Roosevelt Island resident Mogens Petersen noticed the following last Saturday:
I was walking on the Eastern promenade behind Roosevelt Landings across from the northern part of the generator plant in LIC around 7 pm when I saw a large garbage dumpster filled over the brim without any cover whatsoever.
The dumpster was marked "OMEGA".
I don't know whether this is RIOC's or UA's responsibility, but would suggest that loaded garbge dumpsters should be required to be at least covered if left outside overnight - especially in the current warm weather. Are they even allowed ?
Mr. Petersen sent his concerns to Roosevelt Island Public Safety Director Keith Guerra. Mr. Guerra replied:
The dumpster of which you speak belongs to Urban American. We will advise them that it needs to be emptied. Have a good evening.
I walked by the area on Sunday afternoon and the dumpster was still full and uncovered. In fact, as I was walking by, a man got out of his car and threw a garbage bag into the dumpster.
Uncovered Dumpster On East Promenade
This is a perfect example of the need for a Roosevelt Island 311 Reporting System such as See Click Fix.
What happens when a Roosevelt Island resident notices a problem with the
Red Bus
Tram
Motorgate Parking Garage
Street Parking
garbage not being collected,
pothole in the street,
crack in the sidewalk,
lights not working,
sprinklers not working properly or
any other issue that needs to be fixed.
Calling New York City's 311 reporting system is no help because more often than not the operators don't know that Roosevelt Island is part of New York City and many of these problems are under the jurisdictional authority of the Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC). So, you call or write RIOC and hope that they fix the problem in a reasonable amount of time. Others write to the Roosevelt Island media, (this Blog and the WIRE) and we contact RIOC on your behalf trying to resolve the issue. Sometimes the problem is resolved quickly and other times not. Not a very efficient system.
However, a solution to fixing Roosevelt Island problems may soon be forthcoming with the introduction of a Roosevelt Island 311 reporting service from See Click Fix. RIOC Board Director Jonathan Kalkin has been working on this issue for some time and writes:
See Click Fix: Island 311 System
At the present time we have an inefficient way to handle island issues. Some emails reach my inbox, some to the directors email, some to the President etc. There is a huge amount of redundancy and there is no efficient way for people on the island to resolve an issue and for the staff of RIOC to respond. There is also no way to escalate that complaint if many people see this as an issue or for the person to track the response to that complaint. Everyone is doing their best, but there is no central location or system to deal with this. If an issue is open, or fixed, there is no way for everyone to know that it has been resolved.
I have been looking at a number of options and I looked into your suggestion - SeeClickFix. They seem to be a great fit and we are beta testing it right now.
If you go on the mobile app available on almost any device you will see the RIOC logo. We haven't put in our own custom categories or assigned categories to different people. As I stated earlier this is only a beta test and therefore only for show.
See Click Fix Image From Jonathan Kalkin
However, if we move forward on this we will assign categories like the Tram, Red Bus, Parks, Parking, Signs, Litter, etc. and assign those categories to different departments. People will be able to upload pictures and even video in the comments. If you have GPS on your phone it is very accurate at stating the location, right down to the building, but if not you can write the location and a description of your complaint. If we choose this system you will have a button on the RIOC site to make a complaint. You can also access it via the seeclickfix website and on your mobile phone as stated earlier. We are currently trying to determine a procedure for inputting the data if someone calls in to create an issue ticket, but that is possible. I believe that this will allow the residents a way to help make RIOC aware of issues, track that issue, and make sure that we resolve them. It will be an island effort and people will have to be informed how it works and how to use it if it goes live. I will update you as we move forward.
Community Board 14 is now using SeeClickFix, a tool which will make it easy for anyone to report issues and problems to them, and make it easier for the fabulous folks at CB14 and other city agencies to respond, and act...
Here's how Brooklyn's Community Board 14 uses the See Click Fix tool.
Right now there is a link on Roosevelt Islander's middle sidebar to the See Click Fix Roosevelt Island page. Give Roosevelt Island See Click Fix a try and test it out but also continue sending your reports of Roosevelt Island problems and issues here.
Roosevelt Island Residents Association (RIRA) President Frank Farance sends the following report to Roosevelt Island residents. Mr. Farance addresses:
1. RIRA Blood Drive on June 19, Roosevelt Island Day. Roosevelt Island Day is my favorite day here. The weather looks good so far. RIRA will have it's bagel and coffee breakfast at 9AM. I and other RIRA volunteers will be serving. Please remember to donate blood. Matt Katz has done a great job organizing this and I hope we have a good turnout.
