Governor's Island vs. Davids Island
My former colleague Noreen O'Donnell visits Governor's Island and then asks in the Journal News why Davids Island, in Long Island Sound, is so decrepit in comparison. She quotes our friend Barbara Davis:
"What they're doing that didn't happen on Davids Island is getting people out there to understand it, appreciate it and therefore protect it," said Barbara Davis, New Rochelle's historian. "That's what we were missing. Once it closed, it was abandoned, there was no access and it was lost to public consciousness."
Read the whole thing. Excellent job, Noreen.
posted by Tom Andersen at 11:14 AM
3 Comments:
The comparison of New York City's use of Governor's Island to New Rochelle's 'use' of Davids Island is apt only to a point, and its not clear to me that point adequately is delimited in the article. Governor's Island was transfered to NYC 6 years ago, Davids Island was transferred to New Rochelle almost 60 years ago. One need not agree with New Rochelle's various plans for its island over the years (I certainly didn't agree with them, until the city recognized its value as parkland) to understand that the appreciation of such unique properties as historic and public spaces increased significantly between the early 1960s and the early twenty first century. At least Davids Island's value as a unique public space has been protected. One can only wonder how NYC would have used Governor's Island had it obtained ownership in 1962.
One thing they have in common is there was talk of putting a nuclear power plant on both islands at one time.
Fortunately neither plan materialized.
Con Ed bought Davids Island from the Army and then, when its nuke plans fell through (they went to Indian Point instead), sold it to New Rochelle for a dollar in the early 1960s. New Rochelle has been trying to make the dollar investment pay ever since.
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