NY DLers tell me about Roosevelt Island

It's a weird place. You're in NYC but at the same time you're not in NYC. It's very quiet, so there's that. The view of Manhattan is lovely.

It always struck me as a place to sleep but not to live.

Oh, I forgot to mention the tram ride is pretty cool. You're suspended in air over the East River and get a bird's eye view of everything. I recommend riding the tram at least once. You get on the tram at 59th St. and 2nd. Ave.

I wanted to look at apartments there when I was moving in the spring, just to see what it was like, but snagged a place in the W. Village before that could happen. Is it a huge hassle living there? Is there stuff to do without taking the tram into the city?

r4 there's not much there except for a grocery store, a pharmacy a couple diners and a handful of other places. There's no nightlife or anything. You have to go into Manhattan for everything. I can't remember when the tram shuts down but it's not 24 hours. You have to wait awhile for the subway. If you're in Manhattan at night you have to take a cab back to RI. It's really a bedroom community in the middle of NYC, which is interesting and weird at the same time.

It made for an eerie film setting in some movie I saw - which I can’t exactly remember. Probably Dark Water with Jennifer Connelly.

r5, is it mostly hospital staff who live there like who is the demographic, if there is one? Are they not allowed to have bars or whatever else because of zoning or is there just no space for them?

Lifelong NYer who’s never been.

There was an episode of Younger where she met the perfect guy but then ghosted him after finding out he lived on Roosevelt Island.

Thanks R5. I'd wondered if it had outdoor cafes or bars. Even suburbs usually have more nightlife than that.

R6, that movie is the first time I'd ever heard of RI and, yes, it was creepy but I'm assuming it was also filmed in Fall/Winter.

Do you not have access to Wikipedia? Or Google Maps?

r10, we want to know about the actual experience of it.

R10 that's all well and good but I prefer actually NYer viewpoints.

Does the East River ever flood?

Love living on the island. Peaceful tranquility mins. away from Manhattan is impossible to find

How are housing and rent prices R14?

It’s getting nicer. New luxury buildings, better public transportation, but it’s still an island. The stores and restaurants are still few and far-between. I still can’t believe there’s not a city bus that is dedicated to travels between the island and Manhattan.

Q102 is R16

I feel like there are still even a lot of NYC residents who have no idea that the southern most part of the island is an FDR Memorial for the Four Freedoms.

Who is Q102?

It has the feel of Battery Park City: it’s full of shiny buildings, but you wonder why they are there.

The memorial was featured on a recent tv show, Billions. You can walk to the island over a bridge from Astoria, it’s a short walk. There’s also a subway line in the middle. I don’t think its zoned for businesses and not enough traffic for them anyways.

There’s also street way,hand rail and other parts of the island that are worn, and need replacing.

Didn’t there used to be a tram? Am I dreaming? Was that another NYC island?

The Octagon, which even at the turn of the century was a ruin, was a mental asylum that Nellie Bly infiltrated and exposed tye seedy goings on in her newspaper articles. The rotunda in American Horror Society: Asylum was based on it as was the character Sarah Paulson played was based on Bly. Today it’s been restored and is the entrance foyer for apartments buildings.

r23 the tram was mentioned already.

So do the Manhattanites look down on RI like they do Brooklyn and other boroughs? I know life isn't tv but every show has them being looked down and sneered at by sophisticated Manhattan dwellers.

There is a subway stop on the island. It opened in 1989.

Crazy!

It will become a shithole in keeping with the rest of New York.

R29 Well, it will have far to fall, it’s listed as the safest neighborhood in NYC.

No way I could do the tram. Terrified of heights and I'd be having panic attacks.

It's fun r31

Do they have thugs there?

r28, not a single ghost is disappointing. Did they all get priced out to Queens?

No bathhouse. Dealbreaker.

R31

I'm acutely acrophobic. I've taken the tram a few times. It's quite a view. But it has gotten stuck or had to stop mid-air at least once. I've been to the Island by tram, by subway, and by walking across the bridge from Queens. There was a time when there was a car elevator that descended from the Queensboro bridge but I believe it was shut down in the '50s. Today, cars aren't allowed. Residents park their cars in a garage on the east side of the Island, near the bridge.

R26

Manhattanites don't look down on Roosevelt Island any more than they look down on the more desirable parts of Brooklyn. Brooklyn is cool. I never thought I'd live to see that.

It's a lovely place, right in the City, but a little removed.

I lived there in 1990-91. Loved the peace and quiet but yet close to the action of Manhattan. The Panorama room in the Graduate us a rooftop bar, quite lovely. A lot of UN staffers live there, not so much hospital workers.

[quote]So do the Manhattanites look down on RI like they do Brooklyn and other boroughs?

Sneering comments about Brooklyn are only going to be made by people like 50+. At this point Brooklyn is an well established, extremely desirable borough. Many people prefer it to Manhattan.

R28 would anyone REALLY want to be haunted by the ghost of a mentally insane person who died in an asylum?

Beautiful building but there’s no way I’d live there, ghosts or not.

Interesting history about Nellie Bly’s investigation though; that lady had nerves of steel.

On Roosevelt Island all seems to breathe freedom and peace, and to make one forget the world and its sad turmoils.

What R14 said. 👍🏼

^^^^^^^^

And R40

Depending on where I take my next gig, I was actually considering moving there.

A lot of the apartments are Hell's Kitchen-level expensive, though.