Roosevelt Island officials launched a smear campaign to blame tourists — and not mismanagement — for repeated problems with the island’s famed Tramway, a scathing state report reveals.
Well-paid former members of the Roosevelt Island Operation Corporation paid a PR firm nearly $170,000 in taxpayer dollars to manipulate local media outlets and plant posts online claiming a glut of visitors were behind the mishaps, the state Office of the Inspector General said in the 23-page report.
In fact, it was ROIC mismanagement, faulty equipment and lackluster service that were primarily responsible for a series of problems with the popular 59th Street tram over the East River — issues allegedly buried by the public relations firm Status Labs.
“Status Labs also published articles on platforms designed specifically to host content meant to game [Google] search algorithms,” the state report said…