New York City Is Bursting With Main Streets Including Roosevelt Island's Which Is Part Of Manhattan

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The term Main Street evokes images of small towns such as Andy Griffith's fictional Mayberry and wholesome Pro American values which some no-nothings running for President and Vice President believe are absent from New York City. Well, it is interesting to note that New York City not only has a Main Street but has 5 Main Streets, one in each borough including Roosevelt Island which is considered to be part of Manhattan. According to this article in yesterday's NY Times:

... Main Street on Roosevelt Island is just that, the main street running like a spine along the narrow island, and the closest thing to a Main Street in Manhattan, of which it is technically a part.

At either end of the street is a large hospital. Main Street, compared with streets in other boroughs, is crowded with the convalescing. Men and women in motorized and standard wheelchairs pass and pause to talk or sit in the sun or have a drink at the Trellis Diner beside the Church of the Good Shepherd.

And:

This Main Street may be New York’s closest to the idea of a traditional Main Street, as practically all business on the island takes place on it, most of it, like the hospitals, recession-proof. There are, among others, a Gristede’s, a Duane Reade, a Starbucks, a deli, a liquor store, a library and a police office. There has been no immediately visible effect of the economic downturn.

Of course, the NY Times fails to mention that much of Roosevelt Island's Main Street retail stores have been empty for many years prior to the current economic downturn.