Ben Rosenblum is an accomplished Jazz Pianist, Accordionist and Composer.
Image From Ben Rosenblum
Ben grew up on Roosevelt Island, still practices here, teaches local young piano players and was on the faculty of The Child School. Take a listen and enjoy.
People were out and about on Roosevelt Island this pleasant sunny Sunday afternoon.
Roosevelt Island is fortunate to have a lot of open space particularly on a nice afternoon like today. People are out, most wearing masks and keeping social distance @cornell_tech campus and outdoor cafe area. pic.twitter.com/nn0f9crwnR
After 40 days I decided to go out for necessities and enjoy the weather. It's no better than it was 40 days ago, except more people are wearing masks, but not all. Not social distancing being practiced. get it together #NewYork#NYTough#StaySafeStayHealthy#rooseveltisland#nyc
But apparently people were not observing Social Distancing at Southpoint Park. This evening around 6 PM, the Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) announced:
Due to the Social Distancing rules, South Point Park will be closed, for the reminder of the day. This will help enforce Social Distancing and stop the spread. Everyone remain safe and wear your face mask.
I asked RIOC Public Information Officer Terrence McCauley:
What was happening at Southpoint Park to close it. How many people were there.
Is this just for remaining part of today
Mr McCauley replied:
t is just for the remainder of today, but will will close the park whenever we see social distancing is not being followed. I’ve asked PSD for details about today’s incident.
UPDATE 4/26 - From the Roosevelt Island Twitterverse:
The Roosevelt Island Twitterverse asked yesterday about all the noise on Main Street yesterday afternoon.
It was an effort by residents to "Make Some Noise" to thank Roosevelt Island essential employees and specifically a long time worker at Roosevelt Landings who is retiring.
The Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) reports the reason for the noise
!!! Make Some Noise, Roosevelt Island! - Friday, April 24th @ Noon!!!!
Raise your windows, clap and beat on pots to show your appreciation to Woody Morgan for thirty-eight years of service to C & C Apartment Management and all of our Roosevelt Island Essential Employees, such as Building Maintenance Staffers, Public Safety, RIOC Staff, Carter Burden Senior Center Staff, Roosevelt Island Disabled Association, and Food Delivery Volunteers.
It's almost Friday night. For most of us, we've been stuck in our apartments and not gone off Roosevelt Island for at least a month. If there ever was a time, now is it for some Roosevelt Island blues.
It’s a common phrase we hear from Roosevelt Island residents who always look for other ways they can help our essential employees. Some of the ways you can help RIOC essential employees keep the community functioning is by considering donating:
· Masks
· Gloves
· Bottled Water
· Thermometers
· Coffee is also always welcomed, especially on all shifts for our Public Safety Department.
Any donations can be dropped off directly at PSD anytime at 550 Main Street.
Letters of Thanks
We have also received requests from some individuals and organizations on Roosevelt Island about how they can express their thanks to RIOC employees. If you see a RIOC employee, thank them personally. A little encouragement goes a long way, especially these days.
If you would prefer to write a letter or send a card, feel free to do so and drop it off at the Public Safety Department. We will be happy to share it on our website and on our social media pages.
Thank You from RIOC!
And RIOC thanks all of our residents and stakeholders who continue to keep Roosevelt Island safe by obeying all social distancing and face protection guidelines.
Governor Cuomo’s Daily Updates
For anyone who would like to tune into Governor Cuomo’s daily updates, please visit his website: www.governor.ny.gov/news
Thermometers needed
PSD is looking for digital thermometers it can use to perform regular temperature checks for their officers. If you have an extra digital thermometer to spare, please drop it off at the PSD office at 550 Main Street or give them a call at 212-832-4545.
are offering virtual assistance to help Roosevelt Island residents with your tech needs. Also, consider becoming a pen pal and make some new friends with Cornell Tech students.
