tech's Community Space at Gallery RIVAA - Holiday Hours: please note that there will be no office hours on Wednesday, December 23rd. In addition Cornell University is closed from December 25th through January 3rd. We wish everyone a joyous holiday season and a safe and prosperous New Year.

Take a walking tour of the Roosevelt Island Cornell Tech construction site at this previous November 2015 post.

Roosevelt Island Riverwalk Buildings Featured In Phish Concert Advertising Promotion

The Roosevelt Island Twitterverse reports:

My apartment building is featured in the Phish artwork for YEMSG and I couldn't be more excited. pic.twitter.com/6Cx2qD4QHJ

— The Phish Pheed (@ThePhishPheed) December 21, 2015

@wayfarersprayer @ThePhishPheed that's UWS right? These are the Riverwalk buildings on Roosevelt island

— jake beckman (@jakebeckman) December 21, 2015

You can check out the Phish Roosevelt Island and Queensboro Bridge artwork at their live streaming site for December 30 - January 2, 2016, Madison Square Garden Concerts.

Here's an interesting 2012 Charlie Rose interview with Phish's Trey Anastasio



and the Rolling Stone 2014 Reader's Poll of Top 10 Phish songs.

Roosevelt Island Is For Lovers - Couple Married On Roosevelt Island Tram Today, Celebrate With Visit To RIHS Visitors Center Kiosk And Purchase Holiday Gifts

Roosevelt Island Historical Society President (RIHS) Judy Berdy shares these photos and reports:

Jennifer and Wes Hansen were married today

on the Roosevelt Island Tram. They celebrated with a visit to the

RIHS Visitors Center Kiosk to sign our visitor book.

Congrats to the couple.

The newlyweds purchased Roosevelt Island Holiday Mugs and Magnets at the Visitors Center. You can too until Thursday. Check it out.

UPDATE 12/24 - More pictures

from Jennifer and Wes's Roosevelt Island Tram wedding.

Roosevelt Island Tram Operator Leitner Poma Explains Reason For Service Interruptions Last Week - RIOC 6 Month Extension Of Leitner Poma Roosevelt Island Tram Operating Agreement

During this past weekend there were several disruptions in Roosevelt Island Tram service including that described in this December 19 Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) Advisory:

Due to mechanical servicing on the Southbound cabin, one Tram cabin will be in operation. No disruption to normal service is anticipated. Thank you for your patience during this necessary work.

The Roosevelt Island Twitterverse also reported on December 19:

Roosevelt Island tram appears to be stuck. #rooseveltisland pic.twitter.com/T2UsyBeA9c

— Sean O'Siadhail (@filesean) December 19, 2015

Roosevelt Island Tram Operator Poma Leitner's Armando Cordova explains what happened:

We would like to share the following information with Roosevelt Island residents regarding last week tram delays.

At this time we are conducting our lubrication maintenance on our wire ropes.

This maintenance provides our ropes with the necessary protection against corrosion and friction, as a result of this lubrication some of the rubber liner material soften and becomes in contact with the monitoring switch, causing the tram electronic monitoring system to trigger a stop. In order to clear this stop we need to physically access the bullwheel area, and manually re-set the monitoring switch which signal is interfering with the tram operation. Fortunately at this time the rubber material exfoliation is subsiding and we’re gradually resuming normal service.

Although these enhanced safety measures for this general maintenance program has caused some interruptions, the safety precautions taken assures a reliable and trustworthy tram operation.

UPDATE 5:45 PM - The Roosevelt Island Tram operating agreement with Leitner-Poma expired earlier this month. During the December 3 RIOC Board meeting (video web cast here), the RIOC Directors agreed to extend the Leitner-Poma Roosevelt Island Tram operating agreement for up to 6 months. Here's the memo from RIOC Staff in support of a temporary extension of the Poma-Leitner Roosevelt Island Tram operating agreement:

The Operating Agreement with Leitner-Poma expires this week. RIOC has not yet finalized the RFP for the next contract term as there are significant changes from the last RFP which included both design and operations elements. RIOC intends to complete the RFP this winter. Accordingly, it is necessary to extend the current agreement for a maximum of six months.

The extension will provide for monthly payments of $299,527 which covers operating costs and normal maintenance.

The manufacturer’s warranties have expired; major unpredictable breakdowns and major maintenance requirements are, therefore, excluded from the monthly fee. All other terms and conditions of the contract between the parties remain in full force and effect.

Since RIOC has been satisfied with the services of Leitner-Poma, we recommend approval of this extension.

Here's the December 3 RIOC Board discussion of 6 month temporary extension of agreement for Leitner-Poma to operate the Roosevelt Island Tram during which time RIOC will issue a Tram Operator Request For Proposals.

SPONSORED POST - CORNELL TECH HOLIDAY AND SEASONS GREETINGS TO ROOSEVELT ISLAND COMMUNITY

Cornell Tech Wishing Roosevelt Islanders a Joyous Holiday Season and a Safe and Prosperous New Year.

SPONSORED POST - HUDSON RELATED HOLIDAY AND SEASONS GREETINGS TO ROOSEVELT ISLAND COMMUNITY

Seasons Greeting from Hudson Related!

Wishing everyone on Roosevelt Island a Happy and Healthy 2016!

Shops on Main appreciates your patronage.

Still Time To Get Your Roosevelt Island Holiday Gifts At RIHS Visitors Center Kiosk - Today Thru Thursday

Roosevelt Island Historical Society President (RIHS)

Image Of Ms Berdy with Wooden Red Bus

Judy Berdy reports:

Here's more Roosevelt Island merchandise available at the RIHS Visitors Center Kiosk

Roosevelt Island Religious Organizations Team Up To Bring Holiday Food Boxes And Joy To Neighbors In Need - Good People Are All Around Us

Frank Farance shares these photos and reports:

On Saturday December 19 five religious organizations of Roosevelt Island delivered 72 boxes of food to local families and individuals in need. The food was packaged at the Seniors Center for different sized families. Good holiday spirit from: the Cabrini Parish (Catholic), the Hope Church, the Day Spring Church, and our Muslin and Jewish friends.

The packaging crew were (l-r): Marilyn Atkins, Lynne Strong-Shinozaki, Willie, Sue Pirard, Dan Sadlier, Liam Sadlier, Isaiah Sadlier, Jim Bates, David Farance, Frank Farance. Missing in photo: Julie Palermo, Lydia Tang, Dave Tang.

Making gift boxes and quarter-size boxes for smaller families.

Delivering the food to neighbors.

A sample box of food.

Lynn Strong-Shinozaki tweets:

What treasure 2 give gifts 2 people who R #Appreciative over 70 neighbors have food 4 the holidays #Roosevelt-Island #PayItForward

— Lynne Shinozaki (@LASHINOZAKI) December 20, 2015

and adds:

The food was purchased thru Family Table Ministry with donations from individuals and religious organizations on the island. The coat donation came from an individual who on Black Friday bought them on points. Bags for the coats came from the new Microsoft store on 5th Ave. Next time we will probably need a few more volunteers on day of distribution. We also wrapped as much as we could to really make it feel like a gift.

We tried very hard to give everyone on our lists some food, we tried when people would let us to put away the food so they wouldn’t be burdened trying to deal with the heavy box/ bags.

We were heartbroken to see so many almost empty refrigerators’ so close to the holidays. We did miss a few people but not to many.  Luella and Ana from Disable Association Support for Seniors & Homebound (DASH) also gave amazing assistance. Cabrini Church heard while we were working that members of Day Spring Church needed men's coats and sweaters and donated a clothing rack full of men's clothing. We are so proud of this awesome collaboration with caring members of this community. Some of the comments we received yesterday.

• “I've live on Roosevelt Island more than 30 year and no one has ever done anything this nice for me before”
• “I had to chose between giving my grandchildren Christmas presents or food I choose getting them gifts. You are an answer to my prayers.”
• “I haven’t had a new coat in years thank you so much” Then she cried.
• “How much is all this food going to cost” IT's free it’s a gift to you from the community. “I don’t know what to say… thank you so much!”

