City Island

Part I

 

City Island is a mixture of healthy and not so healthy individuals. I see alot of residents walking the island in the morning for exercise. City Island has two main parks and a park behind the public school. After school, children and parents go to the park to play sports such as baseball. The streets are clean and the residents participate in a lot of community activities such as beach parties and parades.

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Some areas look to be drug hang out spots. After interviewing some residents, the informed me that the community had a few teenage deaths in the last decade due to drug overdose. It looks like two “hang out” spots are near the gas station and near the deli.

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Another concern is the summer traffic. There is tension with the residents and non residents. The residents of City Island feel that the non residents do not respect the small community. Speaking to one resident, they discussed the disturbance the non residents bring, blasting their music and littering on the main street.

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Lots of unhealthy restaurants. The entire main ave is filled with unhealthy fried “seafood”, over priced restaurants. I tried locating a healthy shop and could not find anything. There are three main deli’s, two super markets and it seems like every other building on the main avenue is a fried seafood spot.  

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Part II

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Not much has changed in Part 2 of my city lab exploration of the island. However, due to the construction of the new bridge, the restaurants have seen less customers. However, since the new bridge has opened up, the restaurant owners are feeling optimistic that business will go back to normal by the time summer comes around. 

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One thing I did notice on the new bridge, there is now a walking lane (which I believe there was a walking lane on the old bridge) however one new item about the new bridge it contains a bike lane. There was never a bike lane before and residents and visitors would have to go on the same lane as traffic or use the fire lane. It is great to see that the island is adapting to new and healthy lifestyles. I know it was a great initiative under Mayor Bloomberg to add bike lanes. 

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