Roosevelt Island Redux

So last Saturday I went with Matt and N. to check out Roosevelt Island, to see if it is a viable place to live or not. I determined a series of things which can only be explained through lists and charts.

I'll start with a list of things on the island:

1. Several clusters of luxury sky-rise apartments, and more being built every day.
2. A really nice park that extends around the perimeter of the island.
3. Several hospital compounds filled with elderly people, some of whom have chronic diseases, and a bunch of amputees of various ages.
4. One diner with so-so food.
5. Two or three churches
6. A library.
7. A couple of schools.
8. A wine store.
9. A very large Gristedes.
10. Some other small yet skanky looking places to buy food.
11. A thrift shop (which includes books).
12. Did I mention the old people?

The island isn't populated by just the decrepit. To be fair, it is a very diverse population ethnically, and there are a lot of families and yuppies when it comes to the age-breakdown. As Matt points out on his blog, there are crazy people, too. The island is 100% free of hipsters, that's for sure.

There are two ways to get the Roosevelt Island - one way is by taking the F train. The other way is by taking the tram, which does take MTA cards after all. Either way the commute is pretty short, and from the tram you can walk to the Lexington Avenue subway station, so most of the subways are covered.

As we walked around the perimeter of the island, it seemed like it might be nice to live there. But the next day I found myself kind of depressed. It was as if the somewhat depressing air of an island with a 100 years of convalescing patients kind of wore me down.

At any rate, I have to move in February or March or so. Well, I don't haaaaaave to. I could move any time next year, but I hear February is a good month for it since most people don't move then. I was thinking of either Roosevelt Island or Brooklyn - probably Park Slope. I'd like Matt to be our roommate again, too.

And therein lies the problem! Matt was not overly impressed with Roosevelt Island, but without a roommate, living there really isn't an option. The 1-bedrooms are too expensive for me and N. on our own. So without Matt (or some mystery roommate/s) we couldn't really live there. So we'd live in Brooklyn. I know that would please a few of you reading this, but then you couldn't visit my fabulous Roosevelt Island apartment to go swimming and have BBQs, could you?

Anyway I find this all very vexing, so I've made this chart:

Pros and Cons of Living on Roosevelt Island vs. Brooklyn

Stuff	Harlem (for comparison)	Brooklyn	Roosevelt Island
Elevator buildings	yes	no	yes
Dishwasher in the apt.	yes	no	yes
A freaking pool	no	no	yes!
Nice Views	yes	no	YES!!
depressing old people smell	no	no	yes.
TRAM!	no	no	yes
The commute	30 minutes	35 minutes?	30 minutes
Friends in the area	no	yes	no
24-hour delis	no	yes	no
Park to go jogging in	yes	maybe	yes!
Safe to walk around at night	no	maybe	yes
Bagels	no	yes!!	no
Amputies	no	some	a ton
Forbidden abandoned 1850's mad scientist laboratory	no	no	YES!!
All BBQ, all the time	no	no	yes!
Post office delivers to your doorman	yes	no	yes
Getting to the airport	annoying	annoying	annoying
Taxis want to take you there at night	usually	sometimes	almost never
Taxis pick you up from there	sometimes	no idea	probably not?
Tons of resturants , including sushi	no	yes!!	no

Comments Individual Archive Index

September 5, 2005 02:00 PM, Halifax said:

Dude, the only person I know who lives on RI is emphatically a hipster.

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