Last Friday evening, May 14, at about 5:30 PM, the Roosevelt Island Operating
Corp (RIOC) announced that
The Blacklist NBC TV show 

will be filming scenes Monday, May 17 on Roosevelt Island removing public
parking areas used by Roosevelt Island residents, workers and parents of students attending PS/IS 217. According to
RIOC: 

On Monday, May 17^th, Sony Pictures Television will be filming portions of The Blacklist, NBC’s hit criminal mastermind drama starring James Spader and Megan
Boone, from approximately 7:00 AM to 8:00 PM in various locations
throughout Roosevelt Island. Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation (RIOC)
is proud to work with the film and television industry to not only shine a
light on our beautiful island, but drive commerce as well. 

On Sunday, May 16^th, production will be clearing and holding parking in advance of the shoot
for equipment trucks and production vehicles in the following areas:

• In front of and across the street from Foodtown between 10 River Road
  and 40 River Road
• The west side of Main Street between 405 and 475, as filming will be
  taking place in and around Riverwalk Commons, Granny Annies, Duane
  Reade, and Piccolo Trattoria

 

In a letter addressed to Roosevelt Island residents, Woodridge
Productions Inc. has emphasized that they “will make every effort to
minimize [their] impact on the neighborhood and accommodate residents and
businesses while filming.” You may view the full letter, attached.

Today, traffic cones were set up next to Riverwalk buildings reserving the
public parking spots for The Blacklist filming.

Upon learning Friday evening of The Blacklist filming the following Monday,
Roosevelt Island grandmother Raye Schwartz wrote to RIOC President Shelton Haynes:

Hello Shelton,

Once again, RIOC has not only dropped the ball but has endangered many
children in the way this filming was announced to our community. There are
two schools which bring children in to the island, either by school bus or
parents driving them here in the morning and picking them up when the school
day ends.

The area opposite Foodtown, starting at 10 River Road is adjacent to our
public school 217, and because of social distancing requirements caused by
the pandemic, parents cannot just drop the kids off at the front of the
school, but must proceed to the west promenade behind the school. Thus the
parents must park the car temporarily and escort the younger children to the
back of the school yard. Same is true with the school busses. And I’m sure
that you must have seen the trucks used by filming crews in many locations
in our city…and they often will not pay attention to parking barriers.
Further, there’s a string of school busses bringing kids from all over the
city to the Child School next to the current 591 Main Street offices. These
busses pull alongside 580 Main Street and next to the helix. We’ve had Sony
Pictures here on the island many times, but we’ve also had enough
notification to make necessary arrangements: remember Spiderman? And we
often have had many other film and TV crews.

The fact that this notice was sent Friday night, suggests that the directors
at either PS 217 and The Child School did not receive it early enough to
make needed arrangements for modifications for ensuring safe arrival and
dismissal of the students and faculty. Did your RIOC staff make any needed
safety provisions? Will your Public Safety staff take time off from issuing
parking tickets for the city and assist the schools? Based on this enclosed
notice I would think probably not!

… And even if you aren’t the one who did this, you are the CEO of RIOC and
the buck stops with you!

As of Sunday evening, there’s been no response from Mr Haynes or anyone from
RIOC to Ms Schwartz’s concerns.