The Little Apple

Paris has its glittering Ile de la Cite on the Seine, Budapest its merry Margaret Island on the Danube. New York City also has an island in the stream that may someday be an equally stimulating place to live or visit. Known as Roosevelt Island (for F.D.R.), the 2.5-mile-long sliver of granite in the East River--formerly Welfare Island --served as a malodorous dumping ground for the wicked, the incurable and the insane. Today the islet is a burgeoning new community, only 300 yds. from Manhattan but psychologically light-years distant. This week convenience and mystique came together with the opening of a $6 million aerial tramway --the first ever used for urban transit in the U.S.--that can waft 1,500 passengers an hour across the water.

Illustrious Prisoners. Manhattan's Other Island--it might be called the Little Apple--was planned as a green and spacious community that would combine insular serenity, small-town security and Manhattan-on-the-rock sophistication. Its appeal is mostly to young families who might otherwise head for the suburbs. Cars are banned from its winding Main Street (though electric minibuses run around the clock). Dogs are verboten. Old trees have been spared, eyesores torn down, and landmark buildings preserved--including the oldest wooden farmhouse in New York County, an octagonal tower that drew Charles Dickens' admiration, a lighthouse and a Victorian chapel that has become a community center. An infamous old prison has long since been demolished, leaving only the legends of its two most illustrious occupants: "Boss" Tweed, who served time in 1874 after mulcting the city of $200 million; and Mae West, who was gilded-caged for overacting in a 1927 play called--what else?--Sex. The new buildings are generously interlaced with parks and served by an imaginatively planned school. There is an abundance of recreational facilities.

The attractive development of Roosevelt Island, largely along the restrained, human lines laid down by Architect Philip Johnson, has been all the more remarkable, considering the astronomical value of its real estate; its 147 acres are worth up to $1 billion. To forestall rapacious commercial exploitation, New York State's Urban Development Corporation in 1969 leased the island from the city for 99 years and has spent $180 million on it. But development has been crimped by money shortages--and, until this week, by the fact that the only means of access was by a backdoor, time-consuming route across a bridge from Queens. Only 2,148 of the planned 5,000 apartments have been built; a town center, office building and hotel have been indefinitely postponed.

Still, Roosevelt Island already boasts 400 families, a delicatessen, a stationery store and bank, and leases have been signed for a restaurant, a liquor store and a laundry. In keeping with the original vision of a classless, integrated, ecumenical community, the four apartment buildings now standing range from federally assisted low-income housing (at $421 for a four-bedroom apartment), to middle-and higher middle-income accommodations (from a $297 studio to an $887 three-bedroom duplex) to co-ops that are comparably priced with East Side Manhattan apartments.

The pioneering residents are delighted with their tranquil, crime-free existence but are concerned about the changes that the tramway and a subway connection--planned for 1984 --will bring. Chief Planner Diane Porter, 34, a savvy urbanologist who has worked on the island since 1971, has no such fears. "We are not just renting apartments," she says, "we are renting a whole lifestyle. It's a very small town, and you have to like people to live here. It's not the cold, anonymous place people think New York is." Meaning that no man who lives on one is an island --even in New York City.

Roosevelt Island's aerial tramway will operate from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. daily, with departures every five minutes at rush hours. Last week Senior Writer Michael Demarest made a round-trip crossing on one of the two red cable cars. His report:

Cabin Two began its stately ascent noiselessly and almost imperceptibly. The 18,300-lb. C-2 reached a top speed of 16.3 m.p.h. and a peak altitude of 250 ft.--providing a spectacular view of the Manhattan skyline. We touched down on R.I. after a flight of 3,134 ft. and 3 1/2 min. Each of the Swiss-built cars carries up to 125 straphangers, at 50-c- a head. In case of a power failure, a huge diesel auxiliary drive system on the island can be put into action within five minutes, says the island's chief engineer, David Ozerkis. If the tram's driving mechanism breaks down, a red steel cage can be run out from the island to disembark stranded passengers. Wind speeds are constantly checked; service is stopped if gusts reach 45 m.p.h. On C-2's return trip, winds caused the tram to tilt 1DEG to starboard, according to the onboard inclinometer. "Not feeling seasick?" asked Engineer Ozerkis. "Or airsick?" If we had said yes, he would doubtless have passed out Tramamine.

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