Get Your Roosevelt Island Sunday Freshly Baked Bagels At Mediterranean Eatery And Nutella Or Peanut Butter Stuffed Cookies At Nisi Kitchen - They Are Delicious

Roosevelt Island Sunday mornings are better with a freshly baked hot out of the oven bagel from Mediterranean Eatery.

    

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And then indulge with a delicious tasting Nutella or Peanut Butter stuffed cookie from Nisi Kitchen.

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I had the Peanut Butter stuffed cookie last Sunday and it was delicious.

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Give one or both a try. They are delicious.

First Friday Of NYC Congestion Relief Zone Pricing Traffic Seen From Roosevelt Island Tram And 60th Street At 1st And Second Avenues This Afternoon - Compare Before And After Congestion Pricing Data Too

On my way to and from Trader Joe's this afternoon between 3:30 and 4 PM, the first Friday of NYC Congestion Relief Zone Pricing traffic in the area of Second, First and York Avenues at 60th street seemed alot less than usual.

Here's the aerial view of traffic from the Roosevelt Island Tram

and street level.

More on the first week of NYC Congestion Pricing

from Fox 5 New York,

Channel 7 Eyewitness News

and Pix 11 News.

Check out the Congestion Pricing Tracker 

to compare traffic data before and after Congestion Pricing began on January 5, 2025.

There Once Was An Elevator From The Queensboro Bridge To Roosevelt Island - Learn More About The Welfare Island Upside Down Elevator Storehouse Building

From 1919 to 1955 there was vehicle and pedestrian access from the Queensboro Bridge to Welfare (Roosevelt) Island. According to Neil Tandon writing for the Roosevelt Island Historical Society (RIHS):

... The Elevator Storehouse, opened in 1919, housed an elevator that transported cars and people from the Queensboro Bridge down to the present-day Tramway Plaza. In addition, it contained storage space and a reception ward for the island's Metropolitan Hospital. The building, whose main lobby was on its top floor, was nicknamed the upside-down building and was featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not for its peculiar design. With the opening of the Welfare Island Bridge, the building closed in 1955 and was demolished in 1970.... 

Image of Elevator Storehouse From Greater Astoria Historical Society

Today, the Roosevelt Island Connect Instagram page features Roosevelt Island Historical Society (RIHS) President Judy Berdy describing the Elevator Storehouse building.

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According to the NYC Ambulance History Facebook Page:

The top floor of the Elevator Storehouse, as it was known, was a ‘Reception Hospital’ or ER, where patients were evaluated and treated before being put on the elevator for transfer to one of three hospitals on the island: Metropolitan, City or Island. The first two were relocated in the early 50’s while the shell of Island Hospital remains standing. The Elevator Storehouse served as the central materials supply depot for the Department of Hospitals.... It was demolished to make way for the Roosevelt Island Tram.

And:

The only legal way for pedestrians or bicyclists to get across the Queensborough Bridge for a long time was. (starting at Manhattan side) take the stairway at the south side of the bridge at 59th street to the upper_ level.

Then use the narrow walkway alongside the southern (eastward heading) roadway - which had lots of girders sticking through it... - _halfway_ across the bridge until you were over Welfare Island.

Then... another stairway sticking _out_ from that walkway, over the water, and leading to a passageway _under_ the lower level which took you over to the roof of the hospital building. (There might have been another stairway to get back up the flight).

Then... you'd go across the roof of the building to the elevator and be brought down to street level of the island...

In 2015, Cornell Tech Assistant Director of Government & Community Affairs Jane Swanson reported that Cornell Tech raised the subject of pedestrian access from Roosevelt Island to the Queensboro Bridge with the NYC Department of Transportation during the Bloomberg administration in 2013, but at that time the Bloomberg administration was not interested in pursuing a feasibility study due to its scale, complexity and cost.

The 1962 TV Program Naked City episode titled Carrier, shown in the Instagram video, gives us a look at the Welfare (Roosevelt) Island staircase to the Queensboro Bridge.

Screenshot From You Tube

According to the You Tube episode description:

After 14 years of self-imposed exile, a young woman who carries a deadly infectious disease leaves Welfare Island (now called Roosevelt Island) for Manhattan, alerting the NYPD to a potential plague.

Watch the full Naked City episode of Carrier. The Welfare (Roosevelt) Island scenes 

are at the beginning and end.

Mayor Eric Adams Announces "Founded By NYC" Campaign Celebrating 400 Years Of The Greatest City In The World And Honors The Lenape Indigenous Peoples - A Current Lenape And Roosevelt Island Connection Too

Happy 400th anniversary, New York City!

