Good people are all around us and Roosevelt Island resident Stephen Quandt
wishes to say thank you for one resident's act of kindness. According to Mr
Quandt:
On our recent anniversary (May 18) my husband Thom and I were on our way to
Merrily We Roll Along. We were sitting on a subway bench waiting for the F
train and I had taken my glasses off to read something on my phone.
As the train pulled in I realized my glasses had disappeared!! Total panic
as I search my pockets, under the bench, and Thom, holding the subway door
yelling "You have them somewhere GET ON THE TRAIN!" We get on, I get off, I
get back on, doors close and then as the train starts pulling out a woman ON
THE PLATFORM is holding them for me to see. 30 Minutes to curtain. Thom says
she will turn them into the booth and says I should watch the show without
glasses! Instead I get off at the next stop, blind, wait 10 minutes for a
train, arriving back at our starting point, 15 (?) minutes to curtain. I
went to the other side of the track, and walked to the bench. Maybe she left
them for me. Nothing. I start walking to the station booth to see if she
turned them in, resigned to missing the start of the show, maybe even Act 1,
and that's if I even find them.
Then I see a blurry woman walking towards me. She's holding my glasses. I
said to her, "Oh my God, you waited for me." And she smiled and nodded. I
explained what the evening was all about, asked her name (Irene), gave her a
business card and asked her to text me. Then she left. She was clearly an
island resident.
After another agonizing wait (5+ minutes to curtain) I got on the next
train. An eternity later I walked into the theater, 5 minutes after curtain
time and sat down (aisle seats) next to my dear, loving husband of 11 years
married, 31 together while the overture was finishing up. I haven't heard
from Irene. Irene, I hope you’re reading this. THANK YOU!
Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been constantly hearing farm animal sounds (cow moos, rooster cock-a-doodle-doos, horse neighs) while working from my apartment. It seems like it’s a vehicle that keeps driving by as it gets louder and then quieter until it passes, but I haven’t been able to figure it out. Do you or anyone you know hear these sounds? Any idea what is making them? I’m pretty sure Roosevelt Island didn’t open a farm!
Here's the car making animal noises spotted on Main Street this afternoon.
I thought i was going crazy. I heard this a little last summer too and a lot more often the past month. I thought i was going crazy as no one knew what i was talking about. Why are they playing these sounds?
Car plays the sound all the time as if the residents want to hear the sound all the time. It is very annoying. I spoke to public safety and asked them to stop the car to ask that it not be played so much. Of course they did nothing to stop sound.
I don’t know why residents need to hear this constantly. Want to listen to birds not this repeated tape. If you find car parked leave a note to driver with your complaint. Or flag down car and talk to driver.
Is there any way we can ask him to stop? It’s really, really annoying at 7am and throughout the day
Omg I hear this too
I hear it too, so rude
Just heard it today. Annoying
Heard it today and it sounded like an animal suffering
If it’s the same person I’m thinking of in the Challenger, he’s become a staple on the island that we all hear and recognize! For better or for worse 😂
That my cousin Julio I’m a tell him chill. He still thinks he is Puerto Rico 😂
Roosevelt Island was built by government in the 1970's as an experiment in developing affordable housing for a multi-income, multi racial and disabled population. What happened to the Roosevelt Island housing experiment from the 1970's to today is the subject of an
excellent piece of journalism by the
Plot Of Land Podcast. The reporters of this 2 part series are Melissa Fundira who grew up on Roosevelt Island and Jameela
Hamond.
NY’s Roosevelt Island was imagined as an idyllic, multi-racial, multi-income
community. In episode 6 of
#PlotofLand
we talk to current-day & displaced residents & look back at the
decisions that created & dismantled housing as a human right. 🎧
https://t.co/4p7vHlZpzapic.twitter.com/yscZVIGfhH
... Hammond: For this episode we’re going to join Plot of Land reporter
Melissa Fundira. Melissa actually grew up on Roosevelt Island. Her family
moved there from Gabon in 1999, when she was just 6 years old. Here’s Melissa.
Fundira: I don’t think it was a typical New York City upbringing for a kid.
We had so much freedom to just roam. Some of my fondest memories were
summers spent playing with other kids on the island. As young as 7 years
old, 6 even, we’d leave the house around 10 AM, wouldn’t come back ‘til 6 PM
for dinner. None of us had cell phones at that time of course, but we just
knew there would always be someone to hang with if we showed up at Blackwell
Park, or at the courtyard between 20 and 30 River Road, or any number of
playgrounds and other public spaces. Our parents didn’t really have any
reasons to worry about us.
