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Island neighborhoods
There is something interesting about city neighborhoods that are islands. Maybe some of it is the obvious connection to water, whether it's accessible or inaccessible; every fringe of the neighborhood has some type of waterfront views. Maybe some of it is that the water is a barrier, which insulates the neighborhood. Maybe it's something else. In any case, there are quite a few island neighborhoods around the world.
Which are your favorites, and why? Some examples: ~ Roosevelt Island in New York City, one of the only places in the borough of Manhattan that's not on the big island. ~ City Island in New York City, a section of the Bronx that has a New England feel. ~ Brickell Key in Miami, an extension of the Brickell neighborhood. ~ Goose Island in Chicago, an artificial island. ~ The Toronto Islands in Toronto, a cottaging area that has a semi-rural feel but overlooks Downtown Toronto. ~ Île de la Cité in Paris, the heart of the French city. ~ Gamla Stan in Stockholm, the Old Town of the Swedish capital. |
Shamian Island in Guangzhou.
Trogir Island in Croatia. |
Treasure Island and Yerba Buena Island, San Francisco. Technically, the Farallons are part of San Francisco but those islands are not 'neighborhoods.'
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Broad Channel, Queens.. a neighborhood of NYC on the island of Ruler's Bar Hassock, the only inhabited island in Jamaica Bay:
https://i.ibb.co/18XTLFh/Screen-Shot...2-13-42-AM.png https://i.ibb.co/26hfqJn/Screen-Shot...2-14-39-AM.png |
More than 250 islands make up Hong Kong, many of them uninhabited, but others like Hong Kong Island are densely populated.
Some places like Lamma Island are relatively laid-back. Buildings higher than three stories are prohibited and there are no cars on the island. https://i.imgur.com/io62OmQ.jpg (Wikipedia) Ap Lei Chau is a small island located off Hong Kong Island next to Aberdeen Harbour. Its population is 86,782 as of 2007, and its area is 1.30 square kilometres (0.50 square miles), giving it a population density of 66,755 people/km², making it one of the most densely populated islands in the world. https://i.imgur.com/tztD7md.jpg |
Île-des-Soeurs, or Nuns' Island, about 5 km from the heart of downtown Montreal.
About 20,000 people, 3.75 sq. km. It's a fairly posh but modern area with nice high-rise condos and other forms of lower-rise housing types. https://www.google.com/search?q=ile+...A_enCA931CA931 Part of the city proper. |
There is also Mercer Island in Seattle. I think that it is its own town, but it is directly adjacent to the city of Seattle and is about the size of a neighborhood.
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https://www.orangesmile.com/common/i...real-map-0.jpg
orangesmile Montreal itself is on an island. It is the 6th most populous island (>2 million) of the Americas and the 37th most populated island on Earth, outranking Manhattan Island in New York City. Laval is on Île Jésus (Jesus Island), and has another 450,000 or so people. Then there are the smaller islands of the Hochelaga archipelago, including Grande-Île (~43,000), Ile Perrot (~40,000), Ile des Soeurs (~20,000), Ile Bizard (~15,000), and a 100 or so other islands, some populated. Dorval Island (pop. 50) is Canada's smallest municipality. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27%C3%8Ele-Dorval https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2quJIVeys.../Dorval_Is.jpg blogspot there is also L'Île-Cadieux (pop ~110) https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/i...Xnqyw&usqp=CAU adjacent to Montreal and Laval are the Îles Laval (Notably Ile Bigras and Ile Pariseau), which have their own train connection to downtown Montreal. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...8Quebec%29.jpg wikipedia and the site of Expo '67, which has its own metro station, Ile St. Helene and Ile Notre Dame: https://greatruns.com/wp-content/upl...16/11/auto.jpg greatruns |
Well... Technically... every neighborhood in NYC is an island neighborhood except for the core of the Bronx .
