A lot happened on Roosevelt Island in 2021. The second COVID-colored year saw a community evolving, adjusting and, mostly, appreciating life here. We picked one photo from each month as representing its most memorable event. So much went on, we were surprised at how much we left out. Local spirit burned through the COVID haze, more often than not.
By David Stone
The Roosevelt Island Daily News
Roosevelt Island 2021, January thru December
In one of the years biggest sour notes and one that still needs investigating, RIOC opened its Swift COVID-19 Rapid Testing Site. While later claiming dubious testing counts, the location was such a bust that – probably illegally – a PSD officer was positioned as a sidewalk barker on the second day.
It was, again, a mild winter, but February brought a couple of rounds of snow early in the month.
Shortened winter led into early spring. As the city began reopening, people came outside, enjoying fresh, mild air and what became the first pass out of COVID.
Although they begin opening along the East Promenade in March, April is always the month for cherry blossoms in fair weather.
For one warm day in May, Roosevelt Island 2021 became somewhere else, clandestine and dramatic. The TV series Blacklist filmed scenes in multiple locations.
In June, Roosevelt Island got its first ever hotel, complete with a ribbon-cutting.
Roosevelt Island 2021, from Mid-Year to New Year’s Eve
After fundraising and COVID-related delays, the FDR Hope Memorial opened on an appropriately sunny day in July.
But it wasn’t all good news as RIOC failed at protecting the historic Tram cabins left for years behind the Motorgate atrium. After proposals for saving and/or repurposing the cabins were turned aside, vandals took over.
After RIOC tried skating, with little effort, past a serious tribute to September 11th on its 20th Anniversary, Ceruzzi – at her own expense – tried rescuing the event on behalf of caring residents.
Listless enforcement of state mask mandates continued into October.
But somehow, much of Roosevelt Island’s natural beauty survives. November brought the usual spectacular of color, although with fewer trees for another year.
Crowning the year with art, The Girl Puzzle, a tribute to Nellie Bly brought crowds out for a ribbon-cutting. The event drews international coverage.
What’s up for 2022?
We’ll catch as many moments as we can, but there will be surprises.
Also from the Roosevelt Island Daily
- New York City Health & Hospital’s Community Mural Project Graces Coler
“Healing in Community,” a part of NYC Health & Hospitals’s mural project, went live on December 1st at Roosevelt Islands’s Coler Rehabilitation Center. It’s one of nine additions to the wide-ranging effort this year. by - The “Eviction Machine” Now Slams Into Roosevelt Island
As a community, we always thought we were immune from these things, but the “eviction machine” described in a New York Times article, is building up momentum, attacking Roosevelt Island’s most vulnerable residents. by David - Who Just Made the Big Fat Silence You Didn’t Hear?
It was RIOC, and that big fat silence billowed out in every direction as it had for months. Starting with brutal accusations in a lawsuit condemning a wide swath of Roosevelt Islanders as racists, the - FDNY Canceled a Dozen Inspections, Including at a Brooklyn Public School, to Fast Track City Hall VIP
Fire chiefs raised concerns about favoritism in the earliest months of the Adams administration, internal emails obtained by THE CITY show, as well-connected developers like The Related Companies lobbied to cut the fire inspection - The Pentagon Just Can’t Pass An Audit
Conservative lawmakers calling for cuts should start with the agency that can’t account for $1.9 trillion — not the programs Americans rely on. By Lindsay Koshgarian | November 29, 2023 The Pentagon just failed its audit —
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