NYC Mayor Eric Adams visited Roosevelt Island today together with NY State Assembly Member Rebecca Seawright.

The Mayor and Ms Seawright attended a community meeting at the Carter Burden Roosevelt Island Senior Center with residents and listened to their questions and concerns

A Roosevelt Island Tipster attending the meeting with Mayor Adams reports:

It was very noisy as Mayor Adams was coming into the Senior Center meeting room

and Assembly Member Rebecca Seawright immediately stoodup and
introduced him with a few nice words about him wanting to come to the Island
and saying that this is one trip but he’ll be back again soon.

She mentioned that one big issue was getting a Pickleball court here. He said he plays Pickleball and everybody laughed. He then began speaking and basically it was the usual – glad to be here, some people think of RI as not being part of the city, but not him. Joyce Short then yelled out “Not just the city, Manhattan”. That brought a round of applause.

Then he went to questions.

Matt Katz said we’re part of the city but we don’t have a say in how we’re governed. We need to elect our board members…

Joyce Short spoke again agreeing with Matt and reinforcing that the redistrictingmap needs to keep us in Manhattan.

Lynne Shinozaki invited him to an October 11th event at the Girl Puzzle. He said he’d come.

Margie Smith asked if he would fill both of his Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) Board seats with residents. He said he knew he could fill two seats, butdidn’t commit either way to filling them with residents. Ms Smith then mentioned the need for medical facilities on the Island and at that point he said he’s “a list guy”. He wanted us to work with Assemblymember Seawright to put all of our issues on a list and he would address them that way.

Joyce then mentioned that Roosevelt Island sent more letters about the NYC Council preliminary redistricting plan than any other Council District, and a woman from Community Board 8 also spoke about redistricting and gave him the CB8 resolution.

Barbara Parker said there are issues with the new affordable building on the Island and he said to put it on the list and he’ll address it.

That was pretty much it. So, nothing really happened, except we were able to mention some of the Island issues, but didn’t get any resolutions, not that we expected any in that type of meeting. He sounded sincere and I’m going to be optimistic that we’ll get something done.

Resident Matt Katz adds:

The questions were short and sweet and Mayor Adams had his assistant
taking notes. I went first to advocate for elected administration
for Roosevelt Island. The bulk of the remaining time, a total of 15
minutesI think, centered around the Manhattan
redistrictingissue and I thought the point was made. Mayor
Adams said he would follow up as this was only a
preliminarycontact We shall see.

Mayor Adams then walked down Main Street to visit the Roosevelt Island Library where he met with NYPL President Tony Marx, Roosevelt Island Library Manager Carlos Chavez, RIOC President Shelton Haynes and some young residents

Images From Roosevelt Island Library

After the library visit, Mayor Adams walked to the Roosevelt Island Tram and waited

for his ride back to the Manhattan Tram Station.

Mayor Adams said during the Tram ride that Roosevelt Island is an exciting and special place.

After the Tram Ride, I spoke with Assembly Member Seawright about the Mayor’s visit to Roosevelt Island.

The community meeting with Mayor Adams was closed to the press, meaning Roosevelt Island Online news was not allowed to attend the meeting.Mayor Adams visit to Cornell Tech last June was also closed to the press.

As Mayor Adams left the Senior Center walking down Main Street to visit the NYPL Roosevelt Island branch I asked him why the local press was not allowed to attend.

The Mayor said he was not taking questions from the press and was here to listen to the residents.

Hopefully, the Mayor will be available to the press next time he visits.

UPDATE 10:00 PM – Here’s video of the meeting with Mayor Adams at the Senior Center.