Thursday, March 13, 2008

Roosevelt Island: Goodbye Eliot, Hello David

Eliot Spitzer during his gubernatorial campaign stopped at Roosevelt Island’s Church of the Good Shepherd and promised change. Island residents excited at the chance of keeping a Republican Governor out Albany were eager for Spitzer’s message of better days. Residents voted in large numbers for Spitzer evidencing their desire for change. During this last year we saw the ouster of Herb Berman and installation of Spitzer appointee Stephen Shane as RIOC CEO and President and we expected / hoped that Spitzer would respect our election of RIOC Board nominees.



We know little as to what soon to be Governor David Paterson thinks about Roosevelt Island and the issues that concern us most including transportation concerns, privatization, among others. We voted for Paterson as part of a Spitzer / Paterson ticket. To my knowledge Lt. Governor Paterson only has step foot on Roosevelt Island once last May during a photo op with Mayor Bloomberg regarding the Verdant Power water turbine project in the East Channel of the East River behind Gristedes.


It is still way too early to know whether Roosevelt Island will be left alone or whether DHCR Van Amerongen will even be able to submit the elected slate of RIOC Board Nominees or how this new administration will look upon the various privatization efforts of the buildings here on Roosevelt Island. We will simply have to wait and see.

1 comment:

  1. Eliot Spitzer screwed me. And I didn't even get paid for it! Check the tally. There are a few people on this rock who didn't vote for him, and I am one of them. As we saw with the Wall St. cases, he is a zealot, a grandstander, and an abuser of prosecutorial prerogative who never should have been in public service. Just go back and look how Steve Shane's statements about Mitchell Lama privatization went from fair and measured to arrogant, once Eliot's minions schooled him in confrontational government. Lately, of course, his statements had become more measured after Spitzer's style began to alienate both sides of the aisle in Albany. Let's see what happens several months down the line if/when RI finally gets onto Paterson's radar screen.

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