Check out the annual Holiday Pop Up Market at the Carter Burden Roosevelt Island Older Adult Center for some unique and local Holiday Gifts and delicious ethnic food.
We believe there can never be too much art or too many people buying it
Prove us right! Make your holiday season bright with the purchase of art at affordable prices that you can enjoy every day of 2025 and well beyond. Dates and hours of RIVAA's Affordable Art Sale are Saturday and Sunday December 14th and 15th from 11 AM - 5 PM. In addition to tables with artwork and art-related crafts from 43 RIVAA and local artists, there are affordable art walls in the gallery as part of our Gifts of the Heart exhibition.
RIVAA is a member organization dedicated to establishing an art center in its unique Roosevelt Island location on the East River in New York.
When you buy from RIVAA, you are supporting a Roosevelt Island nonprofit and shopping local, supporting the community. Art makes a great gift, so visit RIVAA Gallery at 527 Main Street, and buy art.
Want to take part in the 125th Annual
#ChristmasBirdCount
this year? There's still time to register for counts happening across NYC
this weekend and next. Learn more and register at
https://t.co/30LRw06Blp
The 125th annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count—the nation's longest-running Community-Science bird project—will soon be underway nationwide, and in all five boroughs of New York City.
Anyone can participate, even beginner birders! The data collected over the past century by volunteer observers, ranging from experienced ornithologists to casual nature enthusiasts, allow researchers to study the long-term health and status of bird populations across North America. This family-friendly activity is a great way to explore our City's natural areas while contributing to valuable scientific research, and we encourage all to participate!...
Have you heard the buzz about our spectacular production of
Blíthe Spirit? It's an event you absolutely can't miss! Secure your seat today by
grabbing your tickets online.
Join us for an unforgettable experience!
About Blíthe Spirit
The smash comedy of the London and Broadway stages, this much revived
classic from one of the twentieth centuries most admired playwrights offers
up fussy, cantankerous novelist Charles Condomine, remarried but haunted
(literally) by the ghost of his late first wife, the clever and insistent
Elvira who is called up by a visiting ‘happy medium’, one Madam Arcarti. As
the world's (and unworldly) personalities clash, Charles is faced with the
dilemma of facing both his current wife – the recently married Ruth, whilst
placating his previous one – who is out to win him back – whatever it takes!
Throw in a disbelieving man of medicine, Dr Bradman and his chatty wife,
along with a clumsy maid and you have a comedy that has withstood the tests
of time and is as popular now as when it was first performed.
... has offered music, theatre and dance training along with performance
opportunities for all ages for over 40 years in the Roosevelt Island
community.
Our Mission - MSTDA nourishes creativity by providing high quality music,
theatrical and dance training as well as performing opportunities to
everyone in our diverse community. We offer every person, child or adult,
the opportunity to participate in the arts without discrimination due to
race, color, national origin, sex including gender and orientation, cultural
background, socio-economic status, age, ability, or disability. With a
robust scholarship program no one is turned away for financial reasons.
The Roosevelt Island Haki Compost Collective is back collecting your food scraps at the Motorgate Plaza every Saturday next to the Farmers Market. I spoke with 2 of the Haki volunteers last Saturday.
The compost program is back.
Thank you Roosevelt Islanders!
On October 5th, 2024 the food scrap drop-off collection for compost returned to Roosevelt Island in partnership with Big Reuse, RIOC and the all volunteer run Haki Compost Collective.
Every Saturday year round from 9 am to 2 pm at Motorgate Plaza your food scraps are collected by Haki and Big Reuse processes them into nutrient-rich compost to return to neighborhood landscapes, school and community gardens, sidewalk tree pits and neighbor’s houseplants.
Now New Yorkers have more options, they can send their scraps for methane gas capture to Newtown Creek through the resident brown bin and sidewalk orange bin programs and rejuvenate NYC soils through the Haki/Big Reuse Saturday green bin collection.
December 5th marked World Soil Day with a focus on measure, monitor and manage so here’s the success of the collectives efforts thanks to your participation…
Since the Oct 5th 2024 food scrap collection reopened Haki launched again with 17 rotating volunteers (including 5 new!) and welcomed 783 drop-offs, capturing over 100 pounds per hour each Saturday thanks to islanders
That is a collection total of 5,492 pounds over ten Saturdays - over 2 tons!
Since Haki started 4 years ago our neighborhood has diverted 205,231 pounds of scraps from landfill.
Pre-dating Haki, the island's Big Reuse food scrap collection which started in 2015 thanks to advocates like Julia Ferguson and others has collected is over 340,000 pounds of scraps which were processed into compost! That is equivalent to 84 SUV's!
Haki Compost welcomes new volunteers. Join an orientation then sign up for an hour on one Saturday a month or more it is up to you. Students welcome.
The next short orientation is this coming Saturday 12/14 from 11 am to 11:30 am. Come see if supporting this local effort is right for you.
