NY Sun: Tram Outage at Time of Island Growth

Tomorrow's New York Sun, June 5, 2008, includes an article, available online now, by Real Estate Reporter Candace Taylor, which examines the convergence of the planned 2009 Roosevelt Island Tram outage with the increase in housing stock on the island. I spoke with Ms. Taylor a couple of weeks ago in prep for her article and outlined my concerns regarding these issues.

As expected the sales staff at Riverwalk see no issue due to the existence of the subway station despite our consistenly losing weekend service due to construction and security projects. Only Bruce Becker, the Octagon's developer, proactively began steps to bring another mode of transportation to the Island which hopefully will be operational by the Tram's outage. The question is will that even fill the need.

In 2006 when the Tram was offline for 4 months only two to three of the Riverwalk buildings were occupied. By the time the Tram goes offline six of the planned nine buildings will be open and filling up. During the last outage the Octagon had only just opened and now it is fully operational. As State Assembly Member Micah Kellner indicates the island is "literally bursting at the seams". This outage will truly test the limits how far the F train and Red Buses (to Queensboro Plaza) can handle the expected growth.

Rezoning Manhattan Kids to Roosevelt Island’s PS 217 ?

According to an article in today’s New York Sun (see above image) the BOE is considering a plan to rezone children from overcrowded Manhattan schools to schools considered under utilized including Roosevelt Island’s PS 217 and PS 47 The School for the Deaf on 23rd Street. Just to let those Upper East Side Manhattan parent’s know a secret, PS 217 is part of Manhattan’s District 2. It is that fact that allows a number of Roosevelt Island school age children to attend public school in Manhattan.

It would be ironic if the BOE did rezone East Side kids to PS 217 as currently there are Queens kids bussed into PS 217 as space is available for kids to attend. I believe the kids being bussed in are also attending based on the “No Child Left Behind Program” and their local zoned schools are not meeting their educational needs.

At the same time, some Roosevelt Island kids that may have attended PS 217 for Kindergarten and into First Grade are pulled out by parents looking for schools with better average grades than PS 217 as well as due to fears of alleged disciplinary problems in the upper grades. The school is a K through 8 school.

As quoted in the NY Sun article, Mary Silver, a member of the District 2 community education council “described the response of parents as "emotional."”:

"Frankly, telling a kindergarten parent that you're going to ship their kid to Roosevelt Island is not going to help you make friends and influence people," Ms. Silver said. "Why don't you send them to Princeton? It's crazy."

Well Ms. Silver I can tell you the issue of PS 217 is an emotional issue for parents of school age kids on Roosevelt Island not just parents concerned about a possible rezoning plan which will probably never come to pass. I have met several groups of parents who over the years tried to organize groups of parents to band together and send their kids into PS 217 but many break down and send their kids off island for wanting a better school and not willing to invest the time, and energy into what they see as not a sure thing.

Overall the issue of PS 217 is a shame and has a history of bad politics, missed opportunities, and plain old misinformation. I don’t even know all the facts as I have heard PS 217 at one time was one of the top schools in NYC not just District 2. The crazy thing is the grades are supposedly improving and the teachers and administration at the school are known to deeply care about the kids and their school.

It is a great building and a shame more island kids dont attend school in it. For disclosure purposes I will admit my own kids attend different District 2 public schools in Manhatan.

Getting back to the rezoning plan, I doubt if it will ever happen. And if it did happen forcing the Queens kids to be pushed back into their old school districts watch out as then you’ll really have people screaming.

The Exhausted Butt End of the Modernist Movement?

The New York Sun today discusses the reconstituted Kaufman Center but within the article discusses the architecture of Roosevelt Island:

“Mr. Bhavnani is not from the Soviet Union but from India, and the only other projects associated with his name in New York are Island House and Rivercross, on Roosevelt Island. There is a certain suggestiveness to his being associated with that community: Just as Lincoln Center is New York's foremost architectural artifact of the 1960s, such is the status that, for better or worse, Roosevelt Island occupied in the decade that followed. Usually insipid to one degree or another, the architecture there, by Jose Luis Sert, Philip Johnson, and others, represents the exhausted butt end of the Modern movement.”

I submitted a comment to the article which approximately stated the following:

“I will not try to defend the designs of the buildings built on Roosevelt Island when they wewre erected in the 1970’s just because I live there as I have no knowledge of architecture. But somehow I feel I should be defending something after my home has been referred to as “the exhausted butt end of the modernist movement”. I feel so violated”

City Leaders Meet to Push FDR Memorial on Roosevelt Island

Both the NY Sun and Curbed are running stories this morning about a planned meeting of City leaders who want to jump start the building of the memorial to FDR.

As per the NY Sun:
The city leaders set to attend the event include Democratic Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney; City Council Speaker Christine Quinn; City Councilwoman Jessica Lappin; New York State Assembly member Micah Kellner, and the president of Manhattan, Scott Stringer.

Curbed is having some fun with this suggesting that the tents from The Encampment shoudl have left up and renamed after FDR. Curbed does point out that this project to the public's eye has started and stopped and never has taken on the momentum of a project that appears headed for completion.

Update 1:
The Roosevelt Islander post on this topic this afternoon adds a lot of detail from prior news pieces in one place and his blog post title adds his own opinion whether the memorial is one for FDR or the architect Louis Kahn who designed the planned memorial.

Update 2:
The New York Times City Room page has a detailed article on the meeting and the history of the planned memorial. The comments are interesting to read and support the Roosevelt Islander's opinion that for many this is a memorial to Kahn not FDR.