The erasure is so complete, seeing Four Freedoms Park for the first time, you’d never guess what was there before.
By David Stone
Before Four Freedoms Park on Roosevelt Island…
If you go back, you find the city prison, later relocated on Rikers Island, where Four Freedoms Park rests today. And before that, bands of rock, Manhattan schist, scraped free as the last North American ice shelf retreated.
But none of that was Roosevelt Island. The renamed community came to life with a messy meadow left behind by Welfare Island. So messy, and unsafe, we weren’t allowed to go there, except on the Fourth of July, and that was only with PSD escort.
Macy’s fireworks bursting overhead from barges, just to the south, was too big a draw for denying residents access. Plus enough outsiders that lines in the hundreds curled away from both Tram and subway after the event.
Before RIOC scooped up the name, this was Southpoint, the real one, the tip of the Island, and it was as fascinating as it was lonely.
First time past the fence…
RIOC — correctly — considered the area unsafe and kept it fenced off. A gate near where The Blue Dragon now sits opened only for PSD cars on patrol.
But one Saturday morning, they left it open. Fresh snow had fallen, and maybe they didn’t want to get out of their warm car.
I don’t know, but out for a long run, I jogged straight through. To the left, charred timbers from the burned down City hospital; then, mounds of waste. Jagged chunks of concrete jutting out of earth and unidentifiable debris.
Snow covered exposed surfaces of what was left of Renwick’s design for the Smallpox hospital…
And I turned back because, on the other side of the ruin, PDS spotted me.
“You know better,” the officer warned before I got back out the gate, and I did.
I knew better than to have missed this rare chance for a look inside.
Between the opening and Four Freedoms Park…
For a while before Four Freedoms Park opened and Southpoint Park construction began, RIOC declared the area safe enough for casual visits.
Still a high mileage runner then, still unwilling to concede I’d never get fast enough, I enjoyed extending my workouts all the way to the Island’s southern tip.
Few others shared my fascination. About the only people I saw there were my wife running beside me and my buddy Patrick Stewart on is bicycle.
But every spring, I ran carefully around the geese with their goslings trailing behind. And honestly, that’s about the only thing I miss.
Patrick, while he was alive, with that playful Irish twinkle in his eye, used to tell me he couldn’t forgive Four Freedoms for taking away his favorite biking trail.
But it really was a mess, then.
Both Four Freedoms and RIOC improved the space immensely, the contrast so great you’d never guess it if you weren’t there before it all changed.
More from the Roosevelt Island Daily
- Northern Boulevard Safety Concerns Prompt Urgent Calls for Action in QueensQueens officials and residents are raising Northern Boulevard safety concerns, calling for urgent city action to address dangerous crossings and improve pedestrian protections along this busy corridor.
- Northern Boulevard Safety Concerns Spark Calls for Major RedesignNorthern Boulevard safety concerns have led community members and officials in Queens to demand a comprehensive redesign, citing unsafe conditions and a need for urgent action.
- Three New Schools Open in Western Queens Amid Ongoing Classroom OvercrowdingThree new schools have opened in Western Queens, giving some relief in classroom overcrowding, but families still face capacity challenges and tough implementation issues this fall.
- Certified 9/11-Related Cancer Cases Double at Northwell HealthNorthwell Health has seen a sharp increase as certified 9/11-related cancer cases double, transforming care for survivors and responders in the New York region.
- Long-Term Health Effects Linked to 9/11: 25 Years LaterThe 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks brings renewed focus to long-term health effects linked to 9/11, with ongoing needs for survivors, first responders, and affected communities.
The WIRE: Two Futures, One Empty Chair
It is December 6, 2015, and David Stone is writing to Dr. Jack Resnick about a chair that will soon be empty. Dick Lutz is preparing to leave the Main Street WIRE, and Stone has been encouraged to ask whether he might replace him. Seven years of covering art, Cornell Tech and questionable practices inside Public Safety have taught Stone how the paper tells an Island story.
1 COMMENTS