A New York Post article focused on the sale price the Enock family banked from selling their longtime home in Rivercross. But the story is deeper and wider than the real estate deal. This family helped make a closely-knit community thrive, and now their home welcomes a next wave of Roosevelt Islanders.
by David Stone
The Roosevelt Island Daily News
The Enock family, parents David and Wanda and sons Christopher and Matthew, were the very first calling Rivercross home in 1976.
They bought their four-bedroom coop for $27,000 and, this year, sold it for over $2 million. I tried calculating the capital gains, but my calculator blew up.
Yet those details skip over the many intimate details necessary as a family of four was part of the Roosevelt Island experiment while living and growing in the mix.
Chris – who still lives on Roosevelt Island – recalled in The Post, “…his local school, innovative in its approach, had no walls and boasted an open floor plan.
“For us,” he added, “I think it felt more new and experimental than futuristic, but my parents at the time were open to new ideas and saw it could work out to be a great place to live and raise a family, and it was.”
As keys were handed over to a new family with kids, Chris was realistic, noting how the cohesiveness of the community fabric. Still, given changing circumstances, expecting that to stay as tight was unrealistic.
Stretched out with whole new communities in Manhattan Park, the Octagon and Southtown, Roosevelt Island is more diverse. And as Joni Mitchell recently reminded us, “…something’s lost, but something’s gained In living every day.”
The Enock family helped build the foundation here, and it’s smart thinking about the gains while honoring the legacy.
The Line That Didn’t Land
I stood in the back of Good Shepherd Chapel on the evening of April 15, 2026, at the Steam Plant Demolition Town Hall, watching people adjust scarves and jackets before the meeting began. Benjamin Jones, President and CEO of RIOC, thanked us for attending and, without a pause, said he was “pleased to host tonight’s town hall on the city’s demolition of its steam plant.” The demolition, in other words, was not up for discussion.
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