Content area
Full Text
NOAH ADAMS, Host: This is All Things Considered. I'm Noah Adams.
ROBERT SIEGEL, Host: And I'm Robert Siegel.
In the 1960s, while President Lyndon Johnson was building the Great Society, Governor Nelson Rockefeller was rebuilding New York state. His Urban Development Corporation built university campuses, housing projects and new communities. One of his most ambitious projects was Roosevelt Island in New York City. It was supposed to be an urban utopia, a home for both the poor and the rich. But the tiny island has always had to rely heavily on state funding, and now, the state's commitment to Roosevelt Island is waning. As Beth Furtig [sp] reports from member station WNYC, the island's residents are worried about their future.
BETH FURTIG, Reporter: There's a strange sense of calm on Roosevelt Island. You can still hear the Queensboro bridge rumbling ahead, and the roar of traffic across the water. But this tiny island, wedged between Midtown Manhattan and Queens, is an escape from the rest of the city. Just 800 feet across and less than two miles long, there are no cars, no traffic, just grass, jogging trails and apartment houses with spectacular views across the East River.
The community is so special long-time residents call themselves `pioneers.' Frank Gibbs [sp] recalls moving here from the Bronx in 1976, shortly after the community opened.
FRANK GIBBS, Roosevelt Island Resident: Well, I moved here because it was a unique island, and they said everyone would be living like one family being together, and it was a nice village,...