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.
11/12/2017 - 18:44
Updated 1 year ago
When I read this statement from our State Assembly Member Rebecca Seawright, "I am pleased to report that I just received notification from the MTA that additional Q trains are coming to the Second Avenue Subway as a result of continued advocacy by our local groups... and local elected officials," I jumped off my chair. On further review, the news wasn't so great, but still, maybe you and Ben can put your heads together to enact a rescue.
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11/09/2017 - 10:12
On an otherwise quiet Friday afternoon, I read a forwarded email in which RIOC Assistant General Counsel Lada Stasko rejected a Freedom of Information request. Her explanation: “Please note that the Budget Bulletin H-1032-Revised, dated July 16, 2014, applies to State agencies, and RIOC is not a State agency.” (emphasis added)
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11/02/2017 - 16:21
Updated 2 years ago
At RIOC's last Board Meeting, a kerfuffle over the big red RI Icon, the first of two, erupted when President/CEO Susan Rosenthal lobbed, "It's a done deal," back at historian Judy Berdy in answer to her protest. Who was right?
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10/29/2017 - 08:48
Updated 2 years ago
Just when you thought you'd seen the worst of Roosevelt Island's community disintegration, with large volumes of rentals converted to foreign student warehousing and quick turnaround (and completely illegal) Airbnb-style mini-hotels, more bad news arrives about heartless, downstream effects.
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10/23/2017 - 18:40
Updated 2 years ago
You may not have heard the term, but pivoting is an art politicians work to perfect. Watch any news show or, for a great example, a Sarah Huckabee Sanders press conference. A question is put forward, and a strategic answer pops out that responds authoritatively on something not asked.
Pivoting is a dodge. With politicians, it's typical dishonesty. With a State agency trusted to serve residents' interests, it's also immoral.
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10/18/2017 - 18:41
Updated 2 years ago
The worst kept secret on Roosevelt Island is that we have lots of location signage, good stuff too, easy to follow and right where visitors need it to be. The best kept is why it never benefits the struggling Main Street retail corridor.
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10/08/2017 - 09:18
In my twenties, overturning everything I thought I knew about life by reading Kurt Vonnegut's novels, I heard that No More Blue Mondays, the subtitle for Breakfast of Champions, was about his taking medications for chronic depression, and I cringed. My hero had a mental illness? Now, we know that what's been hidden so long is that it's about as common and every day as catching the flu, and a new program Make It OK is out to change our minds .
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10/04/2017 - 09:08
We're not taking it personally. RIOC's braintrust hasn't responded to our previous helpful suggestions about signage nor, as far as we know, to Judy Berdy's brilliant idea about putting lamppost banners to good use. Maybe the gang at 591 Main Street's just been busy. Maybe they're mulling a thoughtful, appreciative response. Whatever. But undeterred and standing ready, as faithful Roosevelt Islanders, we're still willing to help.
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09/25/2017 - 17:08
Prolonged stalling increases the risk that Westview will end up dropping Mitchell-Lama unilaterally, converting the complex into market rate rentals and coops. A look at what's become of market rate housing at Manhattan Park helps explain the dangers.
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09/20/2017 - 16:37
The idea's a good one. Bring in a majority of Roosevelt island residents to populate a Board meant to guide and approve how RIOC governs. But has crafty maneuvering in Albany handcuffed our locals, turning them into medieval vavasours? Are they stuck, for all serious purposes, with simply nodding along with Governor Andrew Cuomo's decisions, no longer empowered to influence much of anything?
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