The RIOC Board is blind. For that matter, RIOC President Rob Ryan is blind, too. They are blinded by the fact that most are either occasional visitors to Roosevelt Island or, in Ryan's case, they come here to work, not to live. Tunnel vision focused on the Island's financial concerns, they are blind because they cannot see the nature of daily life here. Yet they are in the position of regulating too many aspects of our daily lives and our long-term future.
Motorgate parking is a prime example.
In last week's RIOC Board meeting, Board member Leo Kayser, otherwise a likeable chap, lectured residents on the value of the free market in setting rates for things like Motorgate, saying, in effect, that the market would bear only such prices as residents would pay. A resident who chooses to have a car here, or must have one, has no other place to park. And when Board member John Mannix mentioned the high cost of heating garages as one justification for increased parking costs, it was clear he's not a regular here. Perhaps he doesn't know that Motorgate is unheated. Or that security arrangements elsewhere actually work.