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A FLOCK of ring-billed gulls soars over the island, scouring thestone walkways for food and alighting on craggy, seaweed-covered rocks. With a piercing shriek, they are airborne again, gliding over the water and heading south. This seaside scenario isn't set in Nantucket or Martha's Vineyard; it's smack in the middle of the East River on a two-mile strip of land called Roosevelt Island.
Flanked by the concrete canyons of Manhattan on one side and the industrial plants of Queens on the other, Roosevelt Island is a small, self-contained, family-oriented community. It has its own school, its own volunteer library, its own newspaper - even its own Little League. There is only one street, and residents who frequent the supermarket or the cleaners are likely to bump into someone they know.
Despite the small-town atmosphere, however, Roosevelt Island is a distinctly urban place. Conceived by the state's Urban Development Corporation in 1969 and completed in 1975, the island was an experimental attempt at establishing moderately priced, multiracial housing. The residential highrise compound known as Northtown I was originally designed by architects Philip Johnson and John Burgee. But because of the fiscal crisis of the mid-1970s, the development turned out to be a scaled-down version of the original plan, housing only 6,500 residents instead of the 20,000 envisioned.
THE FOUR residential building complexes of Northtown I are made of pre-fabricated concrete and brick. Many units have three or four bedrooms arranged around a central living space. While lacking such amenities as air conditioning, dish washers and washing machines, most apartments offer spectacular views of the river. Altogether, the development houses a cross-section of people from varied economic and ethnic backgrounds. A new development, Northtown II, that will add 2,500 people to the island's population, should further change the fabric of life.
For now, the housing spectrum is broad. Northtown I's Eastwood complex, a federally subsidized development for lowerand moderate-income people (with special units for the elderly and disabled) is directly across the street from Rivercross, a luxury co-op with a doorman and a swimming pool. The island itself, equipped with ramps and cut curbs, was designed to be wheelchairaccessible.
Roosevelt Island is also home to many nationalities, partly because it is so close to the United...