I was so heartbroken by what I saw. I went home and cried. I know very few people who are as stoic as I am but this here in our own community was heart breaking.

The Roosevelt Island Residents Association (RIRA) Social, Cultural & Educational (SC&E) sub-committee #PayItForward coordinated this Chaired by Susan Pirard

Great Big Sea is right. Good people are all around us and you can find them right here on Roosevelt Island.

Roosevelt Island Day Nursery Is A Candidate To Offer NYC Department Of Education Universal Pre Kindergarten Class For 2016-17 School Year - Is Your Family Interested?

 Image From Roosevelt Island Day Nursery

The Roosevelt Island Day Nursery reports:

Roosevelt Island Day Nursery (RIDN) is pleased to announce that we are a candidate to offer Universal Prekindergarten (UPK) classes on Roosevelt Island for the 2016-2017 school year. We are optimistic that RIDN will be an approved UPK site for many reasons: we already have the necessary Department of Health license, are staffed with Director/teachers that have the required qualifications, and have a proven history as a UPK site.

There are a number of steps that need to happen before we are definitely approved. We are hoping to know definitively in spring. In the meantime, the Department of Education is seeking information from us. In order to help them determine how many spots RIDN may be allotted, they would like to know how many families in the Roosevelt Island community would be interested in a full-day UPK program. Communicating your interest at this early stage is important to the planning process; we hope to serve as many community families as possible. (As described in the DOE UPK community-based organization's admissions guidelines, RIDN will first allocate UPK spots for children currently enrolled at RIDN). If you have a child born in 2012 (eligible for UPK in 2016-2017), are not currently attending RIDN and are interested in your child attending a full-day UPK in September, please email Rhonda at office@ridn.org. Please include your name, your child's full name and date of birth, address, and your phone contact information.

If you are interested in enrolling your child at RIDN before September 2016, we do still have vacancies and would be happy to give you a tour. We also have some scheduled Open Houses where we will share information about our philosophy and tour both of our sites:

• Friday, February 5 8-:30 am-9:30 am (morning tour)
• Thursday, February 25 6:30-8 pm (evening tour)
• Saturday, February 27 10:30 am-12 pm (weekend tour)

If you would like to attend one of these Open Houses, please RSVP to Rhonda at office@ridn.org.

If RIDN does become an approved UPK provider for the 2016-2017 school year, we look forward to meeting this need by helping more families be able to have a high-quality full-day UPK program located on the Island.

Roosevelt Island's PS/IS 217 currently has 2 full day 18 seat pre-kindergarten classes. One class is entirely of siblings.

Parents have said there is a great need for additional pre-kindergarten seats on Roosevelt Island.

Image From NYC Department Of Education Pre-K

Roosevelt Island's Island Kids and the St Cabrini Catholic Parish are reportedly trying to establish a Pre-Kindergarten program as well.

More information on NYC DOE Pre-Kindergarten program available here and at previous posts.

Is That A Roosevelt Island Christmas Tree Reflected In Lights On East River Near Octagon Building? Or What?

According to the Roosevelt Island Twitterverse:

There's that underwater Christmas🎄Tree again! ... #EastRiver 🗽 #RooseveltIsland #FDR /79th ... #LGA tower upper left pic.twitter.com/vqZp5YY3GH

— Rock and Rhone (@RockandRhone) December 20, 2015

Roosevelt Island Parents' Network RI MoM Walking And Exercise Group Meeting Monday Morning At Tram Kiosk - Dads Welcome Too

Roosevelt Island Parents' Network Coordinator Eva Bosbach reports:

Dear all,

RI Parents' Network's weekly free Roosevelt Island Moms on the Move (RI MoM) walk and exercise event will take place on  Monday December 21, at 9:30am for the walk starting at the Tram Kiosk

and later for exercise and play at the 425 playroom.

All moms, moms to-be and parents of children of all ages are welcome.

As always the exercise part is voluntary.

Looking forward to seeing you and your little ones tomorrow! :)

Feel free to contact us for more information on the Roosevelt Island Parents' Network.