Cornell Tech students would like to connect virtually with Roosevelt Islanders during this challenging time and have come up with a few ways of doing so:
Virtual Tech Assistance: a few weeks ago Cornell Tech students received a number of “takers” on their offer to provide virtual tech assistance to Roosevelt Island residents. Now the students are back for round two! Perhaps you would like help using your iPad, phone, or laptop. Or, during this time of social isolation, maybe you would like to learn how to connect remotely with family and friends. No matter what it is, the students will do their best to help you. If interested, please email Jane.Swanson@cornell.edu with your name, phone number and a description of the type of help you need. The student organizers will do their best to match you with the student volunteer who can best address your need(s).
Pen Pals: all of us feel some sort of isolation during this stay-at-home time and many of us would love to make new connections – Cornell Tech students included! A number of them are interested in getting to know their Roosevelt Island neighbors better and learning about their families, backgrounds, hobbies, life on Roosevelt Island, etc. And many Roosevelt Islanders are separated from family and friends during this time and are also looking to make connections.
Virtually “meeting” Cornell Tech students and learning about their areas of study, backgrounds, career goals, hobbies, etc. is a way to get to know the students and to make new friends. If having a pen pal interests you, please email Jane.Swanson@cornell.edu with your name, email, and if you would like, a few sentences about yourself! (If you want to participate but do not have an email account, the students can help with that as well. Please call 646-220-1505).
Meet some Cornell Tech students and learn what they do.
Red Buses will continue to run on a Weekend Schedule and the Trams will continue to operate as normal until further notice.
According to Executive Order 202.7, as of 8 p.m. on Friday, April 17, 2020 any individual who can medically tolerate a face-covering must cover their nose and mouth with a mask or cloth when a) in a public place and b) unable to observe proper social distancing guidelines. This includes all forms of public transportation, including the Tram.
Riders are now required to wear a face-covering while riding NYC Ferry. Please protect yourself, our crews, and other riders by covering your face and always maintaining a 6-foot distance from others. #NYCFerrypic.twitter.com/nTd96RcHOR
So, you want to be a local star, or maybe just have a little bit of fun staying home on a Roosevelt Island Friday night during the Coronavirus Pandemic shutdown?
Roosevelt Island resident Kaja Meade reports:
New Week! New Talent Show! Join us as a performer or audience! This regularly scheduled show is open to all Roosevelt Island residents to preform OR watch. The show begins at 7pm Fridays on Zoom. https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87089567465
We know that Roosevelt Island's Got Talent! We hope that you will consider joining in this week. We are looking for a number of talents from people of all ages – be as creative as you can! The purpose is to HAVE FUN, and connect with each other as an island community. Professional quality talent is NOT necessary. Ideas include: Singing, Dancing, Cooking, Pet tricks, Origami, Knitting Tutorial and Showcase, Hair Techniques (like French Braid), Makeup Tips, Cooking, Baking, Karate, Rhythmic gymnastics, Magic tricks, Juggling, Dog Tricks, Crafting, Impressions, Comedy, Windowsill Gardening, and more!
We held our April 14 virtual Townhall Tuesday on crime and public safety. We heard from our 19th Precinct’s Commanding Officer Inspector Kathleen Walsh and Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation’s Public Safety Department’s Chief Kevin Brown. Special guests Congresswoman Maloney and Senator Jose Serrano joined the program to bring State and Federal updates.
We paused for a moment of silence in response to the passing of beloved former PSD Chief and former NYPD Assistant Chief Jack McManus, heading the police department’s Operations Division on 9/11. He passed on Monday due to 9/11 related cancer. We also paid tribute to another great loss for the Roosevelt Island Public Safety Department, Officer Corey Fischer, who passed from complications related to COVID-19. These two dedicated public servants made extraordinary contributions to their Roosevelt Island and New York City communities and will not soon be forgotten...
Chief Brown reported that 2 Public Safety Officers have tested positive for Coronavirus and 17 officers quarantined because they were in close relationship with the two officers. Both officers who tested positive were in good health and 1 returned to work and the other was expected to return to work soon.
