The Roosevelt Island Farmers Market returns to it's Spring/Summer Fall Home at
Good Shepherd Plaza this Saturday April 5.
from it's Motorgate Plaza Winter home.
The Roosevelt Island Saturday Farmers Market is a beloved member of our
community - a place to purchase healthy and deliciously tasting
fresh fruits, vegetables and much more. It's also a gathering spot to meet
with our neighbors and learn about the latest neighborhood news and gossip.
The Roosevelt Island Saturday Farmers Market at Good Shepherd Plaza is open
early morning to mid afternoon on Saturdays in good weather and bad.
Support your Local Farmers, Eat Healthy!
See you Saturday at Good Shepherd Plaza for the Roosevelt Island Farmers
Market.
The month of April celebrates Earth Day and also heralds mandatory
requirements to
NYC’s residential building’s
food scrap waste disposal rules. The good news is residents have lots of
options however understanding the true end use of your food scraps can be
unclear.
Haki Compost Collective,
a local grassroots group of volunteers supporting community composting
efforts in partnership with the Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) and
Big Reuse, put together an easy to understand comparative sheet for residents.
We invite you to stop by any Saturday year round at Motorgate plaza near
Foodtown from 9 am to 2 pm with your food scraps or questions. A volunteer
will be at the green bins.
Have a look at the poster below to better understand the difference between
the City's
orange and brown bins initiative
and Roosevelt Island's Haki Composting Collective.
Kitchen scraps are treated as sewage and digested as biogas (methane gas)
for energy to power the Newtown Creek Wastewater facility.
A percentage of that methane is extra and flared into the air. The flared
methane is a pollutant much worse than carbon dioxide and has a lifespan
of over a decade.
A bi-product of this process (sludge) is sent to landfill as it is not
suitable for farmers due to the plastic bags within and important
nutrients don't get returned to the ground.
This is NOT composting but is not as damaging as sending organic scraps to
landfill which emit methane gas. Composting means turning food scraps into
compost (a nutrient-rich soil amendment).
Compost is water absorbing which helps reduce flooding during storms or
flooding events when added to city soils. It also is nutrient-rich which
reinvigorates depleted soils and feeds trees and flowers.
If you wish to help the environment best, take your plant-based food scraps
(including egg shells) to the green Haki bins by Foodtown at Motorgate Plaza
year round on Saturdays from 9am and 2pm.
If you want, you can put your animal-based food scraps into the orange and
brown bins for methane gas capture.
So let’s eat more of the food in our fridge, waste less by making soups with
scraps and take any remaining food scraps to the green bins each Saturday at
Motorgate from 9 am to 2 pm.
New to composting? Collect for a few days at the end of the week and drop
off to us every Saturday at Motorgate Plaza from 9 AM to 2 PM. Your actions
matter and whichever method you choose we wish you to know the outcome and
your impact.
Here's a
December 2024 interview
with volunteers from the Roosevelt Island Haki Compost Collective.
In 1997 the Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) designated a joint venture
between the Hudson Companies and Related Companies (Hudson Related) to develop the Southtown area of Roosevelt Island with a 9 building development
now known as Riverwalk. So began Hudson Companies developer David Kramer's
Image Of David Kramer Being Interviewed At Riverwalk Heights Rooftop Lounge
more than a quarter century relationship with Roosevelt Island. Mr Kramer has
now seen completion of Riverwalk Heights, the ninth and final
building of the Southtown project.
I recently met with Mr Kramer, took a tour of the new Riverwalk Heights
building and spoke with him about his Roosevelt Island experience. According
to Mr Kramer:
What are my thoughts? It's been a quarter century so I've had a lot of
thoughts through the years. I don't think when we started in 1997 we had any
vision it would end up as beautifully as it has with the types of buildings,
with the success and variety we've had building nine different buildings.
We've developed everything from condominiums to rental housing to affordable
housing to staff housing for the hospitals and then we got involved with
Cornell Tech and developed their residential tower so it's been a it's been
a fun run.
We feel very committed as Roosevelt Island stakeholders since we started and
we may have saved the best for last. Riverwalk Heights is the tallest
building, everything on the west side of Main Street is 16 stories and this
building is 28 stories so it's got the best views.
You're filming me now in the rooftop lounge and up here we have a lounge, a
kitchen area that you can reserve to throw a private dinner party, we have a
co-working space and a VR room so there's a lot of amenities up here.
There's a lot of amenities down in the lower level next to the lobby
including a half [basketball] court, gym, fitness room and kids
lounge...
About the RIOC office space, Mr Kramer says:
... The ground floor we negotiated office space for RIOC. I forget what
the backstory was, but part of it was "Hey come on RIOC you could use
some nice classy modern office space".
Their old office space was pretty dumpy and as long as we were building
new buildings it made sense that maybe we should negotiate something so
that they would get a below market office rent and we were happy to have
some of the first floor go to RIOC. So RIOC has two levels at the base
of the building and I think they're moving in shortly...
I asked Mr Kramer about any future development opportunities on Roosevelt
Island. Mr Kramer answered:
... We are stakeholders and we have really enjoyed being here. We know the
Island. Never say never. Right now the Island is built out per the
terms of the General Development Plan which is the Lease between the City
and the State so at this moment the only way that Hudson Related may get
involved is on a subsequent phase of Cornell Tech.
