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.
08/29/2018 - 08:28
Updated 1 year ago
Farris Koroma committed a stupid crime, firing random bullets across the East River in the middle of the night to impress his girlfriend. And he exposed Roosevelt Island to a defining moment in the sunlight. Nothing we saw should be a surprise, but it probably was.
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07/28/2018 - 21:33
Updated 1 year ago
So far, RIOC's treated fears about contaminated water fountains like a speed bump to be rolled past and forgotten. They tipped their hand with the ill-considered hiring of Healthy Building International Inc., a firm specializing in indoor environmental quality, to run tests, and ignoring serious questions from residents. Now, although that effort's been rejected by unnamed "health officials," we're nowhere near being out of the woods.
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07/17/2018 - 18:15
Updated 1 year ago
RIOC's Real Estate Development Advisory Committee (REDAC) meets tomorrow, July 18th. On the agenda: Westview Ground Lease Negotiations. Not on the agenda: consideration of Westview's anxious tenants as it's already been announced that they will go into "executive session," an inflated term that means everyone else will be locked out.
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07/16/2018 - 20:07
Updated 1 year ago
According to an exhaustive study by City Comptroller Scott Stringer, New York City contributed "68 percent of MTA's operating budget in FY14 while the State paid for just 4 percent. City also contributed nearly $300 million annually over the last decade in capital funding to the MTA." But to fix the subways, flubbing his way into a word salad that was hard to follow, Governor Cuomo made one thing clear, last week: New York City folks need to foot even more of the tab.
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07/11/2018 - 16:34
Updated 1 year ago
It's a challenging bar to cross, given history, but RIOC may have set a new high in lows in its handling of the contaminated water fountain crisis. With thousands at risk over decades, RIOC's main concern turned instantly to saving face. As usual, neither apologies nor acceptance of responsibility were in order at the Andrew Cuomo run State agency.
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06/28/2018 - 17:45
Updated 1 year ago
Elected officials representing Roosevelt Island will hold a Town Hall Meeting tonight at 6:00. All are on Governor Andrew Cuomo's Team. There are good reasons to go and even better ones not to expect much.
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06/27/2018 - 16:37
Updated 1 year ago
The Westview Task Force began a message to tenants, "While progress in discussions between NYS agencies and WV Owners has not been as fast as anticipated, due in part to RIOC President Susan Rosenthal’s extended vacation in June, still a lot has been accomplished and we are told parties are just inches away." Yes, the vacation variation is new, but haven't we heard that one before, more than once, along the troubled road to affordability?
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06/20/2018 - 14:21
Faced with thousands of petition signatures and email complaints, the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation shows all the depth and wisdom of a pack of squirrels in mating season. Perhaps that's unfair to the squirrels, which when overwhelmed with hormones still maintain their amazing dexterity. RIOC's got the flexibility of a tree sloth.
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06/19/2018 - 09:21
Updated 1 year ago
"We're on it," declared RIOC President/CEO last month when we asked her about the obscenity and racism laden graffiti bruising The Prow, an art installation jutting into the East River along the West Promenade, south of The Octagon. Apparently, being "on it" did not mean doing anything about it.
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06/15/2018 - 21:07
Updated 1 year ago
Opinion: Cuomo Thumbs His Nose At Roosevelt Island, Installs Unqualified RIOC Leader was our headline in October, 2016. I was wrong. No, not about Cuomo. Of course he was thumbing his nose at us, as he had before and has since. Yet Susan Rosenthal may be qualified, just not for the job we expect of her. Instead, she executes the Governor's anti-democratic bidding on Roosevelt Island. But that begs the question: where are Kallos, Seawright and Serrano, the people we elected to help and protect us?
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_3.jpg "Westview Affordability: RIOC Demands Secrecy, Helstien Flames the Task Force")
