Roosevelt Island

Davidson: Cornell’s New East River Campus Aims to Foster Human CreativityBut it looks a little robotic.

Cornell Thinks Big As Well As Bold for Roosevelt Island CampusArchitect Thom Mayne looks to weave Roosevelt Island into the heart of the city.

Which School Will Rule Roosevelt Island?Either Cornell or Stanford, probably.

Roosevelt Island’s High-Speed Underground Trash System Runs on Pneumatic TubesAnd the occasional Swedish contractor.

Smallpox Hospital to be Reinforced, Reopened?Not as a hospital for an extinct American disease, of course. But as a café!

Chelsea to Get the ‘Ritz-Carlton of Gentleman’s Clubs’Will A-Rod really move to 15 CPW? Will we be able to watch strippers and eat steak and feel classy all at once in Chelsea? Tough questions abound in today’s boroughs report!

Now Brooklyn Heights Is Climbing Aboard the Ikea Whine WagonThe Wonder Wheel is 88! On 8/8/08! Whee! Climb aboard the daily boroughs report and drink in the view!

Battle Over the Brooklyn Flea Goes to the Religion PlaceThe real nannies of Park Slope, Roosevelt Island’s Animal House potential, the great Fort Greene flea smackdown, and a few bits more in our (whew!) week’s-end hood-scanner.

Car Elevators? What Is This, Shanghai?Bay Ridge: If you don’t want a Fedders nightmare going up next to your expensively preserved Victorian around here, you better be careful where in the hood you buy. [Bay Ridge Rover] Bedford-Stuyvesant: Former Essence honcho turned local Victorian innkeeper Monique Greenwood — a.k.a. the doyenne of the “new” Bed-Stuy — was on the Montel show yesterday. Reprazent! [Bed-Stuy Blog] Chelsea: According to this promo video, couples who move into an upcoming Eleventh Avenue luxury condo will be able to drive their cars in an elevator up to their own garage. But they will not have to be affectionate with each other. [Vanishing New York] Cobble Hill: Dumbo developer-king Dave Walentas is seeking to crack historic-district rules here with a super-tall building that he claims, uh, will enhance the hood’s historic quality. [Cobble Hill] East Village: So cranky blogger Chris thinks nymag.com readers are skinflints because none have given to his E.V.-schools drive, eh? A whopping seven people from your own site have given, Chris. You ain’t exactly Sally Struthers on the fund-raising front yourself. [East Village Idiot] Roosevelt Island: What does the local Toastmaster’s Club toast to? Life on an isle filled with charmless seventies architecture? [Roosevelt Island] Upper East Side: At $30,000 a month, rentals in the refurbished Plaza may actually be more expensive than booking a room there for four weeks. What the helloise? [Curbed]

Architecture Has Gotten Too ‘Fun’ in ChelseaChelsea: When they put that “decorative” rail around that “edgy” new glass box on 18th and Eighth (RIP the restaurant), they probably didn’t expect dozens of hip-hoppy schoolkids to hang on it all afternoon. Hee-hee. [Vanishing New York] Forest Hills: The hood might be losing newcomers to hipper zones like Fort Greene. And all because the cribs here look like grandma-type places. And not even cool Golden Girls–type grandmas. [Forest Hills 72] Jamaica: Should the Macy’s turned Colosseum Mall here, designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merril in 1947, be considered a mid-century-modern gem? [Brooklyn Rail] Park Slope: Just when you thought the Slope’s collective ego couldn’t get any bigger, one of its own — painter Joan Snyder — has to go and win the half-mil MacArthur Genius Award. Great. [Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn] Roosevelt Island: The marriage of real estate and money has become a permanent fixture here … the sculpture exhibit, that is! [Roosevelt Islander] Upper East Side: New evidence finds that if you are a (presumably straight) guy walking around this hood with a popped pink Izod collar, you are very likely a douche bag. [78thand2nd] Upper West Side: Does Queens council member (and dulcet-toned sometime vocalist) Melinda Katz care more about preserving the UWS’ character and scale than hoods in her own borough? [Queens Crap]

Will Dave Walentas Dunk?Dumbo: Will local megadeveloper hero-villain Dave Walentas really subject himself to a carnival-type dunk tank at an arts festival Thursday night? [DumboNYC] East Harlem: Mt. Sinai will offer free prostate-cancer screenings on Thursday. Says an official there: “Smart men get checked annually.” But what do you call men who get checked more? [Uptown Flavor] Lower East Side: The city’s looking to remove those Essex Street stalls selling things like religious figures and Uzbek haircuts. [Vanishing New York] Nolita: Dandies, fops, feys, and flaneurs are the hot new archetype here. Wilde! [Gridskipper] Prospect Lefferts: Why can’t that annoying marching band practice on the other side of Prospect Park … you know, where Jennifer Connelly lives? [Across the Park] Roosevelt Island: If you take a daytrip to this loo-deprived isle, you better hold off on the bottled water or cross your legs real tight. [Roosevelt Islander] Sunset Park: Oh my God, you guys, could we really get a park alongside some of that desolate postindustrial waterfront here? That would be awesome. [Brownstoner]