2. Gifted and Talented at PS/IS 217. I had an opportunity to speak at the meeting at PS/IS 217 and emphasize how important this school is to the community. The principal, her staff, the PTA, and the community have worked together for an upward trajectory for this school. Although not every student is in the gifted and talented program, it is an important attraction for all families (even if only one child is the G&T program) and makes the Island itself a more attractive place to live. I will be following up with the RIRA Common Council and the CB8 education committee to get support for continuing the G&T program on Roosevelt Island.
3. RIRA Town Hall meeting on Main Street storefronts. As promised, we will have a town hall meeting to inform the community. The WIRE covered this is the last issue. RIOC President Steve Shane will attend. I'm expecting RIOC board members to attend, too.
4. RI-311 reloaded. We met with RIOC's Operations Committee to discuss the collaboration between RIOC and RIRA. It sounds like a good fit. Hopefully a couple screen snapshots and demos by my next column.
5. RI Trambots? I believe the WIRE has covered this story: a team of mostly 8-year old competes city-wide against 14-year olds and comes in 7th place (of 24 teams), including taking home a First Place Trophy for teamwork. Wow! Thanks to Charlie DeFino, the RI Youth Program, NYC DYCD (Department of Youth and Community Development) for supporting our efforts.
6. RIRA elections this November. We reach out to the community to become more involved. You can volunteer to be a RIRA Common Council member. We have building-wide representatives (several for each of the housing complexes) and Island-wide representatives (President, Vice President) -- all are directly elected positions. If you'd like to see what this is like, please come to one of our meetings. It's rewarding, you get to know your neighbors and community, and you can have a positive effect on things around you.
7. Upcoming RIRA meetings. The next meeting is on September 15 at 8:00 p.m. in the Good Shepherd Community Center; future meeting is October 6. Upcoming RIRA Town Hall meeting (in preparation for RIOC Board meetings) is on June 23 (note the new date). Have a great summer!
Roosevelt Island Residents Association (RIRA) President Frank Farance sends the following report to Roosevelt Island residents.
1. RIRA Blood Drive on June 19, Roosevelt Island Day. Don't forget to donate blood. Thanks to Matt Katz for organizing this.
2. RI Trambots? The RI Youth Program will be sending a team of 6-13 year olds to the NYC DYCD competition on Lego Robots. We've taken the Tram as our mascot. Wish us well!
3. A better handrail for buses, a better pool for kids. File this in the category of New Ideas From Other Places. I've had to travel recently and I discovered a 3-way handrail pole in a Swiss tram (see photo). Also from Geneva, here's a nice way to arrange a splash pond for kids in the summertime (see photo), the pool is deceptively shallow.
4. RI-311 reloaded. Aaron Hamburger, chair of RIRA's Island Services Committee, RIRA Common Counselor Joe Terranella, RIOC Board Member Jonathan Kalkin, and I will be relaunching the RI-311 system to allow you to report issues about island services. Thank you to Aaron and Jonathan for leading this effort, and thanks to Joe for helping on the web implementation. I'll have more on this in my next column.
5. RIRA elections this November. We reach out to the community to become more involved. You can volunteer to be a RIRA Common Council member. We have building-wide representatives (several for each of the housing complexes) and Island-wide representatives (President, Vice President) -- all are directly elected positions. If you'd like to see what this is like, please come to one of our meetings. It's rewarding, you get to know your neighbors and community, and you can have a positive effect on things around you.
6. Upcoming RIRA meetings. The next Common Council meeting is ... well it's summer vacation. The next meeting is on September 15 at 8:00 p.m. in the Good Shepherd Community Center; future meeting is October 6. Upcoming RIRA Town Hall meeting (in preparation for RIOC Board meetings) is on June 23 (note the new date). I am trying to arrange for a Town Hall meeting to discuss the storefronts at the June 23 meeting. The WIRE will announce this if I can get all parties at the meeting.
Splash Pond Image From Frank Farance
The RIRA President's message is also published as the RIRA column in the6/5/10 Main Street WIRE.
The Roosevelt Island Board Of Directors Operations Committee will be meeting on Wednesday afternoon. They will be reviewing alot of stuff. According to RIOC:
PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that a meeting of the Operations Advisory Committee of the RIOC Board of Directors will be held on Wednesday, June 9, 2010 at 5:30 p.m. at the RIOC administrative office, 591 Main Street, Roosevelt Island, New York. The Committee shall:
An audio webcast of the meeting will be available soon thereafter.
During the June RIRA meeting, I suggested to RIOC Director Jonathan Kalkin that RIOC consider using the existing See Click Fix tool for a Roosevelt Island 311 system. A link to the Roosevelt Island See Click Fix page is on this blog's left sidebar below the Softball MeetUp Group and above the Public Safety Reports. Give it a try.
Watch the video above for more information on See Click Fix.
Below are the Roosevelt Island Residents Association (RIRA) Committee Reports For Island Services, Planning and Government Affairs presented at the June RIRA meeting by their respective chairs. Subjects included
Public Library Improvements
Main Street Stores
Roosevelt Island 311 System
Main Street Parking
Blackwell Park Master Plan and
Future RIOC Board Appointments as well as others
RIRA – ISLAND SERVICES COMMITTEE (ISC REPORT TO COMMON COUNCIL MEETING – 6/2/10
RI Public Library improvements ISC met with representative of RICLA (Janet Falk & Lorraine Lasker) to discuss what and how to improve the services of our RI branch New York Public Library (NYPL). We developed a priority list of needs. The highest priority need is to relocate the Library to a substantially larger and more suitable space. Other high priority needs are to provide a bathroom, make the Library more accessible to the disabled (including automatic opening doors), more outlets for computers and other electronic equipment, and a meeting room for public gatherings, lectures, book group events, and showing of films. We will continue to expand the “needs” list.
We are encouraged by a report from RIOC (at the Real Estate Committee meeting) that NYPL is very interested in 504 Main as a future site for the Library. Personnel from the NYPL Capital Fund group inspected 504 Main last week. Also, relocating the Library to Southtown Bldg. #7 may be back in play if Bldg. #7 construction begins by early 2011.
Main Street Stores The RIOC Real Estate Committee is still working on the Master Lease Agreement. However, itʼs expected that the document will be completed and approved by mid-June. If so, the Real Estate Committee will then initiate the bidding process before the end of June.
RI-311 ISC has committed to RIRA President Frank and RIOC Board Member Jonathan Kalkin that we will work to reinstall the RI-311 system on Roosevelt Island. RI-311 is a computer reporting system for residents where various service problems (needed road repairs, safety incidents, bus problems, lighting outages, etc.) can be relayed to the appropriate RIOC department and follow-up reports made.
Joe Terranella has accepted the assignment of making RI-311 happen. He will work with Kalkin and Farance (both are knowledgeable about the “guts”, software and such, of the system). When completed, the system will be presented to RIOCʼs Operating Committee for implementation.
Main St. Parking Members of ISC are spot checking vehicles parked on Main St. Over the last 3 weeks, we observed that the more aggressive enforcement of parking regulations by Public Safety seems to be working as evidenced by the number of parking tickets issued and the low number of illegally parked vehicles. However, on one day, 5/25/10 afternoon, there were an unacceptable number of illegally parked vehicles – 3 in Southtown and 2 in Northtown. Weʼll continue to monitor the situation thru June.
Aaron Hamburger, ISC Chair
Planning Committee Report – June 2, 2010
RIOC Vice President, Rosina Abramson, has made available an artist’s rendering by landscape architect, Lee Weintraub, which conforms to the RIRA Resolution vote on last January. We shared it with the Blackwell House sub- committee members for their consideration and comments. There being no substantive objections to the drawing, sub-committee chairs, Judy Berdy and I have sent the following comment to Ms. Abramson:
Blackwell Park Sub-Committee of the RIRA Planning Committee Response to the Recent Artists Rendering June 1, 2010
We have shared the Weintraub drawings with the sub-committee members along with a copy of the RIRA Resolution that codifies our expectations for the conceptual planning phase of Blackwell Park. We received no negative comments or requests for clarification or more information. Based on that, we believe that the rendering conforms to the general preferences of the participating community members. Of course, we understand that the conceptual plan encompasses only broad strokes and that the practical details will be found in the design elements to be considered next. Until we understand what those design elements are, where they will be placed and what they (and the entire project) will cost, our support may be construed only for the overall conceptual plan. We look forward to working with you to develop and cost-out those design elements. Respectfully submitted, Matthew Katz, Chair
GOVERNMENT RELATIONS COMMITTEE – JUNE 2, 2010
Government Relations Committee (GRC)
Ashton Barfield (Chair) Erin Feely-Nahem Russell Fields Sherie Helstien Matthew Katz Ellen Polivy
Maple Tree Group (MTG) subcommittee
Ashton Barfield David Bauer Linda Heimer Sherie Helstien Matthew Katz Dick Lutz Nurit Marcus Joyce Mincheff Margie Smith
There hasn’t been much GRC or MTG activity in the past month.
We’re still waiting for additional information from Assemblymember Micah Kellner’s office about the term expirations for the RIOC Board seats and the appointment dates for the current resident occupants, to determine when elections will be needed for each Board member, and to evaluate how to coordinate RIOC Board elections with the even-year-November Common Council elections.
There hasn’t been any need to meet.
