Roosevelt Island

Main Street on Roosevelt Island

Roosevelt Island, formerly known as Welfare Island, and before that Blackwell's Island, is a narrow island in the East River of New York City. It lies between the island of Manhattan to its west and the borough of Queens to its east. Running from Manhattan's East 46th to East 85th streets, it is about two miles (3 km) long, with a maximum width of 800 feet (240 m), and a total area of 147 acres (0.6 km²). The island is part of the Borough of Manhattan and New York County. Together with Mill Rock Island, Roosevelt Island comprises New York County's Census Tract 238, which has a land area of 0.722 km² (0.279 sq mi). and had a population of 9,520 in 2000 according to the US Census. The land is owned by the city, but was leased to the State of New York's Urban Development Corporation for 99 years in 1969. Most of the residential buildings on Roosevelt Island are rental buildings. One (Rivercross) is a cooperative. One (Riverwalk Place) is a condo. One rental building (Eastwood) has left New York State's Mitchell-Lama affordable housing program, though current residents are protected. Three other buildings are now working toward privatization, including the cooperative.

History

The 1889 Chapel of the Good Shepherd in modern surroundings

Before colonization, the island was called Minnahononck (sometimes spelled Minnahanock) by the aboriginal Indians.

In 1637, the Dutch purchased the island from the natives and named it Varckens (Hogs') Island. It was named Manning's Island after captain John Manning between 1666 and 1686, Blackwell's Island between 1686 and 1921, and Welfare Island between 1921 and 1973. Throughout the 19th century, various hospitals, asylums, and correctional institutions were located on the island. Welfare Penitentiary (where entertainer Mae West once served time) was closed in 1935 after the completion of a new penitentiary on Rikers Island.

In 1973, the island was renamed again in anticipation of the building of a major United States Presidential Memorial to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The monument was intended - in part - to make the island more attractive to potential residents and visitors. It was planned as a large three-walled granite room open to the sky and facing the water at the island's southern tip, with the Four Freedoms inscribed on one wall. Owing primarily to the untimely death of the architect, Louis Kahn, the memorial was never built. Some still hope to complete the project despite the construction of a Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in the nation's capital. An alternative proposal involving calling for a large public plaza at the site also has been halted.

During the 1980s and 1990s, the island was developed as a residential community with a number of high-rise apartment buildings. Two long-term medical care facilities of Goldwater Hospital are located at opposite ends of the island. Many foreign diplomats live on Roosevelt Island because of its close proximity to United Nations headquarters on the East Side of Manhattan. Residents are members of a Residents Association (RIRA), and the Island is served by a fortnightly community newspaper, The Main Street WIRE, and by a resident-operated website, NYC10044.com at http://nyc10044.com.

Roosevelt Island is sometimes referred to as "The Little Apple" - a jocular allusion to New York City's "Big Apple" moniker. A detailed history of the Island is available at http://nyc10044.com/timeln/timeline.html.

Architecture

Though small, Roosevelt Island has a distinguished architectural history. It has several architecturally significant buildings, and has been the site of numerous important unbuilt architectural competitions and proposals.

The island's masterplan, adopted by the New York State Urban Development Corporation in 1969, was developed by the firm of Philip Johnson and John Burgee. The plan divided the island into three residential communities. The plan is noteworthy because it forbade the use of automobiles on the island. It was intended that residents would park their cars at a large garage and use public transporation to circulate. Another innovation was the plan's development of a 'mini-school system' in which classrooms for the island's public intermediate school were distributed among all the residential developments, in a campus-like fashion (as opposed to being centralized in one large building).

The first phase of Roosevelt Island's development was called "Northtown." It consists of four housing complexes: Eastwood, Island House, Rivercross, and Westwood. Rivercross is a Mitchell-Lama co-op, while the rest of the buildings in Northtown are rentals. Eastwood, the largest apartment complex on the island, and Westwood were designed by noted architect Josep Lluis Sert, then dean of Harvard Graduate School of Design. Eastwood, along with Peabody Terrace (in Cambridge, MA), is a prime example of Sert's investigations into high-rise multiple-dwelling residential buildings. It achieves a remarkable level of efficiency by triple-loading corridors with duplex apartment units, such that elevators and public corrdiors are only needed every three floors. Island House and Rivercross were designed by Philip Johnson. The two developments were noteworthy for their use of pre-fabricated cladding systems.

Subsequent phases of the Island's development have been less innovative, architecturally. Northtown Phase II was developed by the Starrett Corporation and was designed by the firm Gruzen Samton in a psuedo-historical post-modern style. It was completed in 1989, over a decade after Northtown. Southtown, also designed by Gruzen Samton, is the third phase of the island's development. It was not started until 1998, and is still in the process of development.