Not available this Saturday? Please write to Haki Compost Collective at hakicompost@gmail.com to explore volunteering. Follow us on IG @hakicompost
Haki thanks the Lenape Center for giving us the name Haki which means earth, dirt, ground and land and the Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) for their ongoing support.
Among the items on the
Agenda
is an Update on Roosevelt Island Tram Operations.
There is no issue which has decreased the quality of life
and angered more Roosevelt Island residents than the long lines
and unsafe platforms
from overcrowding by
sightseeing tourists
on the Roosevelt Island Tram.
In slightly over 1 month's time,
over 2200 people have signed the Trampled By Tourists, Priority Boarding for Residents and Workers on the Roosevelt Island Tram petition.
According to the Petition organizers:
Roosevelt Island Residents and Workers Need Priority Boarding of the Roosevelt
Island Tram
New York Transportation Law § 102
“No common carrier shall make or give any undue or unreasonable preference
or advantage to any person or corporation or to any locality or to any
particular description of traffic in any respect whatsoever, or subject any
particular person or corporation or locality or any particular description
of traffic, to any undue or unreasonable prejudice or disadvantage in any
respect whatsoever.”
It doesn’t say there can’t be a preference shown. It says there can’t be an
“undue or unreasonable preference”.
The tram is no longer available to residents and workers - it has become a
tourist attraction.
It is *reasonable* to give residents and workers priority boarding and
return the tram to its original intended use. Urban Transportation.
RI has very limited reliable public transportation options, with over 12,000
residents and hundreds of workers - there's one subway station, with only
one line, a very limited ferry service and the tramway. With the tramway
inundated by tourists we are left with a single subway station and are
facing a transportation crisis, often made worse when there is a subway
shutdown.
Further, the RI Tram is funded by the residents through our land leases and
not by New York City or New York State.
Our Position
RIOC has taken the position that it would be illegal to offer priority
boarding of the Roosevelt Island Tram to island residents and workers based
on this:
“No common carrier shall make or give any undue or unreasonable preference
or advantage to any person or corporation or to any locality or to any
particular description of traffic in any respect whatsoever, or subject any
particular person or corporation or locality or any particular description
of traffic, to any undue or unreasonable prejudice or disadvantage in any
respect whatsoever.” New York Transportation Law § 102.
We disagree.
Giving island residents and workers priority boarding is not an “undue or
unreasonable preference.”
It’s all about the phrase “undue or unreasonable”.
If the law had been written without that phrase, then the RIOC position
would be correct. No common carrier could give any advantage or
preference. However, that’s not what the law says. The law appears to
envisage some sort of exception as long as it is reasonable (not
unreasonable, or not undue). Laws are drafted carefully and thought is
given to each word.
The Roosevelt Island Tram is Urban Transportation
“The original Roosevelt Island aerial tramway - the first tram in the
country to be used for urban transportation – was opened in May 1976” (Source: RIOC website)
The Roosevelt Island Tram has ceased to be available to residents and
workers as a reliable method of transportation
A combination of factors has led to a massive increase in the use of the
tram by tourists, particularly since the tram has recently appeared in a
number of popular “Top 10 things to do in NYC” lists and videos. The
platforms are crowded and lines often form outside the platform. What used
to be the case only during certain limited times of day and certain times
of year is virtually now a constant.
Island residents and workers now struggle to get on to the tram, often
starting in the morning till late into the night. Many people have given
up on the tram while others struggle through the chaos
This is particularly onerous for our neighbors who may be elderly or
unable to walk or stand easily. The island is home to a lot of elderly
folks and folks with limited mobility. The same is also true for families
with young children.
Priority Boarding for residents and workers is reasonable given the change
in ridership
Residents and workers are now excluded from one of their limited modes of
transportation to and from home or work, children school, or nearby
shopping places.
The tourists are not using the tram as a mode of urban transportation, but
rather as an opportunity to get great pictures of NYC during the crossing.
Almost all of the tourists turn around and head straight back to
Manhattan. That is tourism, not transportation.
Precedents for this exist, such as:
In 1976, “residents were issued priority passes for the tram and a minibus
that travels from the tramway station through the island's Main Street.”
due to the number of tourists displacing residents.
Source: NY Times.
On December 7 2023, Governor Hochul announced preferential treatment for
residents of Queens and The Bronx who use the Henry Hudson Bridge and
Cross Bay Bridge with a Toll rebate program which is not available for
those who do not live in Queens or the Bronx.
Release by NY State.
As previously reported, NYC Mayor Eric Adams, NY State Assembly Member Rebecca Seawright, NYC Council Member Julie Menin and former Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney have expressed support for providing some sort of Roosevelt Island Tram boarding preference for residents and workers
During the December 7, 2024 Roosevelt Island Tree Lighting Ceremony, Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine told me he supports a Tram Boarding priority for Roosevelt Island residents and workers too.
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.
