The Shelton J. Haynes/Langan Southpoint Rock Farm promised pathways with “lush vegetation.” Promise fulfilled? You decide.
by David Stone
The Roosevelt Island Daily News
The Southpoint Rock Farm Today
The secret deal cut between the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation (RIOC) and bestie Langan yielded significant seawall safety improvements. And torturous esthetic sins.
A rock garden is an area where rocks are arranged in a particular way, often including plants growing between them. But Southpoint reinvention brought Roosevelt Island an original:
The World’s First Municipal Rock Farm
Nobody knows where the rock farm idea came from, but no one… well, planted one before. At the start of the project, managers mumbled about replicating Brooklyn Bridge Park where shoreline trails follow the East River past venues like Jane’s Carousel and a small beach.
The idea was trapping tourists on their way to FDR Four Freedoms State Park, dismissing the quaint idea of leaving it a retreat for residents. Shhhh…
Brooklyn Bridge Park is an 85-acre (34 ha) park on the Brooklyn side of the East River. The park is bounded by the Brooklyn Heights Promenade and Cobble Hill to the north, Atlantic Avenue and Brooklyn Bridge Plaza to the south, and Jane’s Carousel and Empire Fulton Ferry Park to the east.
But Southpoint, where one end is just a couple of stone throws from the other, is far too small. And totally lacking venues, unless you count MTA tunnel vents inside the historic Streicher Lab. Which you can only admire from the outside. Without a single sign indicating its significance.
But the creation might have just been an impulse like the one leading Jack Kerouac to write On the Road on a roll of toilet paper. Except not as enlightened by imagination.
Rocks can’t grow, although they can attract skins of lichen, living things that do. So, essentially, the garden-like qualities must rely on the promised “lush vegetation” for fulfillment.
The lush vegetation seems not to have gotten a call from management yet. Some of it’s already dead.
also from the roosevelt island daily news
- When Was the Smallpox Epidemic in America? End of the Trail
Here on Roosevelt Island in New York City, the Smallpox Hospital, a historic ruin, is an icon. It’s lit at night and stands out like a ghost to anyone passing along the East River. Its - Update: Tram Shutdown Today. Without Warning, RIOC Does It AgainUnchastened by a similar failure in June, RIOC again announces a Tram shutdown without any advance warning. Perhaps they were too busy thanking themselves for the 4th of July. Their belated advisory arrived last evening
- Unmitigated Gall: RIOC Thanks Itself for the 4th of JulyIn an act of unmitigated gall, RIOC thanked itself for the 4th of July celebration after blocking residents from using Southpoint, the public park they pay for. The tweet embraces the “planning committee,” consisting of
- Smart Planning Means a Happy, Peaceful 4th of JulyThe 4th of July, 2022, on Roosevelt Island was as peaceful — pre-fireworks — as it was sunny and warm. Advance planning paid off with previous years’ problems never developing. by David Stone The Roosevelt
- Main Street, Roosevelt Island, What Most Visitors Never SeeAbout the long-neglected tree beds on Main Street, a resident wrote, “They are first and foremost eyesores, and then safety hazards. It’s impossible to believe — No, wait – not impossible — the neglect going
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