History

“The Island Nobody Knows”- Revisiting Roosevelt Island's Master Plan 50 Years Later

In 1968, Mayor John Lindsay tasked a 22-member committee with developing ideas for the underutilized, though ideally situated, Welfare...

Roosevelt Island and Public Transportation, It's Complicated

*this is reprinted from http://mswire.nyc/issuepdfs/3504.pdf, Subway Service Here Reaches the Quarter-Century Mark on Wednesday The New...

The Best of Intentions: Damnation Island

It was standing room only at the Roosevelt Island branch of the New York Public Library Thursday night, as Islanders braved below...

The History Behind the Roosevelt Island Cherry Blossom Festival

A record-breaking 10,000 people strolled the Island’s blooming promenade last Saturday for the seventh annual Cherry Blossom Festival,...

Remembering the Revolution

For Islanders who fought on the frontlines of the Women’s Movement, lessons still resonate. The first skirmishes for women’s rights were...

RIRA's Grassroots Beginnings

[Editor’s note: The following is a reprint of an article published in 2007, at the time of RIRA’s 30th anniversary, with some minor...

Goldwater Memorial’s Legacy of Innovation

Long before Cornell Tech’s campus stood at the southern end of Roosevelt Island, serving as a beacon for innovation and emerging...

The Island's Surprising Role in Medical History

Today, the role of antiseptics and good hygiene in preventing the spread of disease and infection is considered a cornerstone of...

Once a Beacon for Sailors and Madmen, the Blackwell Light Now Illuminates the Past

Between the asylum, penitentiary, multiple hospitals, sprawling apartment complexes, and the soon-to-be-completed Cornell Tech campus,...