Looking For An Apartment On Roosevelt Island? Hope Your Experience Not A Dark Water One - Brutalist But In A Kind Of Utopia Way

 Image From You Tube Dark Water Video

Have you recently or are you currently looking for an apartment on Roosevelt Island? If so, hope your experience was/is not like that of the mom and daughter depicted in the Dark Water movie.

The Dark Water Roosevelt Island apartment search starts with a trip on the Roosevelt Island Tram. The mom tells her young daughter that Roosevelt Island is just another part of the city but the girl knows better telling her mom that it is not the city. Another Tram rider says forebodingly, the little girl is right - it's not the city.

Then comes a walk down the west promenade, past PS/IS 217 to Main Street where the mom and daughter meet the sleazy real estate agent who shows them an apartment in Eastwood, now known as Roosevelt Landings. It's in the Brutalist style but in a kind of Utopia way says the real estate agent.

Watch the video and be thankful this was not your experience - hopefully.



If you are considering moving to Roosevelt Island, here's another view.

Nighttime Roosevelt Island At It's Eeriest, Creepiest Best Dark Water Moments

The video does capture Roosevelt Island at night very well. Here's a clip from the real Dark Water filmed on Roosevelt Island several years ago.



When the movie came out alot of Roosevelt Island residents were upset with how the Island was portrayed. I still get questions from people asking if Roosevelt Island is really like Dark Water.

The nighttime Roosevelt Island video also reminds me a little bit of an urban Twin Peaks. Anyone for Cherry Pie?

Nobody Asked Me But ... Roosevelt Island

Via Roosevelt Island 360, a NY Observer writer and new Roosevelt Island resident (Octagon?), shares some personal musings in his version of a Jimmy Cannon esque "Nobody asked me but" column while on the Tram. Among his ruminations these stood out to me:

Still confident we’d survive if the cable snapped. Jump up in the air right before it hits the water, hold my breath, swim right through the broken glass, save a couple people, get called a hero in The Post.

...Not so sure about that Gristedes tuna fish last night.

...Now when you tell them you live on Roosevelt Island, they don’t know what to say because they’ve never been there.

...Lost 10 I.Q. points when I moved to Roosevelt Island but gained it back from the clean living and sitting around watching Sister Wendy videos.

...Roosevelt Island can be a little grim. Maybe like East Germany in the 1970’s.

It is unfortunate how many people make this same "behind the iron curtain" comparison from the article. To be fair, I do not think the analogy applies to most of Roosevelt Island particularly not to Southtown, Octagon, Manhattan Park or Southpoint Park but the early apartment buildings built on Main Street in the 1970's do appear grim to say the least. Remember the movie Dark Water that was shot here not so long ago. The vacant stores on Main Street certainly do not help the situation