Chief Brown noted that PSD is still proving same level of safety and security for residents and Roosevelt Island is:
... probably the safest neighborhood in NYC...
Chief Brown dded that emergency medical responses and trips to hospitals are slightly less now than in prior months. I asked Chief Brown:
... Are there any additional precautions taken by PSD officers who may be entering apartment and in contact with people having Covid 19 on their way to the hospital? Do you have any approximation on how many of these EMS trips to hospital from Roosevelt Island are for Covid 19....
RIOC Public Information Officer Terrence McCauley replied:
EMS Calls
The average of EMS calls for the year 2020 is 76. Jan 89 calls
Feb 62 calls
March 78 calls
Our officers are advised that if they receive a call usually for flu-like or Cold Or Pneumonia symptoms they are not to enter the apartment until EMS arrives. If there is a medical emergency such as bleeding or difficulty breathing the officer will assess the situation before going into an apartment unprotected.
We do not have any information on patients who test positive for Coronavirus. That information comes from the hospitals and the Department of Health.
RIOC has requested donations of thermometers for the Public Safety Department.
Thermometers needed
PSD is looking for digital thermometers it can use to perform regular temperature checks for their officers. If you have an extra digital thermometer to spare, please drop it off at the PSD office at 550 Main Street or give them a call at 212-832-4545.
The Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) Board Directors will hold a meeting tomorrow, April 23, not in person but by videoconference due to the Coronavirus Pandemic social distancing protocols.
Roosevelt Island resident Frank Farance is a long time volunteer with the NYC Emergency Management Department (NYCEM) Community Emergency Response Team (CERT). According to NYCEM
NYC CERT members are dedicated volunteers who undergo a training program that provides basic response skills needed for fire safety, light search and rescue, community disaster support, disaster medical operations, and traffic control.
The volunteer commitment is for at least one year of service following graduation....
Mr Farance shown in photo below on right with other CERT members shares these photos and reports on a recent CERT Food Bagging mission which turned into a Food Saving mission during the ongoing Coronavirus Pandemic. According to Mr Farance:
This Originally Started as a "Food Bagging" Operation
There are almost a dozen CDP (Commodity Distribution Point) operations around the City, which involve trucks/pallets of food (of various menu/packaging types) and an on-site partnership of the City's Parks Department, National Guard,
other City Agencies, and CERTs. This operation is different. The deployment request called it a Food Bagging operation, including separating food into compost, tossing stale food, and salvaging what we could from the boxes.
The operation was at Pier 36 (downtown on South Street) at Basketball City, which abuts the Department of Sanitation (DSNY) facility.
After scavenging for items in the 27,400 boxes (or as much as we could get through that day), the 274 pallets
I believe the students on the island as well as their parents /caretakers, are searching for activities to share with their children at home.
My idea is to provide parents / caretakers and the youth of this beautiful island educational outlets with fun activities. These consist of easy to learn facts, easy for the youth to learn on their own or with the help of the families / caretakers.
Ms Fleming's daughter, Rosha Gomez-Powell, who grew up on Roosevelt Island, reports that her mom wrote and performed Get Things Done during the Coronavirus Pandemic:
While COVID19 has taken center stage of the world, artists, like Juanita Fleming, are finding their own unique way to share positive music during this uncertain time. The call to find a collective voice to 'get things done' as a society and mantra for the whole world is so appropriate for today. Performed by Ms. Fleming during self-quarantine on Roosevelt island, NYC April 2020
Reported last Thursday that Assembly Member Rebecca Seawright and Roosevelt Island Friends Of Coler delivered much needed Face shields, N95 respirators, surgical masks, and gloves to protect our neighbors at the Coler Nursing Facility from the Coronavirus.
