Good morning. It’s Wednesday. Today we’ll find out why some Roosevelt Island residents want priority boarding on the tram to and from Manhattan. We’ll also get details on former Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s endorsement of Andrew Cuomo for his former job.
New York is a city where people stand in lines to get into restaurants, to get into Broadway shows and lately even to get onto the unassuming Roosevelt Island tram. Social media discovered the tram several years ago and turned it into a tourist destination, an inexpensive way to take in the Manhattan skyline.
Even on cloudy, foggy days, a steady stream of sightseers rides the tram — and on a picture-perfect day, something can happen that was once unheard-of: Lines can form at the tram station in Manhattan, on Second Avenue just beyond the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge. Long lines, some Roosevelt Island residents say.
“Sometimes the lines can be 45 minutes or an hour,” said Anna Zychlinsky Scharff, a physician and researcher in pediatric oncology who lives on Roosevelt Island. “I have to get to day care to pick up my kid. I don’t have 45 minutes.”
Residents like Zychlinsky Scharff want what some passengers get at the airport: priority boarding.
Paul Krikler, a member of Manhattan Community Board 8 and the chairman of its Roosevelt Island Committee, said that “fast pass” boarding would let residents and people who work on Roosevelt Island “go about our regular lives, going to work, school, doctors’ appointments and the like” no matter how big the tourist crowds are. The community board approved a resolution in January that called for priority boarding.
But the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation, or R.I.O.C., the state agency that manages the island, had already ruled that out.
It issued a statement two years ago that it had looked into the possibility of “preferences” for residents and had concluded that a priority line or reduced fares for residents would violate state law. It said that the tram was considered a common carrier, the same as the subway, the Long Island Rail Road or the Metro-North Railroad, and quoted a state law that said a common carrier could not provide anyone with an “undue or reasonable preference or advantage.”
Krikler’s take on the law was different: “We think it is reasonable to give us preference as we have lost the tram as a consistently available mode of transit.” He also said that a fast pass could be available to anyone “from anywhere in the world” who wanted one, thus avoiding a preference based on residency. “They would just have to come to Roosevelt Island to pick it up,” he said.
Julie Menin, a City Council member whose district includes Roosevelt Island, said that it would probably take an executive order from Gov. Kathy Hochul to change things. Menin compared the tram not to a subway but to a ferry and said she had found that ferries in at least three states allow priority boarding.
She also suggested creating a tourist pass that would put visitors in their own line, separate from the one for Roosevelt Island regulars.
The tram has become “a selfie haven — tourists get on to take selfies,” Menin said. Many take the next tram back without venturing onto the island. They have driven up ridership, residents say. Some 3.2 million passengers took the tram last year, up 6.5 percent from 2023. The fare is $2.90, the same as on the subway, although the tram is operated by R.I.O.C., not the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the subways.
R.I.O.C. says long waits are not necessarily a day-to-day headache: Long lines for the tram have formed on only 17 days so far this year. It sends its public safety officers to the Manhattan station at such times, mainly for crowd control. The officers allow only 50 to 75 people on the platform until a tram pulls in and they can board. Then another 25 are allowed on.
No officers were needed in the rain and fog at noontime on Tuesday, but the cabin was crowded, and the tourists easily outnumbered the Roosevelt Islanders.
“It’s a nice way of traveling, going from A to B for the locals,” said Erna Verspui, from the Dutch city of Breda, who was in her last day in New York on a trip celebrating her 25th wedding anniversary. After the brouhaha over the lines had been explained, 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 around 71.
ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING
In effect until June 19 (Juneteenth).
The latest New York news
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Adams’s team, working behind the scenes against Cuomo: A top aide to Mayor Eric Adams has been calling Orthodox Jewish leaders to urge them not to back Cuomo in the June 24 Democratic primary, or to temper their support for Cuomo if they do. Allies of Adams, who will be on the ballot in November as an independent, believe he would have a better chance if the Democratic nominee were Zohran Mamdani.
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City Council requests an investigation: The Council asked the city’s watchdog agency to look into the Police Department’s cooperation with ICE. The Council made reference to concerns about whether the police had violated the city’s sanctuary laws by sharing information with the federal authorities.
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Judge dismisses Baldoni’s suit: A federal judge dismissed Justin Baldoni’s lawsuit against his former co-star Blake Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, and The New York Times. Baldoni had accused them of trying to destroy his reputation by accusing him of sexual harassment and retaliation.
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Sean Combs’s ex is cross-examined: The woman testified about the moments of affection shared during a tumultuous three-year relationship, saying that she “felt very loved by him.” The defense’s questioning sought to counter her testimony over the previous three days.
Bloomberg endorses Cuomo for mayor
Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that he was backing former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the race for mayor.
Bloomberg said in a statement that it had been difficult to watch the city struggle since he left office in 2013, especially during the coronavirus pandemic. “In sizing up the field in the race for mayor,” Bloomberg said, “there is one candidate whose management experience and government know-how stand above the others: Andrew Cuomo.”
He called Cuomo, who is considered the front-runner in the June 24 Democratic primary, a “pragmatist.” Bloomberg also praised his work to rebuild LaGuardia Airport.
My colleague Emma G. Fitzsimmons writes that Bloomberg has mostly avoided endorsing candidates for mayor at the primary level, which made his support for Cuomo all the more notable. The endorsement may persuade some undecided voters who have criticisms of Cuomo’s handling of the pandemic or who may have misgivings about the sexual harassment scandal that led to his resignation as governor in 2021.
It was not immediately clear if Bloomberg intended to hit the campaign trail with Cuomo in the last two weeks before the primary.
Bloomberg is expected to contribute to a group allied with Mr. Cuomo. Bloomberg has a long record of contributing to Democratic candidates. He spent heavily in the 2018 midterms and contributed $50 million to Vice President Kamala Harris’s election effort.
METROPOLITAN diary
Great Trebulation
Dear Diary:
It was late afternoon on a Sunday in April. I was walking down Flushing Avenue near Green Central Knoll playground in Brooklyn with my husband and a friend. We were dressed in full colonial attire.
A car with a strange wooden contraption on the roof drove by blasting “We Are the Champions.”
A tired-looking woman wearing a hoodie and a baseball hat approached. Her weariness, I guessed, was a result of the previous night’s festivities.
Do you know what is going on around here? she asked us.
A trebuchet contest, we said.
What’s a trebuchet? she asked.
A catapult, we explained. You build small catapults and shoot pieces of chocolate from them. See those guys in the car with the thing tied to the roof? They won, and we lost, unfortunately.
She did not seem to share our excitement about the Great Trebulation.
We live in a weird place, she said.
— Julia Lansford
Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send submissions here and read more Metropolitan Diary here.
Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. — J.B.
P.S. Here’s today’s Mini Crossword and Spelling Bee. You can find all our puzzles here.
Makaelah Walters and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at [email protected].
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James Barron writes the New York Today newsletter, a morning roundup of what’s happening in the city.
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