Residents: Morlocks and Bill Gates ?

I don’t believe I have seen Warren Buffet or Bill Gates on Main Street lately, have you?

Glenn, of the blog “One Year in Texas”, stated recently that Roosevelt Island is full of wondrous beauty and some of the wealthiest people in the world. There are many beautiful sites across the Island so it’s great that Glenn is letting folks know about the island but as for thinking our residents are among the wealthiest in the world I ask Glenn, who are you talking to? Glenn makes both of these statements in a post titled “Good Morning Welfare Island”. At the same time his posts compares the population to being a “combination of the Morlocks from The Time Machine and C.H.U.D. from C.H.U.D.”

Once again Glenn is showing that as an island Roosevelt Island gets very little respect. We should be used to it as after all we are effectively the Rodney Dangerfield of NYC islands after Manhattan, Staten Island, Governors Island, Randall's and Ward's Islands and even City Island.

Seems like Glenn has not ventured too far North of Southtown and the Riverwalk buildings demographically. I am not denying that the purchase price and rental prices for the Riverwalk buildings are pricy by many standards but they are hardly representative of the majority of the Island’s residents much less that the island would draw Buffets and Gates to its shores.

Glen continues his love fest with the Island by stating: “Roosevelt Island is unique as the only island in the world that doesn't support any life form other than humans (or what we consider by New York standards to be human). The climate is too unstable and there isn't enough space for animals to spread out and enjoy themselves. Thankfully people don't need the same accommodations.”

In truth the apartment density on the island is less tightly packed than that of Manhattan such that the spreading out comments just seem off. I also don’t think Glenn is aware of the booming cat colony up at the Garden Club as proof that life does exist beyond our human populace. And to be honest the “24” hour Counter Terrorist Unit headquarters located under Southpoint Park and the Soul Storage Company located at Coler Hospital each don’t want the Island to be that active as more life forms may impact their operations.

Glenn has also predicted that NYC will win the bid for the 2020 Summer Olympics but that the site will be Roosevelt Island and many of our buildings will be torn down in prep for those games but that “Right before [these] massive construction projects gets underway, a lawyer representing the Canarsie Indians will show up and try to lay claim to the island for their wayward tribe. Mayor Bloomberg, in his 6th term, will give an impassioned speech about religious freedom and instead of a stadium they will turn Roosevelt Island into what it originally was: a large mosque.”

Somehow I am not sure Glenn really wants to step into the political mess of the Ground Zero Mosque. I know that Roosevelt Island currently has no official prayer site for the island’s Muslim residents which is surprising given the empty store frontage on the island. As for whether the Canarsie Indians will return to lay claim to the island, all I ask is don’t turn the Goldwater campus site into a casino unless the transportation infrastructure is improved including a second subway line and perhaps a second tram.