From now on, I'm going to include the non-MTG members of GRC (Russell Fields, Erin Feely-Nahem, Ellen Polivy) in MTG news, in the hope that they’ll find themselves so interested in its activities that they’ll become involved with it.
Margie has passed along a few updates to the elected-officials contact list, but I haven't yet had time to input them, or to contact the offices (other than Micah’s) to notify them that I'm now the chair.
The only other GRC-related matter is that both Margie and Matt have forwarded to me the East Side Democratic Club endorsements of various candidates. I'm distributing the list to both MTG and all Common Council members via this report (on the second page).
East Side Democratic Club endorsements May 27, 2010
Senator Chuck Schumer Kirsten Gillibrand
Governor Andrew Cuomo
Lieutenant Governor Robert J. Duffy
Attorney General Eric Schneiderman
Controller Tom DiNapoli
65th Congressional District Carolyn Maloney
State Senate, 26th District Liz Krueger
State Senate, 28th District Jose Serrano
Assembly, 65th District Micah Kellner
State Committee, 65th Assembly District Jim Clynes Ruth Halberg
It was pointed out during the meeting that RIRA does not endorse political candidates but will provide a forum for any candidate wishing to inform the Roosevelt Island community of his or her views.
At the June meeting, RIRA also passed a resolution supporting a request made by members of Roosevelt Island's Islamic community (approximately 200 families they say) seeking premises for the location of a Mosque although the resolution did not state where that might be. (Will post the resolution when I receive a copy of it). The residents seeking space for a Mosque expressed frustration at the slowness of the process with RIOC in trying trying to secure space but were repeatedly assured by RIRA members as well as RIOC Directors present that this was typical with all seeking space from RIOC. 503 Main Street in the Rivercross Building was mentioned as a site being considered for a Mosque.
It will be interesting how any future private sector Master Leaseholder for the Main Street Retail premises accounts for the Roosevelt Island non-profits, (Gallery RIVAA, Thrift Store) including religious institutions, as the Master Leaseholder attempts to bring new retailers to Roosevelt Island.
Received the following report from Roosevelt Island Residents Association (RIRA) Island Services Committee Chairperson Aaron Hamburger that was prepared for and delivered to the April RIRA Common Council Meeting.
RIRA ISLAND SERVICES COMMITTEE (ISC) REPORT TO COMMON COUNCIL
Update On transportation Issues
º Tram Project – At the end of March, the project is on schedule, even one day ahead of schedule.
º Q-102 – Effective the 1st week of April, this bus route will change from an alternating route to one constant route. It will go north from the RI bridge, up to Coler, then south on Main St. to the subway and Goldwater, turning north again on Main St, stopping at the subway and other Main St. stops before leaving RI at the RI Bridge.
º F Train – Operation has been going reasonably well with no new problems introduced by the addition of Tram passengers. What’s helped is MTA personnel deployed on the platform during the morning rush hour to direct passenger traffic.
º Red Bus
- Queens Service -- This service ended 4/1/10 due to very low ridership.
- Manhattan Service – The schedule will continue thru April. Evaluation of ridership in May could lead to some schedule changes or reductions. Recent reports, however, indicate ridership is increasing.
- RI Service – The current system in Southtown – one-way route, south on East Main St., north on West Main St. – will continue until the Tram is back in service. Operation in September and thereafter is under discussion within RIOC with inputs by RIRA Committees and other residents. RIOC seems to be leaning to the one-way (north) West Main St. proposal which in addition to solving the “pedestrian safety” problem has some beneficial side effects (parking spots and an off-road truck loading and unloading area), but one key disadvantage – a 30 second extra walk for passengers going to the subway.
Frank Farance has an alternate proposal and there are several more modifications proposed by others. There will be no decision until probably August and vigorous discussion and negotiations until then.
Update On parking Issues
The ISC needs to be involved in improving parking availability on RI.
º On Main St. there are still too many vehicles illegally parked for long periods of time. Also, many vehicles have lapsed parking stickers.
Public Safety must get aggressive in enforcing parking regulations.
º East Drive at Goldwater Hospital – This street is still posted “No Parking” despite RIOC’s promise to remove these signs. ISC will follow up on this .
RI – 311
Jonathan Kalkin, supported by Frank Farance, has asked the ISC to look into re-installing the RI – 311 system. This is a computer reporting system for residents where various service problems (needed road repairs, safety incidents, bus problems, lighting outages, etc.) can be relayed to the appropriate department of RIOC and follow-up reports made.
ISC will accept this challenge.
Aaron Hamburger, Chair
UPDATE 10 AM - THE Q102 Bus route change will begin on April 18 not first week of April.
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.
Uncovered Dumpster On East Promenade
Uncovered Dumpster On East Promenade