My family’s originally from Rwanda, but my parents raised my brother and I
mostly in Gabon before we moved to Roosevelt Island, so moving here was our
first time living outside of Africa. And I can’t say that I really remember
experiencing much of any sort of culture shock. There were so many other
families from Africa on the island, so many other kids whose parents worked
for the United Nations like my mom did.
It was such a dreamy place to grow up. As I got older, I started realizing
that all the things I love about Roosevelt Island were really by design. And
that we were all subjects in a grand social experiment. An experiment that
wanted to prove that the government was capable of building quality housing
for New Yorkers of all racial and economic backgrounds.
And like Jameela was saying earlier, this vision, one in which U.S. tax
dollars go towards providing housing for all, this vision is closely tied to
the island’s namesake: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt....
Ep. 7 Feat. Barbara Spiegel
@JameelaHammond
Rita Ombele
@MFundira
Judith Berdy
@liebman_t
Morgan Ellinson
@yfreemark
Ludi Nsimba
@GU_AFAM
Eneaqua Lewis
@CUHistoryDept
Nikki Leopold, Rosemary Ndubuizu, Kim Phillips-Fein, Sasha Ross, Lionel
Fundira, Courtney Francis, Marie Orraca
... Melissa: This story, about the soccer and sports teams, is in many ways an analogy for what happened to housing on Roosevelt Island. When the original four Roosevelt Island apartment buildings opened, everyone was on the same team. Yes, there was class differentiation, but everyone lived in subsidized housing and shared the same spaces.
Today, there are those who buy or rent at market rate, those who are shareholders in a co-op, those fighting eviction notices, those living in Section-8 housing, and those weathering a new management company every other year hoping to not get priced out when the next lease comes along. Each scenario offers a different level of housing security, a different level of access to resources and opportunities; things like traveling soccer clubs for some kids and gutted soccer programs for others. It’s a far cry from the UDC’s vision of Roosevelt Island as a mixed community equally enjoying what the neighborhood had to offer. It’s a neighborhood divided.
Ross: The adults of my generation tried very hard, even the teenagers of, of my time, the 80s, the 90s tried very hard to curate and cultivate a neighborhood where everyone got along, right? Because that was the premise of Roosevelt Island, the social economical, uh, project. It was an experience. It's no longer that. As new buildings came in, as rents go up. It's becoming a haves versus have nots. You have people, what I call them temporary people making permanent decisions.
Melissa: Temporary is a tricky word, because the island’s newer residents aren’t all necessarily transient. Many want to make a long-term home of the island and believe in its original ethos. But still, that sentiment holds, and I’ve heard it get expressed in different ways. What people mean, I think, is that the island’s newer residents want their buildings to be more exclusive, which by definition, excludes people. And the ones being excluded, the people being shut out, they’re often part of a community 30, 40 years in the making, one founded on a principle of inclusion.
And that exclusion….
... Melissa: I reached out to the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation several times for an interview. That’s the corporation set up in 1984 by New York State to run the island. I wanted to ask someone there about its priorities and goals when it comes to providing genuinely affordable housing for low and middle income residents. No one returned my requests.
As a public-benefit corporation, its goal is to develop the island and presumably, it can help set the agenda for what gets built or doesn’t get built. But lately, the majority of new housing there has been prioritized for upper middle income residents. And the last meaningful remaining plots of land on the southern tip of the island are now home to Cornell University’s tech campus and the long-awaited Four Freedoms State Park. These last developments are appreciated in many ways, but certainly many have wondered: what if the state chose to build more subsidized housing there instead?...
Meet the Team behind #PlotofLand@MFundira is a journalist, audio producer, & researcher based in Toronto. Plot of Land explores how land ownership & housing in the U.S. have been shaped by the entrenched interplay of power, public memory, & privatization https://t.co/4p7vHlYRJCpic.twitter.com/QkaRo7KSvP
Here's some more interesting observations on the beginnings of Roosevelt Island as a residential community
and the gentrification of Roosevelt Island.
In October 2020, developer Hudson Related opened Riverwalk Park which had over 70 thousand lottery applications for an apartment in the 340 unit affordable housing building.
Mr. Goodman shares his memories of a Roosevelt Island childhood from another time and place. He writes:
I grew up on a small island in the middle of New York City.
Roosevelt Island is like the Oreo filling between Manhattan and Queens.
It’s 2.5 miles long and smack-dab in the middle of the East River.
You can’t miss it.
Yet, if you ask any New Yorker, they’ve probably never heard of it.
You mean Randall‘s Island?
No, that’s where the concerts are.
You mean Governors Island?
No, that’s the Coast Guard Island.
You mean Rikers island?