In addition to Louis Kahn's Roosevelt Memorial, the island has also been the site of numerous other architectural speculations. Rem Koolhaas and the Office of Metropolitan Architecture proposed two projects for the Island in his book "Delerious New York": the Welfare Island Hotel and the Roosevelt Island Redevelopment Proposal (both in 1975-76). That proposal was Koolhaas's entry into a competition held for the development of Northtown Phase II. Other entrants included Peter Eisenman, Robert A. M. Stern, and Oswald Mathias Ungers.

In 2006, ENYA (Emerging New York Architects) made the Island's abandoned southern end the subject of one of its annual competitions.

Transportation

Roosevelt Island Red bus

Although Roosevelt Island is located directly under the Queensboro Bridge, it is not directly accessible from the bridge itself. Between 1930 and 1955, the only vehicular access to the island was provided by an elevator system in the Elevator Storehouse that transported cars and commuters between the bridge and the island. The elevator was closed to the public after the construction of the Roosevelt Island Bridge between the island and Astoria in 1955. It was finally demolished in 1970.

In 1976, the Roosevelt Island Tramway was constructed to provide access to Midtown Manhattan. Access to the IND 63rd Street Line (now F and <F>) finally arrived in 1989. Located over 100 feet below ground level, the Roosevelt Island station is one of the deepest in New York City's subway system.

Q102 bus at Roosevelt Island

Roosevelt Island's residential community was not designed to support automobile traffic during its planning in the early 1970s. Automobile traffic has become common even though much of the island remains a car-free area. The Q102 MTA Bus Company route operating between the island and Astoria obviates the need for automobiles to some extent.

The Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation (RIOC) operates an on-island shuttle bus service from apartment buildings to the subway and tramway for a fare of 25¢ (10¢ for seniors and disabled people). The buses are highly visible due to their bright red color.

Waste in the Roosevelt Island is collected by an Automated Vacuum Collection System. This is the only AVAC system serving a residential complex in the USA.

Demographics

As of the 2000 census,[2] Roosevelt Island had a population of 9,520. 4,995, or 52% of the population, were female, and 4,525, or 48%, were male. The population was spread out with 5% under the age of 5, 20% under the age of 18, 67% between the ages of 18 and 65, and 15% over the age of 65.

The racial makeup of the island was 45% white (non-Hispanic), 27% black, 11% Asian or Pacific Islander, and 0.3% other races. 14% were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

The median income was $49,976. 37% had an income under $35,000. 40% had incomes between $35,001 and $99,999, and 23% had an income over $100,000.

55% of the total households were family households, and 45% were non-family households. 17% of the residents were married couples with children, and 19% were married couples without children. 36% of the households were one-person households, and 9% were two or more non-family households. 3% were male-based households with related and unrelated children, and 16% were female-based households with related and unrelated children.

Since 2000, demographics have likely shifted. In April 2006, The Octagon, a 500-unit luxury rental building, opened its doors. Many young, affluent tenants occupy the studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom units. Also in 2006, a multi-building luxury condominium called Riverwalk completed construction of its first buildings.

Education

Roosevelt Island, as with all parts of New York City, is served by the New York City Department of Education.

Residents are zoned to P.S. 217/I.S. 217 Roosevelt Island School. For children with learning and emotional disabilities, there is a K-12 Special Needs school called The Child School and Legacy High School.

Nearby high schools include: In Manhattan:

• Eleanor Roosevelt High School
• High School of Art and Design
• Talent Unlimited CES Vanguard High School
• CES-Manhattan International Urban Academy Lab High School

In Queens:

• Long Island City High School

Media

The Main Street WIRE

Roosevelt Island has its own community newspaper, founded in 1979 and published fortnightly. Volunteers deliver the newspaper to every residential door in the community.

The newspaper confines its coverage to Roosevelt Island matters, reporting on community concerns ignored by other New York City media, including issues that arise by virtue of Roosevelt Island being a community within New York City which is operated by the State (not the City) of New York, with a local "authority" called the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation in charge. For several years, The WIRE has editorialized in favor of a stronger element of elected home rule for the community, and various small steps have been taken in that general direction. Most recently, the Residents Association (RIRA) has been in the process of mounting an election which will serve to nominate members to the Board of Directors of the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation (RIOC). The Governor will retain the final nominating power, however.

The WIRE derives its name from the first four residential buildings constructed on Roosevelt Island: Westview, Island House, Rivercross, and Eastwood. Current and back issues are on line at http://nyc10044.com.

Notable residents and visitors

Prisoners on Blackwell's and Welfare Island

The prison at Blackwell's Island, 1853

• George Washington Dixon — served six months for libel against Reverend Francis L. Hawks
• The Farid Family
• Emma Goldman — several times, for activities in support of anarchism and birth control and against the World War I draft.
• Peter H. Matthews — for operating policy games (illegal lotteries) all over New York City
• Madame Restell — for performing abortions
• Boss Tweed — served one year on corruption-related charges
• Mae West — served eight days on public obscenity charges for her play Sex
• Billie Holiday — served on prostitution charges.
• Fritz Joubert Duquesne - Nazi spy and leader of the Duquesne Spy Ring, the largest convicted espionage case in United States history.

