Newsday (Suffolk Edition) from Melville, New York • 69

thoroughfares), shops, even a vacuum-powered garbage disposal system. And the view. Looking through the window of their prospective apartment, the Hermans will eee the East Side of Manhattan. Hie Hermans even will be able to catch a glimpse of East 70th Street, where the couple lived for eight years before moving to Florida and then Great Neck. And for no more money, they say, than it costa to maintain the house In which they have lived for a year and a half.

If they move to Roosevelt Island, their three-bedroom apartment will cost $640 a month. Including utilities. But the experimental nature of the community and the stunning cityscape end a public school system that the Hermans trust (they say it would be necessary to send Drew and Jed to private school if they moved to another section of the city) are no more Important to the family than the feeling of heading back toward the center of things. "When I get back to the city, the adrenaline starts going, Adele Herman said. I think the city keeps you young." From Roosevelt Island, Bob Herman, a recruiter of executives for a firm on East 59th Street, will have only a short trip to his office.

Adele Herman Intends to renew her advertising career, also in Manhattan. Auto access to the island is through Queens by way of the old Welfare Island Bridge. But an aerial tramway is planned to shuttle residents to Manhattan at 35 cents a ride. Two of the three tramway stanchions are completed, but the system Is several months from being operational. Adele Herman says that; for her, it is among the most Important accessories to life on Roosevelt Island and if the trams completion were to be threatened or substantially delayed, it would figure heavily in the familys decision to live on Roosevelt Island.

Hie tramway, die said, is her lifeline to Manhattan. Hie Hermans are city people Bob Herman was reared in Manhattan, and his wife, although from Massachusetts, lived in New York for many years. They visit Manhattan on almost a weekly basis, eating at favorite restaurants, touring museume and -visiting friends. They are accustomed, the Hermans say, to the diversity of an urban population. It Is a richness that they fed lacking In their slice of suburbia, they say.

Great Neck Estates, according to a survey by the Nassau County Council of Churches fnow the Long Island Council of Churches), has a population that is S1.9 per cent Jewish. And U.S. Census Bureau figures for 1970 showed that the median family income for Great Neck Estates was $35,491. "I dont want my kids growing up thinking every one Is Jewish and affluent, said Adele Herman, who, like her husband, is Jewish. If the boys grow up on a completed version of Roosevelt Island they will have a chance to know better.

Of the 2,100 housing units under construction in Northtown, 1,000 will be federally subsidized low- and moderate-income dwellings. Another 1,000 units are planned for Northtown, and 550 of those also will be in the low-end moderate-income categories. So, for the Hermans, a switch in islands from Long to Roosevelt represents a better way to live their live. Hie suburbs never really interested them, the couple said, and Adele Herman said: I have to be Contrasting views: The Herman family, above, views the East Side of Manhattan from their prospective apartment, and at right, Jed and Drew play with the family cat. Sneakers, in their Great eck home.

honest We had no interest in involve ing ourselves here. Our heads have always been in the city. Recently, the Hermans said, a meeting for prospective residents was held by the Urban Development Corp. at which the status of Roosevelt Island was outlined in specific, if somewhat discouraging, terms. "They said the shops might not be In and that washing machines might not be available and that the tramway wont be completed until the end of the year, Adele Herman said.

Our first choice still Is Roosevelt Island and well put up with some inconveniences, but I cant be too much of a pioneer. Within the next week, the UDC received word that $140,000,000 In bank financing was being negotiated. A UDC representative said that if that arrangement were completed, Roosevelt Islands problems would begin to dissolve and that by July, when the Hermans would like to sign their first two-year lease, the community In the East River will be a com-pleteJy different world. In Great Neck Estates, the Hermans are hoping. II to.