Andrew Oliver, the Executive Director of Do For One organization, introduces us to some of are neighbors who make Coler their home. According to Mr. Oliver:
Valuable Lives in the Shadow of COVID-19
I may have never stepped foot on Roosevelt Island had I not met Ralph. He was talking to people on Fulton Street, in Brooklyn, and asking for money. I assumed he was homeless. I asked, “Where do you live?” His eyes lit up: “Roosevelt Island. You take the F train to get there!” He was eager to jot down the directions for me on a torn piece of paper. I felt stuck. Was I to visit him?
So I was. A few days later I exited the island’s F train station and took the red bus toward the lighthouse. Next to it was Coler-Goldwater Specialty Hospital and Nursing Facility, where Ralph lived. His gratitude of having a visitor overflowed into a spontaneous prayer, “Lord, thank you for my friend who came to visit me!”
I now call Roosevelt Island home and lead a small program called Do For One. We build supportive and lasting relationships for people with developmental disabilities. One of the first relationships was when I invited Luis to become Ralph’s helper and friend. Luis visited Ralph regularly. Together they built a community of Coler residents who played dominoes around a table in one of the day rooms. Luis says, “I consider myself a no nonsense kind of guy and I feel like he was the same way. It made me feel comfortable. It was a simple relationship, and even out of that simplicity a lot was being exchanged.”
NY State Governor Andrew Cuomo hopes that we have learned lessons from the Coronavirus Pandemic and will be able to build a better society because of it.
We are going through hell.
When this is all over, I want people to say, we went through hell but we learned lessons and we built a better society because of it.
Sharon Yavo Ayalon. PhD. Architect, Postdoctoral Associate at Cornell Tech begins to raise some interesting issues that may be part of future lessons learned for Roosevelt Island and other urban areas in this excerpt from her article below:
... at a time when urban boundaries are redrawn for numerous reasons, the relative resilience of Roosevelt Island’s local community in this time of crisis may serve as an example for future urban development and policy.
... the definition of clear urban boundaries may prove key to preventing and coping with the spread of infectious diseases, or at least play a role in managing the process of getting ‘back to normal.’ Living on Roosevelt Island reminds me of the capacity of social boundaries to contribute to community resilience....
As I write these lines while working remotely from my 23rd floor apartment on Cornell-Tech’s Roosevelt Island campus, I gaze out at the surreal emptiness of the Queensboro Bridge during the COVID19 outbreak. The cherry blossoms are in full bloom, a handful of go-getters are taking a morning walk on the water promenade, and the tram just left the terminal. Though we live in the most contaminated city in the world in these hectic times, with incessant news reports and risk alerts and constant speculation on social media, it is almost as if nothing has changed. The water barrier remains a wall separating the island from the rest of the city’s stream of infections and horrifying statistics – perhaps not in a medical sense, as we cannot truly be isolated from the virus, but in a social sense, highlighting a different aspect of the capacity of urban boundaries to protect a community. And I wonder: Might these well-defined boundaries offer sort of insight toward demarcating a route of egress from this pandemic?
It was a beautiful sunny spring Sunday today and some Roosevelt Island ladies were out at the Cornell Cafe with their masks on and practicing social distancing from each other.
But some people were not wearing masks outdoors and walking a bit to close to others.
@Rooseveltisland@Rooseveltisland there's a lot of people outside without face coverings. They're jogging, walking, cycling with close proximity to others. Where is the enforcement of the current law that mandates face coverings?
We regret to inform you of the passing of Detective Wayne Jones, a 24-year veteran of the Public Safety Department (PSD). He leaves behind a wife and two children. He was an integral part of the department and he will be sorely missed by all who had the privilege to know him and work with him.
Detective Jones is the second PSD member to pass away from the Coronavirus (COVID-19). Please keep Detective Jones, Officer Corey Fischer, and all those affected by this pandemic in your thoughts and prayers.
Condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Officer Jones
Please be aware that Nisi Kitchen is adjusting operation hours from 10am and closing at 11pm throughout the week, please stay tuned for updates! pic.twitter.com/PQlMQfRcgu
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.