From the Lenape to the Dutch, to all those who made our city, this year we're celebrating the history AND the people who have made NYC so great. Learn more about "Founded By NYC:" pic.twitter.com/AhDrsUMKxr

— NYC Mayor's Office (@NYCMayorsOffice) January 5, 2025

New York City Mayor Eric Adams submitted the op-ed article below to local NYC community media including Roosevelt Islander Online. According to Mayor Eric Adams:

Celebrating 400 Years of the Greatest City in the World

January 6, 2025

2025 marks a historic occasion — our city's 400th anniversary. It marks four centuries since the first European settlement of Manhattan in 1625, on land then known as Lenapehoking, the homeland of the Lenape people. The tiny Dutch colony began as New Amsterdam and then changed to New York when the English took control and expanded rapidly. A century ago, its boundaries increased beyond the island of Manhattan to encompass the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island.

To celebrate our city’s 400th anniversary, we are proud to announce the launch of our “Founded By NYC” campaign, which focuses on commemorating and celebrating our city’s 400th birthday and honoring the Indigenous communities that came long before. The campaign highlights contributions from New York City that have shaped our nation and affirmed our country’s place in the world.

Our website, FoundedByNYC.com, features events and activities that showcase our city’s amazing 400-year history. You can also sign up for our newsletter, which will keep you up to date on events in the five boroughs and submit information about your own events that illustrate New York City’s past so that we can showcase it on our calendar.

Even as we look forward and celebrate all our great city has to offer, our administration is deeply committed to acknowledging and engaging with our city’s complex past. That is why we met with Chief Brad KillsCrow of the Delaware Tribe of Indians at Gracie Mansion and have proclaimed November 20 as “Lenape Heritage Day.” The Lenape people are the original inhabitants of this region, we acknowledge the pain they have experienced and the great contributions that have made — and continue to make — to our city.

Like the Lenape, our city’s story has ultimately been one of perseverance and triumph. Together, the many nationalities, religions, and ethnicities that have been a hallmark of our city from its earliest years have worked to build a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. For four centuries, New York City has been a beacon of hope for people from all over the world, a place of religious freedom and tolerance, a place to fulfill the American Dream; and our administration has been working hard to bring that dream a little closer for New Yorkers today.

We passed the historic “City of Yes for Housing Opportunity” plan that will help build a new generation of affordable housing; proposed the “Axe the Tax for the Working Class” to eliminate and cut city income taxes for some of our hardest-working New Yorkers; driven down crime all last year by seizing illegal guns, getting ghost cars and other illegal vehicles off our streets, and closing down unlicensed cannabis stores. We also created a record number of new jobs and small businesses, shattered affordable housing records, and produced a record amount of public space for pedestrians across the five boroughs. And, as we commemorate our 400th anniversary, we are preparing for the next 400 years — prioritizing climate resiliency by instituting citywide composting, creating new parks, planting trees, and completing the first section of the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project.

As mayor of the greatest city in the world, I am committed to fulfilling the great promise that is New York, and delivering for you. Every day. Everywhere.

Present day Roosevelt Island has a strong connection to the Lenape people. During the April 6, 2024  joint Sugi Project and iDig2Learn Healing Forest Planting at Southpoint Park, the co-Founder/Director of the Lenape Center Curtis Zunigha spoke

and 

planted the first tree.

Explore what NYC and Roosevelt Island (Mannahatta) looked like in the early 1600's from Beyond Manhattan, The Welika Project.

Roosevelt Island Tram Boarding Priority, Platform Operations, New Red Bus In Service And RI Business Alliance Among Topics Discussed At Last Night Community Board 8 Committee Meeting - Watch The Very Interesting Video Of What Happened

The Community Board 8 (CB 8) Roosevelt Island (RI) and Transportation Committees held a very informative joint meeting via Zoom last evening hosted by RI Committee Chair Paul Krikler. Here's a brief summary.

The meeting began with Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) Communications Director Bryant Daniels reporting:

• One of the 2 new Red Buses will be in service later this week and the second bus in service not long afterwards,
• Due to the long lines at the Roosevelt Island Tram, Public Safety Officers will be stationed at the Roosevelt Island station during the morning rush hours and at the Manhattan Station during the evening rush hour.
• RIOC is going to work to reduce the number of people standing on the Tram Platform,
• Priority Seating Signage for older adults and disabled people will be placed on the windows above the seats in both Tram Cabin 
• RIOC is testing faster speeds for the Tram schedule. Approval by Department of Labor is necessary before any changes to the Tram speed can be made.

