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April 28 2003 —Main Street WIRE
Southpoint Park Opens and Is Thronged
A few hundred Roosevelt Islanders – perhaps several hundred –
visited Southpoint Park Sunday, on the first inviting Spring day after
the new park opened. They came on foot, on bicycles, and in wheelchairs;
as individuals, groups of friends, and families. They ranged in age from
a pair of twins less than a year old through seniors nearing 90. They
saw nesting geese, the Renwick ruin, and had views of Manhattan previously
seen only by Fourth of July visitors. They made photographs, picnicked,
played tag, had quiet conversations, and took the air.
While no official count was taken, there was a steady stream of foot
traffic to and from the south end of the Island all day Sunday. The park
was the subject of a page 1 article and a photo feature in The Main Street
WIRE over the weekend, alerting residents to the change in the area’s
status from an off-limits to a park open to all.
The Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation opened the park officially
last Wednesday morning. It is scheduled to be open seven days a week,
closing 30 minutes before sundown. The area, previously off-limits except
at a price for the July 4th fireworks viewing, was opened on the suggestion
of RIOC Board member Mark Ponton, a resident. Some preparations were made
under the RIOC Presidency of Robert H. Ryan, and the project was completed
under Acting President Patrick Siconolfi. Chain-link fencing keeps visitors
away from piles of rubble and the dangerously delapidated smallpox hospital,
known as the Renwick Ruin after architect James Renwick, who also designed
Saint Patrick’s Cathedral.
Southpoint is designated parkland, but was for a time the proposed site
of a twin-tower Marriott Hotel and conference center, a plan vehemently
opposed by many residents, who feared excess traffic and commercialization
of the site. It continues to be the proposed site of a park named for
President Franklin Roosevelt and his wife, Eleanor, though funds have
never been raised to build the proposed structures.
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