Good morning. It’s Wednesday. Today we will find out why some residents of Roosevelt Island want priority on board the tram to and from Manhattan. We will also get details about the approval of former mayor Michael Bloomberg of Andrew Cuomo for his former job.
New York is a city where people stand in line to get into restaurants, to get into Broadway shows and even lately to get to the modest tram of Roosevelt Island. Social media discovered the tram a few years ago and changed a tourist destination, a cheap way to take the Manhattan skyline.
Even on cloudy, foggy days, a steady stream of sightseers drives over the tram and on a photo-perfect day, something can happen that was once unheard of: lines can form at the tram station in Manhattan, on second avenue just past the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge. Long lines, some residents of Roosevelt Island say.
“Sometimes the lines can take 45 minutes or an hour,” said Anna Zychlinsky Scharff, a doctor and researcher in the pediatric oncology who lives on Roosevelt Island. “I have to go to childcare to pick up my child. I don’t have 45 minutes.”
Residents such as Zychlinsky Scharff want what some passengers get at the airport: enter priority.
Paul Krikler, a member of the Mannetan Community Board 8 and the chairman of the Roosevelt Island Committee, said that boarding the “fast pass” residents and people who work on Roosevelt island, “our regular life work, go to work, school, school, agreements of doctors and the similarly the tourist crowds would be. The Community Board approved a resolution in January that called for priority.
But the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation, or RIOC, The state agency that manages the island had already excluded that.
Two years ago it issued a statement that it had investigated the possibility of ‘preferences’ for residents and had concluded that a priority line or reduced rates for residents would violate the state law. It said that the tram was considered a common courier, the same as the Metro, the Long Island Rail Road or the Metro-North Railroad, and quoted a state law that said a common carrier could not offer anyone an “unnecessary or reasonable preference or benefit.”
Krikler’s view of the law was different: “We think it is reasonable to prefer ourselves because we have lost the tram as a consistently available way of transit.” He also said that a fast pass could be available to everyone “from all over the world” who wanted one, which avoided a preference based on residence. “They should just come to the island of Roosevelt to pick it up,” he said.
Julie Menin, a municipal councilor whose district Roosevelt Island includes, said it would probably take an executive order from Gov. Kathy Hochul to change things. Menin did not compare the tram with a metro but with a ferry and said she had discovered that ferries in at least three states allow priority boarding.
She also suggested making a tourist pass that would bring visitors to their own line, apart from that for Roosevelt Island -Stam guests.
The tram has become “a selfie harbor – tourists continue to take selfies,” said Menin. Many take the next tram back without vending to the island. They have raised the rider, residents say. About 3.2 million passengers took the tram last year, an increase of 6.5 percent compared to 2023. The rate is $ 2.90, the same as on the metro, although the tram is managed by RIOC, not the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the Subways.
RIOC says that long waiting times are not necessarily a daily headache: long lines for the tram have so far only been formed for 17 days this year. It sends its public safety officers at such times to Manhattan station, mainly for Crowd Control. The officers only allow 50 to 75 people on the platform until a tram enters and they can board. Then another 25 are allowed.
On Tuesday no officers were needed in the rain and fog for afternoon, but the cabin was busy and the tourists easily surpassed the islanders of Roosevelt.
“It is a fun way of traveling, going from A to B for the locals,” said Erna Verspui, from the Dutch city of Breda, who was in New York on her last day on a trip in honor of her 25th wedding anniversary. After the Brouhaha was explained over the lines, she said she understood why Roosevelt Islanders felt overwhelmed by tourists.
“Nothing personal,” she said.
Weather
Prepare for sunshine and a high near 85. Tonight the sky will be clear with a low point around 71.
Alternative
In fact until June 19 (Juneteenth).
The latest New York -News
Bloomberg endorses Cuomo for mayor
Former mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that he was Support former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the Race for Mayor.
Bloomberg said in a statement that it was difficult to see the city struggling since he left the office in 2013, especially during the Coronavirus Pandemie. “By taking the field in the Race for Mayor,” said Bloomberg, “there is a candidate whose management experience and the know -how of the government are above the others: Andrew Cuomo.”
He called Cuomo, who is considered the leader in the Democratic Primary of 24 June, a ‘pragmatist’. Bloomberg also praised his work to rebuild Laguardia Airport.
My colleague Emma G. Fitzsimmons writes that Bloomberg has usually avoided to endorse candidates for mayor at the primary level, which made his support for Cuomo all the more remarkable. The approval can convince some undecided voters who criticize Cuomo’s handling of the pandemic or who may have doubts about the sexual harassment scandal that led to his dismissal as governor in 2021.
It was not immediately clear whether Bloomberg was planning to hit the campaign track with Cuomo in the last two weeks before the primary.
Bloomberg is expected to contribute to a group connected to Mr Cuomo. Bloomberg has a long report of contributions to democratic candidates. He spent heavily in the Midterms 2018 and contributed $ 50 million to the election effort of Vice President Kamala Harris.
Metropolis
Great trebulation
Best diary:
It was late in the afternoon on a Sunday in April. I walked through Flushing Avenue near Green Central Knoll Playground in Brooklyn with my husband and a friend. We were dressed in full colonial clothing.
A car with a strange wooden device drove on the roof by shooting “We Are The Champions”.
A tired -looking woman who wears a hoodie and approached a baseball hat. Her fatigue, I suspected, was a consequence of the festivities of the previous night.
Do you know what’s going on here? She asked us.
We said a Trebuchet competition.
What is a Trebuchet? she asked.
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