No, that’s the prison.
I’m from ROOSEVELT ISLAND.
The one with the Tram.
It’s also the one with …
Ruins of a smallpox hospital.
The FDR memorial.
Cornell Tech’s futuristic campus.
An old, haunted farmhouse.
The free red bus
Cherry blossoms every April(ish)
Amazing skyline views at every step
I’ve traveled the world — Roosevelt Island is still the place I most want to go back to.
Roosevelt Island is my happy place.
It’s home — even though I haven’t lived there in 13 years.
When you walk the outer rim of the island, it feels like The City is a world away.
I have so many timeless memories from every inch of that walk.
So many conversations and shenanigans with so many amazing friends over the years.
GROWING UP ON
ROOSEVELT ISLAND
In the 1980s, the island was mostly grass, trees, parks, and nature.
There were only four buildings, one street, a free red bus, and a narrow drawbridge to let cars on and off.
You needed a pass to park on the street. These large, colorful pieces of paper could be obtained from a booth near the bridge when you entered the island … or, from the public safety office.
You couldn’t have dogs because they didn’t want them pooping all over the place.
I got to ride an aerial cable car over the river to get to school every day.
Because of our proximity to the United Nations, we had countless dignitaries (and their kids) living on the Island.
On the southern tip, a tall, green, wooden fence blocked off a collection of dilapidated ruins. It was very easy to climb around the fence and explore the other side.
There was also an abandoned mental hospital called The Octagon. That was another favorite “haunted” place for us kids to sneak into. (Today, it has been converted into high-priced, luxury condos.)
On the northern end of the island, an old lighthouse was surrounded by majestic weeping willow trees. Countless picnics, bbq’s, family events, reunions, and other gatherings have been held there.
Each year, the Island hosted a Halloween parade. Kids of all ages dressed up, marched down the street, and bobbed for apples at the end.
Later that night, the street inevitably hosted an epic egg fight that left it stinking for days.
We also had:
Little league parades
Day camps and after school programs
A public elementary school (I was there from K-3)
An ice cream shop and candy store
An incredibly dirty grocery store
A Chinese restaurant with an ever-changing name
Sketchy pop-up carnivals by the tram
Playgrounds that left splinters in your hand after each visit
An always-evolving selection of trains and schedules (Q, S, N, R, F …)
Grandpa Munster smoking a cigar and scaring kids
The Capri Pizzeria - home to Italian ices and sugar water drinks
A restaurant that got busted for selling drugs. (As a kid, I always thought they put these drugs in the hamburgers so you would get addicted and come back for more)
For 10 years, I acted in a collection of musicals and dramas.
In my spare time, I served as stage manager and assistant sound booth operator.
More than any other experience in my life, MST&DA gave me self-confidence, self-esteem, courage, and a purpose. I truly made me a better person. Thank you thank you thank you to
Part of the city, but connected to Queens by a bridge, on land in the East River owned by the city but mostly leased to the state, Roosevelt Island appears to be in a class by itself.
But as sure as the tide comes in and goes out, certain aspects of island living feel universal, said Stephen Quandt, observing that Roosevelt Island in some ways reminds him of where he vacations every summer, Little Cranberry Island in Maine.
In both places, cars are few, like restaurants and stores. Evenings are quiet. And sea gulls are never far away, said Mr. Quandt, 56, who works in the animal-welfare field....
... Major changes have altered the island’s 147 acres, especially over the last 15 years. High-rises have gone up on long-empty lots, while promised parks have come to life. Last month, Cornell Tech, a new science-focused graduate school, opened a portion of its new 12-acre campus where a hospital used to stand.
And tourists have come in droves, if mostly for the sweeping views from a tram that whisks over from Manhattan....Click here for full NY Times article.
Stephen Quandt recently moved to Roosevelt Island. I asked him for his
impressions of his new home here on Roosevelt Island.
He kindly agreed and reports:
Moving On Island
Soon after closing on our new apartment on Roosevelt Island this July (my
husband Thom and I lived in Chelsea for twenty-four years) we ran away to the
Maine coast for a week of stress relief and escape.
When we arrived on Little Cranberry Island, our twentieth summer there, we
were greeted by many old friends the same way over and over, "Welcome Home”,
they said. Welcome home. And it was like coming home, to our magical
place. Little Cranberry has a year round population of around sixty
people, and in the summer the population swells to about four
hundred. It’s roughly the size of Roosevelt, maybe a little wider, and
not as long.
There is one restaurant. One small grocery store about the size Roosevelt’s
Subway shop, a post office, a library not much bigger than a postage stamp, a
couple of art galleries and gift shops, a pottery shop and a couple of
churches. That's it.
