Newsday from New York, New York • 4

rrrr: On The Road Among the many extraordinary aspect of the city are the jobs of some of its residents Here is an- other in a series of weekend sto- ties about those jobs' gnd the people who do them By Caxyn Ere Wiener Ifr the best-run public transportation in New York how Gregs Paravati describes the Roosevelt Island Tramway Paravati ought to know: He is one member of the team that helps run it Seven years ago when the twin wthina began their maiden season of trips between Roosevelt Island and Manhattan he sold tokens to its Gregg Paravati at the controls of the Roosevelt Island Tramway nicate with the cabin attendants Paravati spends most of his time monitor ing the passage at an estimated speed of 1440 foet per min-ute along the 250-fbot-high steel cables Most of the time the console -remote" as departures speed and docking are handled through the cabin attendants smaller -conaolea That leaves to monitor the wind weather electrical and technical conditions Ty radio by sight and via the master console Across the top of the console a hori-sontal indicator shows the relative position of the cabins whose movements and dockings occur at the Manhattan wfl Roosevelt Island stations "within split seconds of each other" he says Things that Paravati cannot readily see or hear such as potential power or brake problems are relayed to him through the panel where 16 small buttons light up to pinpoint the trouble areas Then he can choose to go "on confoolling the action through the master console or a more rudimentary form of wminU fflwfrol Rnnwtirrnwi merhsniea SUCh SS Clo- via Robinson of Brooklyn and Arthur Lowe of Brentwood ilL climb atop the one of the three Tram way towers to do greasing and maintenance of cable supports At such times Paravati must have control of the cabins as well as radio communication with riywn and with the mechanics In emergencies such as failure of Con Edison power which drives the Tramway Paravati can activate a backup diesel motor and return the -Mtbina from their rivertop perches to their stations Rescue drills with auxiliary cables and the equivalent of "airborne are also staged periodically using staff members during the early morning hours when the Tramway is not open to the public "We have a number of different backup systems for power brakes and other says Kleiman who adds that the 39-million Swiss-made ays-' record has been accident-free Most of the time says Paravati "I make sure we keep it on which the team usually does "or we hear about it soon enough" The schedule requires one trip every 15 minutes except during rush hour when ifa one trip about every six minutes A bottle of aspirin and a pack of cigarettes is silent testimony to the reverberations of consumer complaints "This is the best run public transpor tation in New York Paravati says of the system which is operated 6-2 AM weekdays and AM weekends Kleiman adds that when the February blizzard stopped the city -in its tracks the Tramway ran To Bill Leon a City College student who has been a cabin attendant for three years the Tramway is also a place to get "the second best view in the City of New second only to the Empire State Building In all Kleiman said there are about 40 persons employed by a state subsidiary Safe and Affordable Housing for Everyone Inc to keep the Tramway moving The console job ia among the most precise but to Paravati a former film editor for NBC television such split second timing comes as second-nature also had some practice at working if not playing on a different kind of railroad "I have seven sets of Lionel trains at home even one set my father gave me from the he says love them" He finally packed them away last year however and began taking flying lessons at New Jersey's Teterboro Airport Viewed from the Tramway it seems the only logical route for some- -one wanting to move up in the world Now morethan 262000 trips later Paravati runs the console that runs the whole operation An amalgam of buttons lights dials and monitors the three -section panel lets him decide whether his own band will guide the 100-pas8enger cabins on their 3200-foot traverse of the East River or control will be leMn the hands of the two wiKm attendants who have smaller versions of the console in their cabins Paravati who lives in the Jackson Heights section of Queens is one of four full-time Tramway cgnsole opera- tors a position comridered a top-ley- el erignTmit won through skill as well as seniority according to general tneneger bring ICIeiniaii Seated beneath the curved window of the control room Paravati in his blue and white uniform appears to be the air-traffic controller of an inverted banging railroad one that Klei-man says carries about 2J3 million passengers a year "This job is Paravati says "It is the only one like it in the city" -Asked to describe it he But asked to demonstrate it he does Using radio or telephone to commu if SUNDAY AUGUST 7 1063 The of First of two articles By Alison Mitchell Nowaday Albany Bureau Chief The waiting room has the jaziy look of a high-flying corporation with its velvety red conch set off against gray walls and smoked glass and its futuristic silver logo dominating one walL Here 52 floors above Times Square is a state agency as unusual as -its setting: the Urban Development Corp where the power brokers of politics and finance meet for from the eyes of the public With $3 billion in projects across New York State UDC ia one of the master builders of America a semi-indepenSenl state agency that can ignore local zoning make direct loans to private businesses hand out tax breaks float its own bonds and use its technical exper-tise to act as a catalyst for job-producing construction Formed primarily to build low-cost housing it has evolved into a full-fledged economic development agen-cy involved in a variety of projects from the Convention Center to a domed stadium in Syracuse But during the part six months the agency has undergone one of the most ronvulMvetrariaitioins of the Cuomo administration as a new president has purged holdover appointees consolidated departments called for outside audits arid been hit with legislative investigations of the agency Those who have used UDC call ian indispensable part of government "It had the authority to make grants for economic development that no agency in state government said Robert Mbrgado secretary to former Gov Hugh Carey had enormous power end the reason we used it is that But UDC has been seized on by some in the admin- istratian of Gov Mario Cuomo as an example of what can go wrong with the myriad independent authorities: They wield broad powers without corresponding accountability to the governor or the voters and can "became fiefdoms of a prior administration long after that administration departs But the Cuomo efforts at change appear to be as much an effort to dislodge holdover appointees and consultants from the Carey administration aa to reduce the power The allure of UDC already seems to be winning over the would-be reform-' Crs who are using it for what hasbeen called back-door firtwra-iiig id projects that the state otherwise af- ford and who are committing the state to paying for them for yean to come UDCs new president and chairman William Stern the iconoclastic millionaire who was campaign treasurer has people and 1 railed against the high spending of his predecessor That predecessor Richard Kahan had been riding high when be resigned as president of UDC in June 1982 for a job in private industry Some newspapers had even called him a new Robert Moses Now he is on the defensive holed up in a Corner of his former empire as chairman of the Battery Park City Authority once a' virtual subsidiary of the UDC There free to finish his four-year term he has sheltered some of those fired by Stern In its effort to take command of the powerful public authorities the Cuomo administration has pointed to the Urban Development Carp as the prime example of an agency that was out of control and one that had enriched legal and other consultants "Historically public authorities hi the state have made their own said William Eimicke a deputy secretary to the governor nuyor difference between attitude toward the job and his predecea- Continued on Page 25.