‘Post’ Suspiciously Favorable of AstoriaAstoria: Which major Astoria developer paid the Post for this long-form blow job extolling the virtues of the vibrant hood? [NYP via Queens Crap] Bushwick: Anyone who shells out $668,000 for a unit in the hood’s first Scarano building will enjoy funky radiators, the rumble of the nearby M train and exactly zero amenities. [BushwickBK] Greenpoint: The soon-to-open Gutter, the first bowling alley in Brooklyn in 50 years, looks right out of 1975. Cool! [Gothamist] Park Slope: We don’t know what’s weirder: That this mom lets her son take a leak on the subway in this bright red potty or that she schleps all the way from the Upper West Side to hit the food co-op here. [Gowanus Lounge] Roosevelt Island: Should locals be elated to finally have their very own Duane Reade or miffed that Jenny Holzer picked that other Roosevelt Island (in the Potomac) to do her latest installation? [Roosevelt Islander] Upper West Side: With Spanish-designed newsstands now joining their bus-shelter cousins, the relentless Eurosleekification of the city proceeds apace. [Curbed]

Trying to Get to Know Your East Village Neighbors? Don’t.Carroll Gardens: Fussy organic types will be delighted to hear that a McDonald’s may be coming to Court Street. Meanwhile, the Blessed Mother visited controversial development site 360 Smith Street. [Curbed and Gowanus Lounge] Greenpoint: They don’t appreciate being serenaded beneath their windows with a guitar at 1 a.m. around here. Funny, that. [11222] East Village: It’s sweet when people move here from Virginia and invite their neighbors in for cookies. They’ll learn. [East Village Idiot] Harlem: Less-than-accurate tour-bus guides are dissing the hood right into their megaphones … even while they plug the H&M there. [NYP] Prospect Heights: Who is scamming area yard-salers by asking them to break his fake $20 bills? And just when this nabe was getting hot. Tsk, tsk. [DailyHeights] Roosevelt Island: The winged progeny of Central Park West celebuhawk Pale Male may be roosting here. Talk about generational downward mobility. [Roosevelt Islander]

Roosevelt Islanders Resent Their Frothy MoatBoCoCa: The skateboarders terrorizing this Boerum Hill/Cobble Hill/Carroll Gardens “compound” neighborhood are “light-skinned and Asian.” Sound the alarm gong! [Brooklynian] Chelsea: The fact that Ethan Hawke has stepped up against the de-corporatization of the Chelsea Hotel does not keep denizens there from mocking his “experimental” film Chelsea Walls. [Living with Legends] Dumbo: Sounds like a few hard-core panhandlers continue to thwart the hood’s evolution toward loftopia. Aw. [DumboNYC] Gowanus: The sleek new Hotel Le Bleu’s opening is delayed again, now till October 1. Could they be cowed by their own nightly rates of up to $400 (for Gowanus)? [Brownstoner] Harlem: Keith Haring’s 1986 “Crack Is Wack” mural in Harlem River Park is getting a makeover. You know what? We miss Keith Haring. [About.com] Roosevelt Island: The locals are griping that they have no way of gaining access to the water, even though they’re surrounded by it — being on an island and all. [Roosevelt Islander] Williamsburg: Hipsters are getting mugged around here — and we don’t mean in East Williamsburg (né Bushwick), we mean in the expensive, trendy part! [Brooklyn Paper]

Beware of Moped GangsDumbo: One Brooklyn Bridge Park slightly taller, slightly less yellow. Also, slightly expensive. [DumboNYC] East River: We wouldn’t normally swim in the East River. But we might do it with art? [Gothamist] Jackson Heights: New ad campaign: equal opportunity appaller. [Curbed] Park Slope: Moped gangs in the Slope! If only we were joking. [Daily Slope] Red Hook: The planned giant IKEA will stomp out a Civil War–era shipyard. Also, taste. [NYDN] Roosevelt Island: OpenHouseNewYork will allow people into the scary old Smallpox Hospital you can see from the FDR (remember the end of Spider-Man?). And onto the Highline! [NewYorkology]

This Year’s Public Art to Camp Out on Roosevelt Island If you’ve been finding 2007 a little disappointing, what with its lack of any major public-art projects for the city to obsess over, boy have we got some good news for you. “The Encampment” is set to hit Roosevelt Island in October, as we learned today. Best we can tell — the project’s Website is written in a language that closely resembles English but makes little sense — Toronto-based artist Thom Sokoloski plans to erect 100 nineteenth-century-style tents at the southern tip of the island, light them from within, and encourage people to look at the things at night, when observers on either side of the East River will be best able to enjoy the installation’s “symmetries.” “The Encampment proposes the archaeological encampment as its metaphor,” and, hey, who doesn’t like watching a good metaphor? The Encampment [Official site via Curbed]

In a Bold Move, McCarren Pool to Replace Hipsters With WaterAstoria: If you really want to nab those graffiti thugs up on your roof, it’s better to call the cops before you tell the thugs you’re about to do so. Live and learn. [Astorians] Brooklyn Heights: With Henry Street scoring a perfect 100 on this Website in terms of its walkability to various amenities, residents there must be feeling very smug today … as usual. [McBrooklyn] Midwood: A new condo designed for Orthodox Jews will have units as large as 1,700 square feet. Is that really big enough for these families? [Living in Victorian Flatbush] Roosevelt Island: A whole mess of nineteenth-century expedition tents will grace Southpoint Park this October. No, it’s not the mayor’s solution to affordable housing — it’s an art installation. [Roosevelt Islander via Curbed] Upper East Side: What’ll replace the empty storefront at 76th and Second? A Pottery Barn kids’-clothing store! How perfectly edgy for the UES! [78thand2nd] Williamsburg: Now that it’s a landmark, the McCarren Park Pool may not long remain the exclusive domain of indie-band-flocking hipsto-rexics. Like, wah. [NYPress via Brooklyn Enthusiast]