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Herr's Island, Pittsburgh in the Allegheny River
- rebranded as "Washington's Landing" during redevelopment in the late 1980s - George Washington nearly drowned in the icy waters of the Allegheny near here in December of 1753; if not for his frontiersman guide, Christopher Gist, who saved ol' George after he fell off of their raft during their river crossing, US history would have taken a different course; the story goes that they reached the island and hunkered down there for the night; hence the name "Washington's Landing"; this was the second time Gist saved the non-swimming Virginian from near drowning - island was long used as stockyards for the Pennsylvania RR, slaughterhouses/meatpacking, and other industries - brownfield site redeveloped in the 1990s to townhouses, offices, parkland, marina -many of Pittsburgh's rowning clubs are located on the back channel side of the island https://www.pophistorydig.com/wp-con...egheny-300.jpg https://i1.wp.com/newsinteractive.po...64&h=384&ssl=1 https://rubinoffcompany.com/app/uplo...-landing-a.jpg https://rubinoffcompany.com/app/uplo...a-1200x675.jpg |
Quote:
https://www.google.com/maps/vt/data=...nzVQ1WGruUvJf0 https://i.pinimg.com/originals/11/90...786ad101b9.jpg Images: https://www.google.com/search?rls=en...F80Nu9c70IIczM |
Quote:
https://live.staticflickr.com/4601/2...193f0f8c_b.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...08f54222_b.jpg Taken by me. |
Neville Island, Pittsburgh in the Ohio River
- 5-mile long island downriver from downtown Pittsburgh; originally known as Montour Island; ownership claimed by both Pennsylvania and Virginia, resulting in 1799 US Supreme Court case deciding for PA - named for John Neville, British and American general of French & Indian and Revolutionary wars, and central figure in Whiskey Rebellion - promoted by real estate investors in 1900 as the next Manhattan -- "Neville Island City" - mainly industrial, the island's residential population peaked around 2,500 in the 1960s; now only around 1,000 - island's eastern portion was once home to the Shenango Coke Works - was home to Dravo Corporation shipyards employing over 16,000 for the wartime production of LSTs https://hdrexposed.zenfolio.com/img/...67061552-3.jpg https://i0.wp.com/www.pittsburghbeau...pg?w=768&ssl=1 https://9b16f79ca967fd0708d1-2713572...1539452693.jpg https://historicpittsburgh.org/islan.../TN_LARGE/view https://historicpittsburgh.org/islan.../TN_LARGE/view https://historicpittsburgh.org/islan.../TN_LARGE/view https://bikepgh.org/wp-content/uploa...Screenshot.png https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EZmizokX0AAZgZW.jpg |
Balboa Island in Newport Beach, CA, is a pretty nice neighborhood.
https://live.staticflickr.com/6085/6...7b0230fd_b.jpg Image via Ken Lund (Flickr) https://live.staticflickr.com/8059/8...1f1f0398_b.jpg Image via Don Barrett (Flickr) https://live.staticflickr.com/2457/3...eb84a61e_b.jpg Image via Cobbler99 (Flickr) |
"Favorite" can be an ironic favorite, right?
It's not a 'good' island community, but it is sort of interesting: 'The Island' on the Colorado River in Lake Havasu City, AZ: https://www.google.com/maps/@34.4320.../data=!3m1!1e3 The entire city is basically a post-war real estate speculation project, and 'The Island' is no different. Formerly Pittsburgh Point, a peninsula, in the 1960s-70s, the fledgling town shipped over (the exterior of) the old London Bridge (which was actually the 'new' London Bridge from the 19th Century) from England brick by brick, and rebuilt it over dry desert in western Arizona. Then they dredged the land underneath the bridge to create Bridgewater Channel and 'The Island.' 50 years later, the 'island' remains at best half-built, with notable landmarks being the water treatment facility, kitschy wannabe English village, trailer parks and a half-built subdivision that looks like some post-Great Recession poverty porn. https://www.google.com/maps/@34.4538...7i13312!8i6656 https://i.pinimg.com/originals/87/30...afda6f9264.jpg https://www.golakehavasu.com/media/media-14255.jpg https://www.golakehavasu.com/london-bridge https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.town...2305.image.jpg https://www.havasunews.com/free_acce...e5afb7398.html |
Venetian Islands, Miami Beach. I used to visit a family friend who had a home there back in the 1950s when I was a child. I thought it was pretty neat, house with backyard dock for their cabin cruiser.
https://lincolnroad.com/the-venetian...neighborhoods/ |
Harbor Town New Urbanist neighborhood on Mud Island in Memphis, TN
https://img2.10bestmedia.com/Images/...1406020258.jpg https://www.10best.com/destinations/...s/harbor-town/ https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ee/19...7335271d4c.jpg https://www.pinterest.com/pin/271975264969559580/ |
Zamalek (on Gezira, which just means "island" in Arabic) is an island neighborhood in the Nile in the heart of Cairo, Egypt. It's a long skinny island, about 2.4 miles (3.86km) long and half a mile (800m) wide. It's a leafy residential neighborhood that includes the Cairo Tower (tallest structure in North Africa), the Cairo Opera House, and the Cairo Marriott which is in the Gezirah Palace commissioned for the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. Wiki says 420,000 people live on the island, but there's no citation.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...alek_Arial.jpg source https://farm1.static.flickr.com/219/...1e954109_o.jpg source https://images.mansionglobal.com/im-...378&width=1280 source https://www.wowabouts.com/z-media/20...ro%20Tower.jpg source  source https://static.wixstatic.com/media/5...43ccb8~mv2.jpg source |
Not a neighborhood, per se but a now-submerged former Turkish enclave in the Danube:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_Kaleh https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped.../Ada-Kaleh.jpg (unknown author, public domain) Looks like potentially interesting (if romanticized) place, although it's now submerged from the Iron Gates project, and the population has largely moved back to Turkey. |
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