Gothamist: Roosevelt Island tram operators accused of spending public money to quash negative press

Samir Ferdowsi

April 5, 2025

Officials who used to run the Roosevelt Island Tram are under fire after using public funds to scrub the internet of bad reviews.

The state Inspector General found executive staff members of the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation spent nearly $170,000 on a PR firm to boost their image online. Not only was the firm hired to burnish the corporation's public reputation, but to elevate the personal notoriety of executive staff members as well, according to state investigators.

“At a time when trust in government is touching historic lows, New York should stand as a bastion for free expression," said Inspector General Lucy Lang in a prepared statement. "That state funds were spent to suppress negative coverage of local officials, drowning out constituents’ ability to be heard, undermines that core democratic value.”

The Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation is a little known “public benefit corporation” whose members are appointed by state leaders. The company’s key responsibility is overseeing the tram that carries people between Manhattan and Roosevelt Island.

The group’s former communications head, Akeem Jamal, hired ad firm Status Labs to write positive reviews and articles. The firm then linked them on a number of other sites, according to a report released by the OIG. The service pushed these “puff pieces" up in search results and legitimate negative articles down on sites like Google through search engine algorithms, according to state investigators.

Jamal also tasked the firm with burying negative press about him unrelated to his work on Roosevelt Island.

Local residents say the tram has been overrun with tourists, meaning they have to wait much longer to get to and from work.

“It's like a bad day at Disney,” Nicole Izsak, who has lived on the island for six years, told Gothamist in December. “[I] have to plan an alternative way of getting home [because] I know the tram's going to be hideous.”

The Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation declined to comment on the record about the investigation.