Visitors who exposed conditions on Blackwell's Island

• Nellie Bly — went undercover as a patient in the Women's Lunatic Asylum
• Charles Dickens — described conditions at the "Octagon," an asylum for the mentally ill then located on the northern portion of the island, in his American Notes (1842)

Former residents of Roosevelt Island

• "Grandpa" Al Lewis of The Munsters, now deceased
• Comedian Buddy Hackett, now deceased

Modern residents of Roosevelt Island

• Author Gwynne Forster
• Fez Whatley of The Ron and Fez Show

Ruins of Smallpox Hospital

Roosevelt Island in fiction, film, & popular entertainment

• In the opening chapter of Stephen Crane's novelette, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (1893), "a worm of yellow convicts" is seen emerging from a prison building on Roosevelt Island.
• Roosevelt Island appears in F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel The Great Gatsby as Blackwells Island, in Chapter Four, when Nick and Jay drive into Manhattan via the Queensboro Bridge.
• A Roosevelt Island Tramway car is held hostage in the 1981 Sylvester Stallone film Nighthawks.
• In the 1993 film For Love or Money, Doug Ireland (Michael J. Fox) wants to buy the "abandoned hotel" at the south end of Roosevelt Island.
• Near the end of the film Spider-Man (2002), the Green Goblin blows up the Roosevelt Island side tram station and leaves a group of children hanging inside one car. He also brings Spider-man down to fight with him in an abandoned building on the island. The island is also featured in the videogame Spider-Man 2
• The tram and the island make another appearance in Spider-Man media, in Amazing Spider-Man #161 and #162, appearing on the cover of the latter.[3] Also, Spider-Man and Hulk fight on the Roosevelt Island in Amazing Spider-Man #328.
• The old King Kong Tramway ride at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida, featured the Roosevelt Island Tram [4]
• Roosevelt Island is the setting for the 2005 movie Dark Water where Jennifer Connelly moves into a low-rent apartment with her daughter and then is terrorized by the ghost of a dead girl that used to live upstairs.
• In the second season episode of CSI: New York called "Dancing with the Fishes," a crime is committed inside one of the cable cars.
• Roosevelt Island's ruins, particularly the Smallpox Hospital and the Strecker Laboratory, play a central role in Linda Fairstein's police procedural novel The Dead House (Scribner 2001).
• The fictional high school which the main characters attend in the 2006 Studio GONZO anime series Red Garden is on Roosevelt Island.
• A sign posted on the Williamsburg Bridge in the 1966 film "Mister Buddwing" reads: "Stairway to Welfare Island." Suzanne Pleshette, playing the character Grace, tries to throw herself off the bridge wearing nothing but a fitted trenchcoat and white ankle boots, before James Garner saves her.
• In the 1994 movie Léon (film) the Natalie Portman character "Mathilda" takes the Tramway to Roosevelt Island to seek asylum at the Spenser School.

Tram malfunction

On April 18, 2006, at 5:15 p.m., 67 passengers and two operators were trapped on both cable cars linking Manhattan to Roosevelt Island. Though no one was hurt, they were stranded for over 6 hours, the last passenger reaching the ground at 4AM. ("The last 10 passengers made it down 11 hours after the trams stopped dead"). The stranded passengers passed the time by singing songs, telling scary stories, and entertaining each other while waiting to be rescued. For details, see reports in The Main Street WIRE at http://nyc10044.com/wire/2615/wire2615.pdf. Reports on the cause are at http://nyc10044.com/wire/2616/wire2616.html.

As of September 1, 2006, after some $500,000 in renovations and repairs to the tramway were made, the Roosevelt Island cable cars resumed operation. Renovations included repairs to the primary and back-up drive systems. The tram cars were also provided with 5-gallon plastic buckets with toilet seats, to function as sanitary facilities in the event of another emergency.

See also

• Theodore Roosevelt Island, Washington, D.C.
• United States Presidential Memorial

External links

• The Main Street WIRE — Roosevelt Island Community Newspaper
• Island History - Roosevelt Island History Timeline
• The Changing Landscape of Roosevelt Island — New York Times, December 4, 2005
• The Roosevelt Island Historical Walk
• Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation
• Roosevelt Island Information at NYCroads.com
• Air visit of 'Roosevelt Island' in Photographs
• ENYA Competition
• Roosevelt Island 360 - Blog containing short videos about Roosevelt Island including news, events, geography, and views from Roosevelt Island]
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• Main Street Theatre & Dance Alliance Local theatre and dance
• Adventures of a GoodMan Photo gallery of Roosevelt Island