Thursday, November 6, 2014

Life On Roosevelt Island Profiled Yesterday In NY Times And Brick Underground Articles - A Quiet Affordable Oasis With Big Changes Coming But Not Much Shopping Or Restaurants They Say

 Image From NY Times Ruth Fremson

Check out November 5 NY Times article on Roosevelt Island headlined:
Quiet Island, With Change Coming
The Quiet Manhattan: Roosevelt Island
According to the NY Times:
... “It’s like a suburb in the city,” said Corinne Volpe, an agent with Sotheby’s International Realty who has lived on the island since 2006. Formerly an Upper East Side resident, she said, she was attracted by the “knock-your-socks-off views” from nearly every spot on the island, which is 800 feet across at its widest and two miles long. She and her husband were also impressed by the lack of city sounds. “It’s so quiet, it’s eerie,” she said.

But change is coming to this island, which is technically part of Manhattan (though leased by the state through 2068) and parallels its shoreline from around East 46th to East 85th Streets....
Click here for the entire NY Times article on Roosevelt Island.

NYC real estate web site Brick Underground reported on Roosevelt Island living November 5 too with the headline:
Roosevelt Island: an affordable oasis—and Uber deadzone—in the East River
noting:
Brooklyn and Queens are go-to options for apartment hunters priced out of Manhattan (and even they don't offer much in the way of savings). But one subway stop or a tram ride from Midtown is another oft-overlooked option: Roosevelt Island, the two-mile strip of land in the East River.

Though it’s a sleepy part of the city, several new rental towers have come to the island in recent years, including the Octagon conversion and Riverwalk Crossing, joining apartments previously earmarked for middle-income residents. Unfortunately, restaurants and shopping have not yet caught up, which residents say is one of the biggest downsides. But does cheap(er) rent and access to green space make it worthwhile? We talked to Roosevelt Islanders to find out the best and worst parts of living there....
Click here for the entire Brick Underground article.

Both articles, the NY Times and Brick Underground, have some interesting quotes and thoughts from residents.

More Roosevelt Island photos from NY Times photographer Ruth Fremson here.

1 comments :

YetAnotherRIer said...

Roosevelt Island has ben mentioned in NYT's real estate section quite a few times: http://www.nytimes.com/1982/07/11/realestate/if-you-re-thinking-of-living-in-roosevelt-island.html (1982), http://www.nytimes.com/1993/08/01/realestate/if-you-re-thinking-of-living-in-roosevelt-island.html (1993), http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/02/realestate/02livi.html?pagewanted=all (2007).

Interesting tidbit about PS/IS 217:

1982: "About 60 percent of I.S. 217 graduates attend the city's special high schools for talented students."

1993: "'And all the upper-middle-class parents of 5-year-olds stand around discussing where they're sending their kids off-island next year,' said one upper-income resident. 'The local school . . . well, it's controversial.'" and "'It wasn't the Section 8 kids,' she said. In 1986 'everything was fine. But soon I heard complaints, of a lack of responsiveness to parents' concerns.' When the principal, Kenneth Forman, arrived in September 1991, 'the middle class had already left,' she said. 'He inherited a lot of problems.'"


I assume the demise of 217 was bad management for a while and then it was too late?