Tuesday is movie night (free) downstairs at the Neighborhood House (upstairs
they show kids movies, and in the morning there is yoga.) And if you're
walking through "town" you often get delayed because you will invariably see a
friend and will want to stop and talk. If you see someone in a hurry they're
probably trying to "make the boat" which means they're trying to get to the
Tram, oops I mean the ferry before it leaves. People who wear helmets while
bicycling are definitely day-trippers.
Speaking of day-trippers, when they get off the boat and amble down the dock
they'll walk into the dock shops not unlike going into the Historical Society
kiosk. They buy little island maps (one dollar, supports the historical
society) and tee shirts and stuffed lobster toys and homemade fudge. They ask
for directions and we happily give them. We bask in belonging but we are
glad they visit.
Sometimes when I'm on the boat returning to the island I can feel the
difference between us and them, the residents and the day-trippers. I know I'm
coming home, and they're just visiting. They don't yet know the joy of
belonging. They don't know what it's like when the last boat leaves for
the day and it's just "us". Unless of course someone misses the last boat and
then one of us will put them up for the night.
I'll never forget one perfect July afternoon “on island” (don’t ask me why,
but residents always drop the “the” before “island”, maybe it’s a part of
belonging). That glorious day the clouds were rushing by, the just warm sun on
our faces, what many of us call “sailing weather.” The annual Maypole dance
was being performed in the town field by the ocean with live music and a nice
crowd watching (it's too chilly in May so we always wait until July to perform
it). And there was this Norwegian family, parents and two young kids, just off
the boat and who had wondered into the field. Maybe they heard the music
wafting towards the dock? Try to picture them. All four standing in a line
staring at the dance. All four, mouths agape. All four watching the kids and
grown ups weaving the maypole streamers to the notes of flutes and violins.
Perhaps wondering…."Where are we?"
Another similarity between both places. At one time, Roosevelt Island was known
as the "Little Apple". Let's take a visit to Little Cranberry Island Maine and see what life is
like.
Meet some of the people. Affordable housing is an issue on Little Cranberry
Island too.
The local fresh lobster business is trying hard to make it a success.
Riverwalk Bar & Grill owner Jonathan Hoo said that after a first few years of taking lumps with slow business he has his fingers crossed for a bright future with the coming of new residential developments and Cornell Tech.
Other residents did not want to talk to the reporter because it is so great they want it to stay that way and not tell others.
Roosevelt Island's Manhattan Park Management recently banned the long time practice of ball playing on the nice big green lawn in front of the 10-40 River Road buildings. Residents were informed by a new No Ball Playing Sign placed on the lawn. An unhappy Manhattan Park parent reports:
... the ridiculousness of this sign, freshly appeared in the Manhattan park lawn? Just last month management had sent a note to all tenants to remind how "writing with (kids) chalks on the sidewalks is prohibited.
Another Manhattan Park parents adds:
The new sign on the Manhattan Park lawns, adding to the fast-growing "nanny state" reputation.
According to staff it is so people can sunbathe (in the shade?) without being disturbed. Luckily, frisbees, bikes, airplanes and kites are still allowed?
Manhattan Park, Roosevelt Island. The most family friendly place in New York. As long as you don't have any sort of fun".
This morning, I asked Manhattan Park management about the new No Ball Playing on lawn policy. In response, a Manhattan Park representative said the No Ball Playing on lawn policy is being reevaluated.
... “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
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.
Imagine you have around $1,300,000 to spend on a place and you've narrowed it down to two apartments. How do you make up your mind? The answer is simple: you shove them into a metaphorical cage and let them battle it out until one emerges victorious. It's time for Real Estate Deathmatch....
The Roosevelt Island apartment comparison is between the $1.3 million asking Riverwalk Court Condo (Curbed Tweet picture on left)
Riverwalk Court Apartment Floorplan From Streeteasy
looking for a more convenient and less expensive place to live. According to the NY Times:
... Roosevelt Island began to seem out of the way. “Enjoying New York became something we wanted to do,” Mr. Jackson said. The distance to the city was minimal as the crow flies over the East River, but she had a tedious commute to downtown, where she teaches at Borough of Manhattan Community College.
When they stayed out late, they faced a tiresome trip home, because the Octagon was distant from both subway and tramway. They often emerged from the subway just in time to miss the Red Bus. Their option was to wait 15 minutes for the next bus or to hoof it for 17 minutes to their home.
“The Octagon is gorgeous, and if we could have picked up that place and been closer to the subway, we would have stayed,” Ms. Putman said. “We were so tired of the Red Bus.” ...
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.
