Opinion

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.

Save Roosevelt Island: RIOC Must Go

03/26/2018 - 16:57 Updated 2 weeks ago

When I wrote this in March, emotions were swollen in the aftermath of RIOC's brutal hammering of the Roosevelt Island Youth Program. Since, from a ridiculous attempt to evict the cat sanctuary from Southpoint and its aftermath, through the exposing the State's history of filling playground drinking fountains with water unfit for human consumption to destroying iconic trees without forewarning or consent, things worsened. It's time for another look.

At Main Street Theatre & Dance Alliance, 1776, Show Captures the Promise of a Nation

03/21/2018 - 08:45

On Saturday afternoon, I stopped by the Howe Theatre in the Cultural Center to see how rehearsals were going for director Jacqueline Lucid's 1776, the classic Broadway musical about the founding of America as a new kind of nation. The show opens Friday at Main Street Theatre & Dance Alliance. Impressed many times already by the grace and professionalism of productions here, I was still stuck in my tracks, nearly unable to stop watching and go home.

Is RIOC Helping Manhattan Park Hide Section 8 Housing Abuse?

03/16/2018 - 20:11 Updated 30 weeks ago

If RIOC wanted to stir suspicion and mistrust, they couldn't have done a better job than they did last week with a bizarre response to a simple information request.

Just how many official vehicles, beside all the PSD cars, does a two-mile long island need?

Proposal: Parade To Celebrate How Good RIOC Is At Spending Your Money

03/13/2018 - 16:46 Updated 24 weeks ago

A friend with a close up view of RIOC, the state agency controlled by Governor Andrew Cuomo in the style of an absentee feudal lord, scanned RIOC's proposed 2018 budget and wondered aloud, "Have you heard the expression, 'spending like a drunken sailor?'” In the immediate shadow of President Trump's grandiose military parade proposal, he mused over doing one that might give everyone a good, long - very long, actually - look at what RIOC's been doing with the figurative buckets of cash sitting around 591 Main Street.

Emily Diaz explains why "Me and my brother go to the Youth Center every day..."

Governor Andrew Cuomo to Roosevelt Island: Shut Up & Go Home

03/02/2018 - 10:15 Updated 32 weeks ago

Harsher language was called for to describe what happened last evening, the night when RIOC's executives and State handlers showed their disdain for Roosevelt Island residents with a raw contempt not seen since the hellish reign of Jerome Blue. An obscenity laced headline stuck in my head all night, but this morning, I did what RIOC was unable to do when they crushed the Roosevelt Island Youth Program, led for 22 years by Charlie DeFino - I put the kids first. I knew they'd be reading, trying to understand what outsiders did to hurt them.

RIYP kids showed their support when SACC registration was verified, earlier this year.

Youth Program Parents' Appeal To Save The Program

02/28/2018 - 09:13

With an existential crisis facing the Roosevelt Island Youth Program, a group of concerned parents makes an appeal as a vote that will mean life or death for the program is set for Thursday's RIOC Board Meeting. We are publishing the full text of their outreach without editing, except for graphic features we cannot duplicate.

An Open Letter To Roosevelt Island Residents, Businesses and Visitors

02/23/2018 - 15:08

Stung by public protests over the Public Safety Department's handling of crime reports, the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation released a open letter in response. We are publishing it in full, without editing.

Kids celebrate Roosevelt Island Youth Program SACC Registration, allowing expanded programing.

Youth Center Inquiry Devolves Into Character Assassination

02/17/2018 - 17:59 Updated 34 weeks ago

It's taken RIOC over a year and a half to figure out who should run the Roosevelt Island Youth Center, but the State agency needed less than a day to find a law firm, Bond Shoeneck & King, headquartered, not in New York, but in Syracuse, to act as a venomous conduit for personal attacks on Youth Program Executive Director Charlie DeFino.

Roosevelt Island & RIOC, a Bad Marriage Gets Worse

02/10/2018 - 10:02 Updated 35 weeks ago

Two events this week show, in no uncertain terms, how far we’ve drifted from Roosevelt Island’s original vision — the City of Tomorrow, now a Land of the Lost with memories stitching it together.

Artwork at the Motorgate Gallery... Will cheap parking attract shoppers, diners and theatre goers to Main Street?

RIOC's New Low in Cluelessness: Merchant Parking Validation Program

02/04/2018 - 10:53 Updated 36 weeks ago

"It’s about to get a little easier for Roosevelt Island visitors with cars to patronage Main Street’s shops, restaurants, delis and theatre," reads RIOC's February 2nd press release. Okay, so they probably meant "patronize," not "patronage" - Hint: patronage isn't a verb - but otherwise, it was right on the money. But the real news is how dazzlingly ill-conceived this gem is.