Opinion

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Chair Alex Valella, second from left, listens to speakers on both sides of the Youth Center conflict.

Clueless Cuomo Appointee Aggravates Community Tensions

01/26/2018 - 10:24 Updated 36 weeks ago

In most disputes, figures involved choose to take the high or the low road, sometimes a blend of both. But confronted with a tense community, its anger fueled by racial and class divisions on Roosevelt Island, RIOC Board Chair Alex Valella stunned a packed audience at last night's Board Meeting by choosing "none of the above," hustling out of 8 River Road as if being pursued by ghosts. RIOC scored yet another failure in leadership certain to aggravate harsh feelings and deepen scars while the interests of local children increasingly risk becoming collateral damage.

PTA Drags RI Parents' Network Into the Toilet But Refuses to Flush

01/18/2018 - 09:44 Updated 38 weeks ago

Opinion: For those of us who grew up believing that Parent Teacher Associations have better things to do, the shock from last year's antics hadn't faded before PS/IS 217 PTA's flawed leadership took another miserable turn, again twisting the RI Parents' Network into a self-serving cesspool. Unwilling to accept a favored vendor's losing out in a fair contest for rights to manage the Youth Center, PTA President Erin Olavesen publicly announced a plan to derail an award to the Roosevelt Island Youth Program. What followed is a disgrace to the community. Again.

New From RIOC: Map & Self-Guided Tour of Roosevelt Island That Isn't

01/16/2018 - 10:07 Updated 39 weeks ago

Early this month, local resident and marketing consultant Janet Falk discovered something in a visit to Sportspark: a Roosevelt Island NYC Map and Self-Guided Tour produced by RIOC. There has been no public announcement and copies were not provided to the Historical Society's Visitor Center. We can only hope it was a limited printing - very limited - of a brochure, riddled with errors, that gives every indication that it was composed by someone unfamiliar with Roosevelt Island.

Is Roosevelt Island still a community or an investment opportunity?

2017, A Year When RIOC Screwed Tenants and Cuddled (Some) Landlords

01/05/2018 - 10:29 Updated 40 weeks ago

Opinion: The surprising thing, when RIOC turned a cold shoulder to tenants, this year, was how openly it was done. Same thing with handing out special favors to landlords Hudson Related and Grenadier/Manhattan Park. You don’t have to decipher their motives or guess at why the State agency enjoys immunity from this behavior — or thinks it does — to recognize the damages.

Cross Purposes: RIOC's Messy Attempt to Connect with Residents

12/20/2017 - 18:09 Updated 42 weeks ago

In her President's Report, the segment which for all intents wraps up each RIOC Board Meeting, President/CEO Susan Rosenthal made a curious announcement. RIOC is hiring a "public information officer" to improve communications with the community. But that covers only half of the problem, and then, there was something else that contradicted any RIOC good intentions, just five minutes later.

About RIOC’s Stingy, Broken Public Purpose Funds

12/08/2017 - 10:12 Updated 44 weeks ago

As I begin writing, I don’t know what the Common Council’s Public Purpose Fund Committee will recommend in grants before passing them on to RIOC. What I do know is that not a dime will go to our seniors. That alone should awaken RIOC to the fact that this system is not just stingy, but badly broken.

Main Street WIRE copies, unread, untouched after two weeks

What We Know About the WIRE Warsing Complaint

11/30/2017 - 18:18 Updated 45 weeks ago

I haven't seen the complaint Main Street WIRE attorney Marc Jonas Block filed against me and the Daily in Supreme Court. Others have, including other local media. Word spread around Roosevelt Island. From what I've learned, I'm disgusted by some of it but, also, puzzled over why an attorney would chose to build a community crushing case on a tapestry of misinformation.

Memo from RIOC President/CEO Susan Rosenthal misstates facts and scrambles dates, shielding Manhattan Park - and itself - from responsibility.

How RIOC Played Loose with Truth to Help Manhattan Park Beat Tenants

11/26/2017 - 22:57 Updated 46 weeks ago

Should we be concerned? Documents expose an outbreak of memory disorders at 591 Main Street that mislead State Senator Jose Serrano Jr when his office sought to help Manhattan Park tenants. Is it amnesia, short term memory loss or something worse — an affliction with symptoms resembling reliance on “alternative facts?”

Can RIOC Be That Clueless?

11/22/2017 - 10:07 Updated 44 weeks ago

There's still some space left before we plunge into the Jerry Blue level of frustration. But RIOC’s lack of community engagement, expanding cluelessness under the combined “leadership” of Andrew Cuomo and Susan Rosenthal, leave us with limited fresh air, and it’s escaping fast.

Blown over on the first windy day. You'd have thought $75K would buy something, uhm... more sturdy...

Update: Things That Make You Say, "$75,000 for That?!!"

11/19/2017 - 23:27 Updated 43 weeks ago

If news of the pricey Winter Wonderland planned for Roosevelt Island this holiday season left you feeling anything from underwhelmed to dubious, you probably aren't going to feel any better now that the build out is underway. It promises to be everything we were afraid it would be.