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Owen and Bridget Johnston spent much of their 20s living in hotels as they performed together in national tours of Broadway musicals such as "Miss Saigon." About five years ago, after their first child turned 1, Owen got the chance to perform in "Rent" on Broadway, and they decided to settle down in the big city.
But where? As native Californians, they were not acquainted with the boroughs outside Manhattan. And Manhattan seemed too frenetic a stage on which to raise children. Soon enough, a colleague recommended they ride across the East River on the Roosevelt Island Tramway. They liked what they saw and rented a small apartment on the 2-mile-long island's northern end.
Nowadays, they pay $1,595 a month for a much bigger place, a two- bedroom, two-bath unit, nine stories in the air. From their living room, they enjoy a sidelong view of the river and ships. In Manhattan proper, a similar contemporary dwelling in a doorman high- rise would cost them $3,000, easily.
Here, their two sons, Jordan, now 6, and Noah, 2, can benefit from many amenities such as a community theater and free tennis lessons, about eight parks or playgrounds, a Gothic lighthouse, day care in their building and a nearby swimming pool that costs the family about $600 for the summer season. The Johnstons rave about their "meditative" walks to and from the Tramway or the F train station along the river's edge.
"It's like Mayberry," Bridget said.
A bedroom community
For all its small-town feel, Roosevelt Island actually falls within the borough of Manhattan, although it is also connected to Long Island City via a vehicular bridge. First known as Blackwell's Island, it housed an almshouse, smallpox hospital and "lunatic asylum" (visited in 1842 by Charles Dickens) in the 19th century, and was called Welfare Island until 1973.
Development of urban apartments began in the late 1960s, and today the bedroom community within 10 to 12 minutes of Grand Central...