A crowd of over 100 Roosevelt Island residents attended the April 15 Steam Plant Demolition Town Hall Community Meeting at a jam packed Good Shepherd Church. These concerned residents were seeking answers to their questions directed at representatives of the New York City Buildings Department, Department of Housing Preservation & Development and New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.
At times, the large crowd became very boisterous expressing their frustration at the lack of responsiveness by the NYC and NYS representatives to their questions about the reason for the Steam Plant demolition and safety measures being taken for any demolition.
According to the Architectural Community Alliance of Roosevelt Island (ArchRI) Instagram Page:
The fight isn’t over, neighbors!
Wow, what a turnout last night! Good Shepherd Chapel was PACKED as we pressed for answers about the demolition of the Roosevelt Island Steam Plant. But despite our community showing up in full force, we got nothing: no reports, no test results, no clear answers.
135 days of asking questions, and still stonewalled.
So what’s next? Let’s figure it out together!
Here’s the video of the full meeting.
Following the Town Hall meeting, I spoke with Arch RI founders Zora Boyadzhieva and Kalin Kresnitchki.
The following day, I asked HPD:
… any comment from the HPD reps about the meeting and the feedback they got back from the Roosevelt Island community?
Will there be any change in the schedule for the actual demolition to start based upon feedback from the meeting?
Several residents who attended the meeting asked if HPD would pause the demolition until the Department of Buildings Steam Plant report is made public and can be reviewed by the community with a third party. Does HPD have any comment on that?
HPD spokesperson Kim Moscaritolo replied:
We always appreciate hearing directly from community members. We were glad to participate in the town hall, and we look forward to future community engagement on this process. The emergency demolition ordered by the Department of Buildings is currently moving forward as planned. It is being completed as safely and efficiently as possible, in compliance with all federal, state, and local laws, and residents can be confident that their safety is our top priority throughout this process.
and provided this upcoming 8 week demolition schedule.
Gothamist reported on the Roosevelt Island Steam Plant demolition.
According to Gothamist:
… At one point in the town hall at the Chapel of the Good Shepherd, residents broke out in chants of “report, report” and “give us the truth!”
“I thought that we were going to get answers, so I genuinely was like, ‘OK, great. … I will renew my lease in my building, all will be well. But we heard crickets,” said Lani McGuire, a resident raised on the Island and Marine Corps veteran. “We heard literally just them ignoring questions. It was disrespectful. … It was frightening.”…
At the very end of the meeting, I asked the NYC Department of Buildings Deputy Commissioner Yegal Shamash why not make the full Steam Plant demolition report that he described available to the public. From his answer, it appeared making the report public may be reconsidered. According to Mr Shamash:
… I’ll go back and we’ll have a conversation in-house with the commissioner and we will have discussions with RIOC and see what we can publish….
The Roosevelt Island Connect Instagram page has more from the Town Hall.
Stay tuned for more follow up on the issue..
So, where was Julie Menin? Wasn’t she elected to represent constituents’ concerns? Too busy raising her profile while seeking to become NYC’s first woman mayor?