When we lived on City Island back in 2012, our little house was at the end of the street and we could see part of the Manhattan skyline from the porch, across Eastchester Bay. The skyline was actually pretty small, since City Island is about 12 miles away as the crow flies. I took this shot from the street out front, with a 300mm lens racked all the way out on a tripod.
City Island is a pretty cool place, it is part of the Bronx but feels very much like a small town. There is a single 2 lane bridge that connects it to the mainland and at one time had a monorail on and off the island. The main drag, City Island Avenue, hosts a number of small shops, 2 grocery stores and a bevy of Seafood restaurants. I don't use the word 'bevy' that often, but it's a good one. On summer weekends and especially holidays, the little 2 lane bridge is bumper-to-bumper traffic of people trying to get onto the island to eat at the Crab Shanty, or one of the many Sammy's restaurants. The sailing around the island is good, and you can reach Port Washington across the mouth of sound in about an hour or less.
We considered moving there permanently too. It was very family friendly and very neighborhoody. Anyway, so I was taking the photo as there was a James Beard Foundation event going on and the Empire State Building was going to be lit up in honor of that. At least that's what my memory is telling me. At the time, my company had just finished a relaunch of the JBF website... Ok, yeah, I think the website had just relaunched, and they were having their annual awards ceremony.
Even neater than City Island is the small mile-long island that sits just a half mile to the east, Hart or Heart Island. It has been the home of a civil war prison, missile command center, and potters field. It was also featured as part of a Law and Order: Criminal Intent episode. Law and Order, and Law and Order: CI, are the only good ones.
