Roosevelt Island

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This article is about the island in New York City. For the national park in Washington, D.C., see Theodore Roosevelt Island. For the island in the Southern Ocean near Antarctica, see Roosevelt Island, Antarctica.

Image:Roosevelt Island-Main Street.jpg

Roosevelt Island, formerly known as Welfare 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 on Long Island 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 had a population of 9,520<ref>According US Census 2000 the Mill Rock island (Census Block 9000) is upopulated</ref> and a land area of 0.722 km² (0.279 sq mi). <ref>[1] United States Census Bureau</ref> 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. Several of the residences on Roosevelt Island are cooperatives; at least one is considering privatization.

1 History
2 Transportation
3 Demographics
4 Education
5 Notable residents and visitors
6 Roosevelt Island in fiction, film, & popular entertainment
7 Tram Malfunction
8 See also
9 References
10 External links

[edit] History

Image:Roosevelt Island-1889 Chapel.jpg

Before colonization, the island was called Minnahononck<ref>"Roosevelt Island." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2006. Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service (18 Jan. 2006)</ref> (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.

Roosevelt Island is sometimes referred to as "The Little Apple" - a jocular allusion to New York City's "Big Apple" moniker.

[edit] Transportation

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 F</pre> train running on the IND 63rd Street Line 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.

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 livery.

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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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.

Nearby high schools include: In Manhattan:

In Queens:

Long Island City High School

The Roosevelt Island Day Nursery, a private preschool licensed by the NYC Department of Health and accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children, is also located on Roosevelt Island and serves children aged 2 to 5 with both part time and full time programs.

[edit] Notable residents and visitors

[edit] Prisoners on Blackwell's and Welfare Island

Image:Blackwell's Island prison.jpg

George Washington Dixon — served six months for libel against Reverend Francis L. Hawks
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.

[edit] 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)

[edit] Former residents of Roosevelt Island

"Grandpa" Al Lewis of The Munsters, now deceased
Kofi Annan current (2006) Secretary-General of the United Nations, moved into Secretary-General official residence in 1997

[edit] Modern residents of Roosevelt Island

Fez Whatley of The Ron and Fez Show

[edit] Roosevelt Island in fiction, film, & popular entertainment

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 old King Kong Tramway ride at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida, featured the Roosevelt Island Tram [3]
The Emerging NY Architects Committee, AIA New York Chapter, hosted an international ideas competition in the fall of 2005. Winners will be announced at the exhibition opening at the Center for Architecture, March 31.
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).

[edit] Tram Malfunction

On April 18, 2006, 5:15 P.M. 67 passengers (and 2 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.^{[citation needed]} The cause is currently under investigation.

As of September 1, 2006, after some $500,000 in renovations and repairs to the tramway, 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.