Here's what we're thinking about. Have an opinion you'd like to post here? Contact the editor: davestone13@gmail.com. We'll consider it.
04/15/2019 - 10:05
Updated 1 year ago
Two things are clear about Saturday's Roosevelt Island Cherry Blossom Festival. First, performances and everything else taking place inside FDR Four Freedoms Park was beautifully executed, virtually flawless and thrilling at the same time. But screwups festering outside, some for weeks in advance, recklessly endangered safety and tarnished our community's image. You could see it coming, and many did but were ignored and, worse, demonized.
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04/03/2019 - 09:31
Updated 1 year ago
Sure, the signs posted all around Octagon Field say, in small, red print, "No Trespassing." But the field's been liberated for informal soccer numerous times since RIOC's ham-handed closing last year. Does another harmless incursion really warrant eight Public Safety officers and a summons without any prior warning?
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03/18/2019 - 09:33
Updated 1 year ago
It's almost as if RIOC has a plan to undermine itself when it has good news to report while flying the flag high when it screws up. It's inexplicable that a State agency with loads of cash and awash in excess personnel can't even get out a simple, significant service announcement. BTW, the Tram and elevator are back at full service. We have to keep repeating it because RIOC won't.
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02/28/2019 - 18:08
Updated 1 year ago
A surprising press release on Tuesday, "Mayor Bill de Blasio and Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced a proposal to transform the MTA and create dedicated and sustained funding streams for the agency. The proposal includes the joint endorsement of congestion pricing and a plan to reorganize the MTA," avoided most details and left Roosevelt Island in a peculiar position - as we usually are.
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02/26/2019 - 20:04
Updated 1 year ago
"The Roosevelt Island Residents Association (RIRA) is pleased to announce that the Cherry Blossom Festival will proceed as planned," according to a Common Council press release. "On Sunday, February 24, the RIRA Common Council passed a motion to support the Cherry Blossom Festival’s fundraising efforts and budget," it added, but something was missing.
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02/13/2019 - 10:22
Updated 1 year ago
RIOC President/CEO Susan Rosenthal cited "the spirit of being good neighbors" in making a change, reducing longtime Octagon Express service in morning commutes to "limited" status, adding a stop and extra commuting time for passengers from the housing complex most distant from primary mass transit.
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01/26/2019 - 10:51
Updated 1 year ago
Sometimes, NFL quarterback Doug Flutie's passes seemed to shoot up out of a shrinking wall of linebackers and lineman, source unseen. At 5' 10", he chaffed at being dissed as too short for the position. He fought back, but it never made him any taller. Roosevelt Island should be able to relate.
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01/03/2019 - 19:15
Updated 2 years ago
While it's untrue that shouting, "Boo!" at them won't knock Hudson/Related's sadly under-designed holiday decorations over in Riverwalk Commons, it doesn't take much more.
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01/02/2019 - 10:24
Updated 2 years ago
On a quiet, cool weekday evening, as I waited for the next Red Bus across from Nisi, five things surprised me, waking me up to a danger I'd missed - as had RIOC. I was, after all, sitting in front of the Public Safety Department with a clear view of Main Street.
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12/18/2018 - 18:21
Updated 2 years ago
This Graduate School Helped Make New York Appealing to Amazon is, more or less, a puff piece using a weak association as a springboard to root for Cornell Tech's adventures in technology innovation. Fair enough. It's a great school and neighbor deserving any spray of hearts tossed its way. But then, the New York Times allowed Roosevelt Island's leading Cornell basher to cut loose as the community's voice.
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Khalil Bendib / OtherWords.org
Reset Conspiracy theories seem to meet psychological needs and can be almost impossible to eradicate. One remedy: Keep them from taking root in the first place. By Greg Miller 1.14.2021 Assorted Ideas, Large & Small The United States of America was founded on a conspiracy theory. In the […]
ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox. This story originally appeared in ProPublica. by Alec MacGillis/ProPublica The man’s smartphone camera pans the crowd on the east side of the U.S. Capitol. It’s smaller […]
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