Has Brooklyn Paid Roosevelt Island for our Granite?

Stop. Thief! Has Brooklyn Heights paid for the Roosevelt Island granite it plans to use in the construction of a new staircase for its East River Promenade park? We actualy want our granite back. Supposedly an FDR memorial is to be built on our island and we want to help reduce their costs by using our own granite.

So Brooklyn give us back our granite or pony up the bucks!

The mystery is when did Brooklyn grab our granite? And what is the article talking about where it refers to a rescue of the granite from the old Roosevelt Island Bridge? That bridge is still standing? Did someone steel the brick from its foundations? Are we in danger just to help some folks go down a stair. These are important questions.

I first brought up this travesty of justice back in October yet no response from Brooklyn has been received?

Hey Brooklyn ! We Want Our Granite Back ! Keep Roosevelt Island Granite on Roosevelt Island !

According to the linked article about the future Brooklyn Bridge Park they plan on using granite salvaged from the Roosevelt Island Bridge for their park.

While I am not happy about the design of the future FDR Four Freedoms / Louis Kahn Memorial Park shouldn't the granite from Roosevelt Island be first provided to a local park project on Roosevelt Island?

Groundbreaking: New East River Park Just North of Queensboro Bridge

In case you were wondering what the City was doing to the site along the East River as you passed it from above during your morning Tram ride from Roosevelt Island into Manhattan...

It would be cool if they got the Roller Coaster running again. But then again I don't know if the dogs would enjoy the ride.

FYI, the park currently at the bottom of the above picture is a dog park which sits at the site of a former heliport. I have no info regarding the artist that designed the "roller coaster' structure that sits on top of the dog park. [The above picture is by "raynach" and can be found on Flickr HERE.]

Wanted: Alfred Hitchcock’s Birds to Nest on Roosevelt Island?

I came upon a blog, RaeFried Beans, today which includes in a January 17th post artwork envisioning greater green spaces on Roosevelt Island with the hope of inducing migratory birds to make the island a pit stop on their journey to their Winter digs.

I had not heard of any such project and it appears to be an idea of the artist / Blogger based on her participation in an Audobon Society program that dealt with birds migrating that did not quite make it through glass encased cities.

I am not sure Roosevelt island residents are looking for the Island to be a rest stop for flocks of migratory geese. The ones that land on the Island already leave their marks all over the various ball fields.

Where the Trust for Public Land’s Wild Gardens will establish and create usable park land for humans out of Southpoint I am not sure interested many humans will want to fight migratory birds for their picnic spots. The concept is nice but adding green space is not so much our concern on the Island as it is to keep what green space we have from future developers of overpriced apartments.

RIOC Candidates Q&A: Renting Out Fields

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This video is of the 4th question posed to the RIOC Board Nominee Candidates and focuses on their views regarding RIOC's ability and actions of renting out public ball fields and space to organizations from off the Island. This video was shot on 1/15/08 at the first of two candidate nights. The second is Saturday night February 2nd.

The candidates were seated alphabetically from left to right with those individuals who had submitted their formal paperwork on the left (6 of the 9) and those whose paperwork was in process (3 pf the 9) to the right. They are Michael Carew, Fay Christian, Kathie Grimm, Adrienne Grist, Howard Polivy, Lynne Strong-Shinozaki, Frank Farance, Erin Feely-Nahem, and Jonathan Kalkin.

RIOC Candidates Q & A: Open Spaces / Parkland

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The above video is from the Q & A segment of the first of two RIOC Board Nominee Candidate Nights. This video focuses solely on the question asking for each candidate's view of preserving open spaces and parkland on the Island. It was the third question posed to the candidates that evening.

The candidates were seated alphabetically from left to right with those individuals who had submitted their formal paperwork on the left (6 of the 9) and those whose paperwork was in process to the right. They are Michael Carew, Fay Christian, Kathie Grimm, Adrienne Grist, Howard Polivy, Lynne Strong-Shinozaki, Frank Farance, Erin Feely-Nahem, and Jonathan Kalkin.

Manhattan’s Tramway Plaza – Images from Yesterday and Today

Even though Tramway Plaza is not technically part of Roosevelt Island it is as much part of the island psychologically to residents as anyplace else and when a resident reaches the plaza at the end of a long day they know they are almost home.

Yesterday:




Copyright 2005 George Cuhaj via NYC Subway.org

Today

Images of the interior Plaza brickwork and the picture of the Tram station itself were taken from the Bridge & Tunnel Club web page for Tramway Plaza.


Park Rededication Links:

< Parks News Release – July 19, 2007
< Photos from the Rededication
< Daily Plant


Past Art Installations:

Entrance to a Garden – Dennis Oppenheim – May 2004





NYC Parks Dept. Press Release


Location: