Roosevelt Island: Manhattan’s Little Secret in the River

When is your neighborhood in Manhattan, but on a different island? Sounds like a riddle, but it’s the story of Roosevelt Island, a 150-acre strip of land in the East River that is quietly transforming into one of Manhattan’s most interesting neighborhoods.
Roosevelt Island: Manhattan’s Little Secret in the River
ISLAND OASIS: A rendering of Riverwalk Court and the Rivewalk Commons, which are currently under construction in Roosevelt Island, Manhattan. Riverwalk Court is a 123-unit luxury condominium due to open Spring of 2009. Courtesy of Hudson and Related
Evan Mantyk
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<a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/07/riverwalk1cropped_lowres_medium.jpg"><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/07/riverwalk1cropped_lowres_medium-318x450.jpg" alt="ISLAND OASIS: A rendering of Riverwalk Court and the Rivewalk Commons, which are currently under construction in Roosevelt Island, Manhattan.  Riverwalk Court is a 123-unit luxury condominium due to open Spring of 2009. (Courtesy of Hudson and Related)" title="ISLAND OASIS: A rendering of Riverwalk Court and the Rivewalk Commons, which are currently under construction in Roosevelt Island, Manhattan.  Riverwalk Court is a 123-unit luxury condominium due to open Spring of 2009. (Courtesy of Hudson and Related)" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-80713"/></a>
ISLAND OASIS: A rendering of Riverwalk Court and the Rivewalk Commons, which are currently under construction in Roosevelt Island, Manhattan.  Riverwalk Court is a 123-unit luxury condominium due to open Spring of 2009. (Courtesy of Hudson and Related)

NEW YORK—When is your neighborhood in Manhattan, but on a different island? Sounds like a riddle, but it’s the story of Roosevelt Island, a 150-acre strip of land in the East River that is quietly transforming into one of Manhattan’s most interesting neighborhoods.

The neighborhood today is described affectionately by residents as quiet, peaceful, safe, and clean.

“It’s quiet, it’s safe, very close to nature, there’s birds and butterflies, big open space, you can sit under a tree and it’s like living right next to the city but not in the city,” said Heather Mosher, a Roosevelt Island renter and a mother for two years. “I love that, especially if you have a child.”

The problem for developers of Manhattan’s little secret, is just that—no one knows about it.

“Our biggest challenge is to get people to come to Roosevelt Island and once they’re there, they love it,” said David Kramer, principal at Hudson Companies, in an interview at his office near Union Square.

Hudson along with Related Companies are developing 19 acres of Roosevelt Island into prime Manhattan residential property for below-Manhattan prices.

The underlying problem, Kramer says, is that people don’t know the Island can be easily reached by the F Train on the subway. Transportation to mainland Manhattan isn’t confined to the Roosevelt Island Tram, which has earned notoriety from being in movies like Spider-Man and for leaving passengers stranded above the East River in 2006. The Island is also accessible via the 59th Street Bridge, which connects the Island to Queens.

“People haven’t been there, or they think you can only get there by taking a tram, they don’t realize that you can take the subway. A lot of our marketing materials say take the F,” said Kramer.

Roosevelt Island, formerly known as Welfare Island, spent much of its last 200 years as a place for hospitals, a prison, and an insane asylum. By the 1970s, the asylum and prison were history and the State of New York leased the Island from the City, dropping the name Welfare and drawing up a master plan to divide the Island into two residential areas, Northtown and Southtown.

Evan Mantyk
Evan Mantyk
Author
Evan Mantyk is an English teacher in New York and President of the Society of Classical Poets.