Roosevelt Island’s new deal

From the September issue: Until residential development started in the 1970s, Roosevelt Island merely a stretch of land that housed eight city hospitals, a workhouse and a penitentiary – William “Boss” Tweed, singer Billie Holiday and actress Mae West all did time there. Today the two-mile island in the East River, technically part of Manhattan, is a thriving community of 14,000 residents who live in the high-rise, mostly rental buildings scattered among parks, gardens and one main retail corridor. [more]