A report on upcoming events at the Roosevelt Island Library Branch Manager Brandon Korosh.

Skip Hartman of The Roosevelt Island Business Alliance (TRIBA) spoke about the mission of the group including:

• Working on an extension of the Master Lease between NY State and NY City
• Developing and funding a new visitors app
• Holding an awards dinner honoring community members and
• Raising and donating funds to local Roosevelt Island groups

And a robust discussion about a resolution to approve resident and workers boarding priority on the Roosevelt Island Tram. The resolution passed by a vote of 4 to 1 and will be voted on by the full Community Board 8 at the January 15 meeting.

Here's is video last night's

very interesting meeting.

A Funny Roosevelt Island Christmas Moment - Resident Spots The Red Bus Driving By On Pennsylvania Highway, What's Going On?

Roosevelt Island resident Amanda Talmadge Sadlier reported on Christmas Day:

Happy Holidays.

Funny Christmas moment: Just saw a Roosevelt Island Red Bus 50 miles East of the Ohio border heading East on I-80.

Any ideas!?! Lol. Our whole car saw it!

 I replied:

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you and your family too. It may be one of the new Red Buses on order that is scheduled to be delivered in January. Maybe out for a test ride? Did you get a photo by any chance?

Ms Sadlier answered:

Lol. That's what we were wondering. No photo because we were driving the other way...I wonder where they are ordered from??? Because it was so far away and surprised that a test run would be happening on Christmas morning, especially in this part of the country that would almost all be celebrating!

Anyway, thought it was funny and worth sharing!

We can drive it back if they'd like to get it there a few days early!

I asked Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) Communications Director Bryant Daniels about the Red Bus spotted on a highway in Ohio.

According to Mr Daniels:

Man, you got eyes everywhere. What they saw were the new buses on the way to the Island from Minnesota, where they were manufactured. Christmas came early and we actually took delivery of them over the Holiday.

We still need to do some work before they hit the road but they are now on the Island.

They still need to be inspected, registered and test driven. I believe we still need to add the GPS tracking.

Here's one of the two new Roosevelt Island Red Buses

home at the RIOC Bus Depot.

RIOC Acting Chief Operating Officer Mary Cunneen provided an update on Red Bus operations during the December 11 RIOC Operations Advisory Committee meeting.

Here's video of Ms Cunneen's presentation.

Mr Daniels reported during this evening's Community Board 8 Roosevelt Island committee meeting that one of the two new Red Buses will be put in service later this week.

Resolution Supporting Priority Roosevelt Island Tram Boarding For Residents/Workers And Roosevelt Island Business Alliance Update On Agenda For Community Board 8 Roosevelt Island Committee Virtual Meeting January 6 - Get Your Stickers Supporting Tram Priority Boarding

You're invited to attend the the Monday January 6 Manhattan Community Board 8 (CB 8) Roosevelt Island Committee meeting via Zoom starting at 6:30 PM.

Here's the full Agenda for tomorrow's CB 8 Roosevelt Island committee meeting.

According to CB 8 Roosevelt Island Committee Chair Paul Krikler:

Please join us for the next CB8RI meeting this coming Monday (1/6) at 630pm on Zoom. In addition to our usual updates (RIOC, Library and Community) we will be joined by Skip Hartman to tell us about The Roosevelt Island Business Alliance (TRBA).

We will also be discussing a resolution regarding priority boarding of the tram (see link to resolution). Resolutions are discussed at Committee first and then taken to the Full Board (Jan 15)

Come and voice your support.

Here is the proposed resolution.

2411 people have signed the Trampled By Tourists, Priority Boarding for Residents and Workers on the Roosevelt Island Tram petition.

Stickers have been created to show support for Roosevelt Island residents and workers Tram Boarding priority.

Supporters are encouraged to:

Stick them around the Tram Station to raise awareness and remind tourists to prioritize locals.

The Stickers are available at Island Discount store (563 Main Street) until tomorrow evening. 

Here's a July 2023 interview with three of the founding Directors of the The Roosevelt Island Business Alliance, Skip Hartman of the Roosevelt Island Racquet Club, David Kramer of the Hudson Companies and Frank (Turtle) Raffaele of The Sanctuary. 

Current members of TRIBA are:

Contact Skip Hartman if you're interested in more info about TRIBA.

Click here to attend tomorrow's CB 8 Roosevelt Island committee meeting via zoom.