Okay, I had a date. Not a great date, but he's a sweet guy and nice and dare I say, we'll just be friends.
Anyway, despite having just the one day off, I spent most of the day outside with him. We started off early afternoon going to Governor's Island. He had 2 folding bikes and we peddled all over the island. For a place that's supposed to be bike and pedestrian friendly, they have an awful lot of cars. Okay, they are mostly parked willy-nilly all over the place, but half of the island is still closed off to the public, so that means not as much room and space to peddle around as you might think.
The most distinct feature of the place are the old victorian houses. Small rooms with high ceilings and lots of nooks and cranies. Oddly, these beautifully built houses stand empty except for temporary sculpture exhibits. The oddest feature of these places are the kitchens with metal overpainted cabinets and formica countertops. A few stainless steel appliances and you'll have housing to die for.
In the evening my date had tickets to watch the fireworks from Roosavelt island. The tickets are for seating at the tip of the island past the ruins of the turn of the century smallpox asylum. May I give you a piece of advice, save your money and don't do it. Camp out of the FDR if you must, find a friend with rooftop access or even watch it on TV, but don't give your money to this horrid farce of an event.
Whoever the planner is, should be shot. Although they insisted that everybody be seated for the start of the fireworks, they didn't insist people remain seated and nobody bothered to say your going to have to put your umbrella's away. Needless to say, the thing was ruined by the preponderance of rude people who think because they are paying for something, they deserve the best, forget all the other people paying.
Then the next nightmare began, getting off the island was nearly impossible. This is Roosevelt island. The only way off is by tram or subway. You cannot walk off the island (I would like to know the city planner that needs to be whipped for that lack of insight and planning) on any of the bridges, not even into queens. I can think of few worse ideas that packing into a dangling cattle car stuffed with sweaty tourists and screaming kids to travel over the east river. But the MTA decided that the subways will be restricted to very few people trickling in.
At first, while we were waiting our turn I thought how clever, they are keeping everybody safe from overcrowding on the platforms. But by the time we got down there only to notice the platforms are completely empty, you realize the stupidity of their system. I mean, people didn't even have to stand on the subway, the cars were empty, the platform was empty, and everybody who was dying to get home was outside hoping to be let into the subway.
Save your money. Spend it on beer. Stay home and watch a good sci-fi flick instead (Starwars for the 200th time comes to mind).
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10 comments:
The bridge from RI to Queens has a sidewalk, so you can walk off the island.
Yes, but it would have to be open for people to get off the Island, and since it's been under repair for nearly a year, that leaves most people SOL (unless you can walk on water).
You need to get YOUR facts straight.
A bit harsh of a reply, there, eh?
What about the temporary walkway on the bridge?
What temporary walkway on which bridge?
And who are you and why are you even reading my blog?
The bridge to Queens. See http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/bridges/roos.shtml
"Pedestrian access will be maintained on the bridge at all times."
yes, but there is a big difference between what the government says and does. And most 4 year olds know that. So, until you actually go to Roosevelt island and walk across the bridge to queens, your arguments are specious.
Don't think I haven't noticed that you refused to tell me who you are.
Lovely adversarial attitude you have there. Especially your comparisons, out of nowhere, to 4-year-olds. Chill. And what's with your obsession with knowing who I am? (It's not as if you post your name on your blog.) And have you actually tried to walk across the bridge? If so, what happened?
Uhm, who do you think the Tiger in the Monkey Tale is?
So, you obviously don't know me if you don't know my name. And it's not like I actually advertised this blog to many people. I'm actually kind of shocked that anybody bothers to read it.
So, the question becomes, why do you bother reading a blog dedicated to crafting and sightseeing in NYC?
As a blogger dedicated to issues on Roosevelt Island I wanted to confirm there is a walkway open at all times across the Roosevelt Island bridge which depending on the construction has been shifted ito the lane of traffic with appropriate barriers. Below is a recent video of the regular walkway with partial barriers separating it from the roadway.
http://rooseveltisland360.blogspot.com/2008/06/shaky-ride-over-roosevelt-island-bridge.html
I personally found your blog via google searches of blogs with the phrase "Roosevelt Island".
This post was linked from some other blog. I don't remember which one.
I thought I'd be helpful and correct your information about the bridge, so that you'd know that you can walk off the island next time.
That's it. I don't know why you made it into this huge thing.
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