But for the non-Cornell tech part of Roosevelt Island those of us who
care about Roosevelt Island have talked about whether there are other
development opportunities, whether it has to do with the Steam Plant
building or I think the the City's planning to continue to maintain
Colar as a hospital so I'm not sure exactly where there may be new
opportunities.
Should Roosevelt Island expand and have a higher residential population
you know that's reasonable people can disagree. Certainly we've all seen
the issues of the tram being crowded with tourists there's an issue of
people getting on the subway in the morning.... you'd have to
think through those issues...
As you know Hudson Related is also very involved in the retail leasing
of the Island. With the exception of WestView we operate all the other
retail on the Island so from the retailer's perspective, the Island
could certainly use more foot traffic but it's to be determines
....
Mr Kramer added:
.... and the only way people will know what's happening is if they read
their Roosevelt Islander blog to find out all the important information
about the Island.
Here's the full interview with Mr Kramer.
Mr Kramer also noted his first experience with Roosevelt Island was before Hudson Related was designated the Southtown developer. As he was running a Roosevelt Island 5K in 1996, he turned his head and
noticed being cheered on by Al (Grandpa Munster) Lewis in the homestretch of the race.
During my tour with Mr Kramer, I also spoke with Riverwalk Heights Related Rentals Leasing Agent Lisa Ansari about the building. According to Ms Ansari:
Riverwalk Heights is our newest building. it's the ninth building with
Related Hudson Venture. We are the also the tallest building so you have
this amazing view of the city... We have studios all the way up
to two bedrooms. For two bedroom we have two types. Two bedrooms, one bath
and two bedrooms two bath.
We have an amazing amenity space upstairs with rooftops and lounges
.... we also have additional areas where you have to pay an amenity
fee. Our amenity fee is $50 per person per month. It includes the VR room,
co-working space, we also have downstairs the gym and the kids room and the
half basketball court...
... Studios range anywhere from our smallest one being around 430 square
feet and the largest one around 560 square feet. Studio price ranges
anywhere from around $3200 to $3,300 all the way up to a little over $4,000
for the premium corner studios.
For one bedroom we have square footage around 670 all the way up to about
750 square ft. Some are corner, some are not corner but they all have
amazing views and the price range is around anywhere from around $41 or
$4,200 and then of course the higher premium floors are 5,000 plus.
The two bedroom one bath starts around $61 or $6200 and they are
approximately about
850 square feet and the two bedroom two bath which is facing south and
west and north, that one is approximately 1075 square ft and
price range right now they start around $6500 but right now we don't have
very many left and the highest floor we have left is at $7280 on the 28th
floor...
Here's Mr Kramer shooting hoops at the Riverwalk Heights indoor basketball court and the stunning views high above Roosevelt Island from the building's rooftop terrace.
Political newcomer Collin Thompson is challenging incumbent Julie Menin in the June 24, 2025 NYC Council District #5 Democratic Party primary. Mr Thompson was on Roosevelt Island Saturday March 22 talking to residents and I met up with him at the Farmers Market for an interview.
When asked why he was challenging the incumbent Council Member from his own party, Mr Thompson replied:
Like a lot of people I've talked to in District 5 during the petitioning process, I feel very passionate about bringing Public Service back to this office and creating an atmosphere where people can get answers out of their City Council person, where people can contact their City Council person's office and receive quality information and being visible...
.... I don't claim to have all of the answers but what I am passionate about is ensuring that people in District 5 have the opportunity to be heard, be seen and their challenges and issues with our city government at least being heard by the person that's representing them.
I don't think you can lead people you don't listen to. I have nothing personal against my opponent but I don't believe that residents in District 5 have really been represented in that way and and I hear from a lot of people that they call this current city council person's office or share concerns and they just kind of fall on deaf ears. I believe we've got to return back to a time when when public office was working for the public...
Along with the endless delays to make the south lane a pedestrian lane instead of a car lane, the elevator to Roosevelt Island should be brought back, but only for bikers and pedestrians this time,...
This fills a longstanding need, and thanks to all the leaders who pulled it together. For balance now, we need resident leadership to come up with something similar. RIRA is a wreck waiting for...
Jesus Christ. Give it up. The priority boarding is not going to happen. If the line is too long, take the subway. It's not that far from the tram station on either end of the trip.
The protections from Public Safety for tram safety diminish the man hours of protection that Roosevelt Islanders pay for to protect us right here in our community. While It's necessary,...
It good idea but need to think about a limit number of passes per person or some other control to stop people trying to grab multiples for sale. Also have to think where/when do you get the daily...
There is no extra fee for the annual Fast Line Pass. The idea is the same thing as what your are calling Priority Boarding. The idea that is different is that anyone (residents/workers/visitors)...
Re. the 8:30 update: The Roosevelt Landings Residents Association determined that at least 22 heater sparkings and fires had taken place in our building in recent months. I personally experienced 3...
Roosevelt Island is a mixed income, racially diverse waterfront community situated in the East River of New York City between Manhattan and Queens and is jurisdictionally part of Manhattan. The Roosevelt Island Tramway, which connects Roosevelt Island to the rest of Manhattan, has become the iconic symbol of Roosevelt Island to its residents.
The Purpose of this Blog is to provide accurate and timely information about Roosevelt Island as well as a forum for residents to express opinions and engage in a dialogue to improve our community.
