Newsday (Nassau Edition) du lieu suivant : Hempstead, New York • 148

By Fred Bruiting HSBg) Tferano DS Qnffitffltog) SI MSCT lRBE3nO itting there in the glum green-gray waters of the East River Welfare Island seems an unlikely subject for sociological reincarnation The 147-acre island swims In the diadows of high-priced East Side bat all splendor stops at the shoreline Welfare Island has a grim past filled with memories of an insane asylum a penitentiary and a smallpox hospital Now several of its buildings are either vacant or in shambles and those that still function do little to relieve the somber spirit: two hospitals are there and also a city steam plant But Welfare Island is about to experience resurrection These days cranes tower over the deader two-and-a-half-mDe island Bulldozers crunch Cement mixers spin New buildings are on their way up arid old ones are being restored If things go as planned Welfare Island by 1980 will be a well-knit community of 5000 families diverse in background age and economic situation living together on what is to be called Island" The 18000 inhabitants will have a subway station and a Manhattan tramway at their disposal They will have 40 acres of parkland They will not have to dodge cars (autos will be parked in a single garage just off the Welfare Island Bridge from Queens which offers the only access to the Hand) They will walk on waterside promenades send their children to island schools only minutes away from home ride to on-island destinations via nonpolluting electric minibuses And they even have to worry about carrying down the garbage On Roosevelt Island refuse will travel from a chute in apartment house hallways through underground tubes and into a compacting plant from which it will be carted away This sort of instant-pudding civilization Is a rare phenomenon in America and when such a cooxminity is built it usually happens in the suburbs or on the periphery of cities Towns they are called Welfare Island on the other hand is a as the 'planners like to say It is a cross between Utopia and Mam Street an attempt to celebrate anew the potential of the cities and to find an alternative to urban chaos is a new community with all the essential urban services that we all dream of schools residences day care police fire office space and said Robert Iitke general manager of die Welfare Island Development Carp "If Welfare Island is successful and nobody copies it it done anything The Welfare Island Development Coip is in turn controlled by the New York State Urban Development Corp a housing agency with something of a wunderkind reputation for producing attractive livable accommodations for low- and moderate-income families When the Urban Development Corp was asked by New York City to come up with a plan for a new community on Welfare Island the agency sought big-name in this esse Philip Johnson a genuine superstar and commissioned a master plan Welfare Island was leased by the UDC from flie city for 99 years Arrangements were made with two private developers (UDC works through private industry providing money for the concept of a project and then a low-rate mortgage for developers) No less than 17 architectural and engineering firms were hired And in 1972 construction began Flans 11 for two communities on Welfare Island Northtown and Southtown with a common public space in between (The hospitals at either end Goldwater and Bird will remain The city steam plant will go) Northtown is being built first and occupancy is anticipated by the fall of 1974 Southtown should be done in 1976 and by I960 complete with subway station and office buddings is scheduled to be completed But what is the admission charge to all this? Looking south at a model of Northtown the first of twopldnned communities (Southtown is the other) being built on Welfare Island At lower left is ft Welfare Island Bridge the only access and autos will be parked in the facility at Ictxer left After that walking to destinations or riding an electric minibus NEWSDAY FRIDAY JUNE II 117 6 This is a new community with ail the essential urban services that we all dream of 9 earners and $1504t-room for those in the luxury category' Low and moderate rentals are federally subsidized middle-income rentals and co-ops are provided under the Mitchell-Iauna program Cooperative apartments will be expensive A middle-income family (generally a family whose income is mare than $15455 a year) wishing to purchase a seven-room co-op would have to put $8400 down and pay carrying charges of $700 a month- The family would realize the same tax benefits as a private homeowner Despite the difficulties some middle-income Continued on Page 19A Welfare Island is city land so visitors can use the public lands free For residents the costs will vary as widely as the people who live there Because the $325000000 development will offer housing to families in such disparate economic categories there is a wide range of rental fees and purchase prices Sixty per cent of the apartments from efficiency to four-bedroom will be rental 40 per cent will be units just lib a angle-family residence Renia go from $25-a-room for low-income families to $42-a-room for moderate-income households to than $100-a-room for middle-income wage.